Plate to Pixel: Digital Food Photography & Styling 1st Edition

I opened the book to read it on Sunday and finished reading by Tuesday! Neither because I know most of the book contents, nor the book has no contents except some gorgeous photos by the author! The book has almost 260 pages of useful information! But, because the book is written in such a beautiful style. As if someone is whispering in your ears. Also the information flow very smoothly and free of clutter of technical stuff although the book covers most of food photography aspects.At the beginning I ignored and skipped the parts that talk about exposure, Aperture and Shutter speed and went directly to the parts of interests. After reading one chapter of those, I went back to the beginning of the book and read it from first page to the last. Even I read the information I already know. I don't know why but I felt inspired.The author is a French came to USA in 90s and worked in several restaurant before she became the master chief of pastry for a French restaurant.At the beginning she was photographing the pastry she make for the other colleague to make the same when she goes for vacation. In 2006 she left the restaurant job and started her award winning blog [...] and devoted her time in cooking , designing and photographing food.Soon she progressed and became a professional food photographer and her photos published in national magazines such as Elle Magazine, Forbes Magazine and othersIn the first chapter: a talk about the light in general and the importance of it to make a photo and some basics about how to deal with light and find it.Second chapter is devoted for the talk about photography basics like Exposure variables and how to balance. Then a talk about light and controlling the white balance. At the last, a talk about the camera modes.Third chapter is for the natural light and the characteristics of softness and hardness and how to control that using available tools. Then a talk about the direction of light and applying that in food photography.In the fourth chapter: here where the artificial lights enter into the picture. A talk about equipment used as lights Scrim panel and some setting for them. Then a talk about the popup flash and how to utilize it in food photography. Then a little talk about triggers followed by a talk about soft boxes and their uses.Fifth Chapter: Composition in food photography, this is where we start getting in to food photography business. A talk about where to put your subject - the hero - and centered subject in food photography. Then a little talk about the famous Rule of Thirds! Followed by a talk about the focus and its importance to make your subject pop. Then the importance of depth of field and its importance as every subject requires an appropriate depth of field. At the last of this chapter a talk about a very importance subject which is perspective and camera angle.Chapter six is devoted for the preparation of the place and plate! The place you take photo at has to have some important features that make food photography a little easier safer and more fun. Also the plate has to be indicative of the food you are photographing all this along with making the scene and hero/props relation together with discussion about surfaces (backgrounds) and utilizing food height and color contrast are discussed in this chapter that ends with an important advise to shoot tethered . very important chapter and full of valuable information.Chapter seven: a talk about food types and styling them. It covers most of the food groups like herbs and spices, pastries and nuts, fruits and vegetables, soups, fish, meat, fries and pasta, burgers and sandwiches, breakfasts and pastries. Also suits like cakes, pies, ice creams and frozen suits. Cold and hot beverages. The chapter ends with a discussion about styling kit and tools used.Chapter eight - the last chapter of the book is for after photography related like downloading your photos from camera to your computer and the required equipment. then a discussion about copyrighting/watermarking your photos. Followed by discussion about post processing software available and the free ones of them. And finally sharing your photos in the web and printing.The book has a section of appendixes that includes: A glossary, B equipment guide and C resources and where to get more information in this subject.For me, the book is 100/100 and deserves all pennies paid and each minute spent with it.The book is missing the part of post processing, but that is not so important to me. If you understand and apply the information in this book in your shoot, you will make photos that need no post processing or minimal amount of processing.

As a food blogger I have been following Helene's blog for years and have admired her beautiful pictures. When I heard about this book I had no doubt I wanted to read it and learn her tips on taking food pictures. What I love about Helene is that she wasn't trained as a photographer, she became one, and her style of writing is simple, to the point, and also light and funny. This book is not super technical so if that is what you are looking for, this is not the book for you. It is written for a wide audience, people who love cooking and want to improve the quality of their photos. It is organized in chapters about camera settings, light, composition, etc. The most interesting chapter for me was the one on light, one thing I always admired in her photos. With few photos Helene shows how the same composition can look with unfiltered, diffused, or bounced light. Really simple and easy to understand and try at home, not fancy equipment necessary. Her explanation on soft light, which contrary to what I thought you achieve it at a distance from a window, is excellent. She also pushes her readers to move away from the automatic setting of the digital camera, and go back to the manual or semi-automatic settings (which I learn before digital photography). Three chapters are dedicated to composition, set up, and styling, which are all so informative. What I like about her writing is that Helene makes you feel that she is next to you, explaining all those concepts verbally. Moreover, her photos are visual aids to get her point across, but be aware, they make you salivate!

