Brown foods are not boring!

In the food and drink industry we are surrounded by the colour brown. Whether this is in its true colour or maybe it is a shade or tint of the colour.

Brown is in the ingredients we use like chocolate, nuts, bread, meat, mushrooms, sugars and rice.

But did you know that brown foods are known as a difficult colour to photograph.

Brown foods can lack appeal and can be a flat, dull, boring colour. Our job as the photographer is to use a few tricks up our sleeves to add contrast, interest and use texture to show the best parts of any brown foods.

Here are a few tips to help make your brown foods more appealing, eye catching and show the deliciousness of them.

Chocolate

Lighting.

Lighting is everything in photography. In Greek, it means “painting with light” and therefore we need to ensure our foods are well lit, especially brown foods to add depth and contrast.

Whether you use natural light of artificial light,  you can use 2 lighting techniques to photograph brown foods and this is using hard light or soft light.

Hard light will define the textures within brown food and show detail which intern creates interest.

I personally like to see ‘light spots’ known as ‘specular highlights’ on images, whether this is on glass, plates or the foods it self as it is eye catching, however you need to be careful it does not draw attention away from the main subject you are capturing.

Specular highlights are a personal thing- some photographers and others don’t.

This is down to own style and personal choice and of course what our client wants.

Colour.

When styling brown foods (or any foods for that matter) careful use of the colour wheel is recommended. You can use complimentary colours (opposite- blue) , analogous colours (next to-browns/oranges ) or monochromatic (tints and shades of the same colour - browns to beige) of brown

Colours add interest to an image but you do need to be careful that whatever colour combination you decide to use to showcase your brown foods, the colours are complimenting the food and not competing with it.

You can be subtle with adding colour by the use of the backdrop, through using props like napkins, or the ingredients.

Angles and perspectives.

Before shooting any images, move around the set up and look from different angles to find interest and the best angle to showcase the food.

You can do this without even picking up the camera.

Remember you can also break the rules. Whether this is the angle, the depth of the image we want to capture or the composition of the image.  There maybe something of interest you find and want to capture and show.

Remember the overall image is your story.

When looking at things from a different perspective this can build our creativity. Maybe you’ll cut the cake open and show the inside, maybe you slice the joint of beef to show the tender mouthwatering texture inside.

Sometimes the plan we had may not be the best option so be open minded and look at different angles for interest.

Hope these tips are helpful. Let me know how you get on.

#naturallightphotographer #brownfoods #foodie #Spoonandforkfoodphotography