Food Styling and Photography of Raw Ingredients

Challenging yourself is the most important factor for learning and growth!

I am a stern believer of this one line. Nothing can be achieved without constantly challenging yourself to become a better version of what you already are. Realizing that you aren’t perfect, aiming to reach there but still not holding yourself back due to the imperfections is the balance that every person struggles to achieve in life.

For me, food photography in itself is a big challenge since I’m not formally trained from anywhere. (I can run excel sheets and power points like a pro, but food photography...umm no!) But I know, that I’m learning something new every time I pick up my camera.

So, every week I challenge myself to make better photos by using items that I usually wouldn’t. Taking pictures of the final product where the colours, garnish, texture and composition is all made by me is a normal day. But clicking the raw ingredients is another ballgame. You have no control over the shape, size, texture, design and the list goes on. All that you have is your camera. Its plain and simple ingredients that you see every day. And that my dear is the challenge, to make plain and simple food look authentic and appealing in its most raw forms.

And that’s what I try and do in each of my ingredient shots. Highlight what the ingredient naturally has, the textures that it comes with, the varied shapes that it takes, the iridescent colours it has because there is nothing more beautiful that what nature builds for us. I have a few ingredient shots listed below that I took sometime back, and those are the various styles that you can try out. You can definitely move beyond these and explore many more new compositions, but just remember to challenge yourself every time you do it to make something newer and better.

Tips & Techniques for Raw Ingredient Shots

·       Lighting: It’s the key element in any photograph. Play with it and use it in its natural form too. The light at different times of the day gives different effects to raw materials. Try clicking at sunrise, sunset, or even broad daylight and see the difference.

·       Backgrounds: Another very important element in a food photo. Make use of plain and textures backgrounds and see how the photo pops. You can also do outdoor shots which look absolutely amazing with fresh fruits and veggies.

·       Props: Use Props carefully. Using them should depend on your subject (which is true for every photograph). The props should not overpower the ingredient which is very easily possible since the subject is not carefully designed by us. If your subject has a lot of texture in it, then use very simple/plain props and vice versa to balance the picture.

·       Colour/Theme: Managing colour is very important in raw ingredient shots. The ingredients have their own colours and highlights that cant be changed. Using colours that compliment the ingredient is a good idea. For instance, in my cherry tomato shot (below) I used greens and brown in the image with darker tones so as to only highlight the reds in tomatoes.Similarly, in my garlic shots (below), I used herbs and lemons in background, in sync with the white and cream tones.

·       Fresh Ingredients: This is by far the most important part for ingredient shots. Fresh and rich ingredients. If you use a wilted basil, a blackened mint or a 2 week old tomato, sorry the photo will be as dead as the fruit/vegetable. The fresher the ingredient, the more lively, appealing and vibrant will be your end result.

·       Human Element: Having a human element in any picture, brings it nearer to reality. Especially in ingredient shots, human elements make it more close to showing the actual process that goes on behind a dish. This makes the picture more interesting. Try taking shots of what you would actually do with the subject, like I cut the cherry tomatoes for my salad recipe, gave water to my spinach as I wanted to store them for a few days, etc.

You can find below some shots I took for raw ingredients.

These are just a few tips, that I'm sharing from my experience of doing ingredient shots. If you have more helpful tips or even small tricks that make food photography easier and more fun, share them in the comments below or even on my Instagram feed or Facebook Page.

Happy Clicking!