The book was very helpful for someone with limited understanding of photography and lighting. Helene's friendly tone and generous nature came through on every page. I felt like a good friend was patiently walking me through each step. I'm finally able to pull it all together and systematically work toward great results instead of winging it with fingers crossed. I am using the lessons in this book to photograph handmade items and these techniques are appropriate to close up product shots of many sorts.Since I'm pleased overall, why not five stars? Two reasons:First there are so many production flaws with the Kindle edition that I almost sent it back. Numerous photos are missing or are wildly out of order in the text. There are typos and info that does not quite seem right--is a shutter speed of I/80 of really displayed as 800?--so I am not completely confident in the instructions. For other buyers who are considering the Kindle edition beware! The photos on screen are small jpegs that do not display the visual information well. When side by side comparisons are made it's almost impossible to see what the author is talking about. Perhaps at some point it will be possible to have high resolution, zoomable photos in Kindle. The print edition might be a better choice at this point.Second, Helene, like many photographers, is post-processing averse. She dismisses post processing out of hand saying no one wants to spend time in front of a computer to get things right. Frankly, for some of us it's a trade off between hours spent fiddling with the setup or potentially less time in the studio in front of a computer. My camera can't achieve the shallow depth of field so popular today but a quick blur and mask in Photoshop gets me the look I'm after. I recognize how professionally appropriate it is to get the desired result with the camera vs. in Photoshop, but there's a lot that can be done in post that can be useful too. A more balanced approach to using post processing to achieve a delightful finished product would have been great.I kept the book because it was written from the heart by a skilled pro who shared a lot of great information in a few pages. For me, this book much is more useful than the technical lighting manuals I already own that leave me feeling lost in a sea of too much information. In this review I felt the flaws needed to be noted, but I think the book has solid value despite them. If you're trying to get your legs under you as a photographer doing close up work, this book is a great find.

Very good book for learning food photography.

Molto utile

C'est le premier livre que j'ai acheté sur la photographie culinaire et les suivants ne l'ont pas égalé.En tout cas, si vous souhaitez travailler en lumière naturelle et travaillez votre stylisme, ce livre est tout indiqué.Et puis j'aime l'univers d'Hélène Dujardin, elle explique sans chichis et on devine une femme très accessible et douce à l'image de ses photos.Attention par contre, le livre est en anglais !

Das Buch war mein erstes Foodfotografiebuch.Ich würde es auf jeden Fall weiterempfehlen für- Anfänger der Foodfotografie, die ganz von vorne anfangen - auch ohne Kamera und ohne Heimstudio,- fortgeschrittene Hobbyfotografen, die zwar schon eine Kamera haben und diese auch beherrschen, aber noch etwas über Komposition von Foodbildern lernen möchten,- Hobbyfotografen und Bloggern, die gern etwas über Foodstyling und "fotogenes Anrichten" lernen möchten sowie allg.- Still-life-Fotografen (im Hobbybereich).Die Stärke des Buches liegt mMn darin, zu zeigen, wie man verschiedene Arten von Gerichten und Zutaten ansprechend stylen, zu einem Bild komponieren und dann auch fotografieren kann.Es werden dabei gleichermaßen Tipps für klassische Foodbilder der Art "Essen auf Teller" sowie kleine Stillleben der Art "Rustikales Mittagessen mit Erinnerungen an Oma" gegeben.Also eben nicht nur klassische "Essen auf Teller"-Bilder gezeigt.Wer sich für diese Art, Essen in Szene zu setzen, interessiert, findet hier haufenweise Tipps zur Komposition, Requisiten, Spar-Lösungen (im Anhang finden sich viele Ideen fürs kleine Budget), und Anleitungen zum inzwischen wohl klassischen "Essen auf altem Holzbrett"-Stil.Gerade Anfänger, die gern ein paar Anregungen haben, bevor sie selbst loslegen, werden in diesem Buch fündig.Neben den vielen Beispielbildern, alle mit Exifs und weiteren Erklärungen zu Wirkung oder Entstehungsgeschichte sowie teilweise Kompositionsentscheidung, finden sich dann auch Tipps zur Minimalausrüstung (Kamera, Objektive, Requisiten, Licht, Hintergründe - meistens Holzplatten sowie alte Türen etc.) und Ideen, wie man ohne zu tricksen verschiedene "echte" Gerichte ablichten kann (heiße und kalte Getränke, Eis, Süßes, Herzhaftes, einzelne Früchte, Spaghetti...) sowie, wie man auch ohne großes Heimstudio (s)einen Arbeitsplatz etablieren kann.Gerade diesen Punkt fand ich als Anfängerin sehr hilfreich (ich habe tatsächlich angefangen, in der kleinen Küche zu fotografieren....).Einer der schönsten Eigenschaften dieses Buches ist es, dass man immer wieder reinschauen kann, wenn einem mal Ideen fehlen.Zum Üben gibt es auch zwei Gerichte mit Rezept, sowohl Koch- als auch Fotorezept, bei denen man schrittweise durch den Entstehungsprozess eines Foodfotos geleitet wird: Was tue ich vor dem Kochen?Was muss ich beim Zubereiten beachten, damit das Foto hinterher gut wird?Wie lege ich die Komposition fest?Wie lege ich Requisiten und Deko fest?Was möchte ich mit dem Foto aussagen und wie kann ich es unterstreichen?Wie lege ich die Farbstimmung fest?Insbesondere die Stilllebenfotos, die Szenen (Früchstückstisch, Omas Lieblingsrezept usw.) machen das Buch aus meiner Sciht zu etwas Besonderem unter den Foodfotografiebüchern, aber auch die Ausführlichkeit, mit der auf o.g. Fragen eingegangen wird sowie die ausführliche Beschreibung der Bilder (Hintergrund, das Pro- Contra verschiedener Entscheidungen, Wirkung verschiedener Variablen, Alternativen).Alles in allem immer noch empfehlenswert, wenn auch einige Bilder, besonders im E-Book, von nicht ganz makelloser Qualität sind (Auflösung).

El libro está bastante bien explicado con esquemas, ideas y todas las fotografías vienen con su pié de imagen donde se indica con qué cámara, objetivo, iso, apertura y velocidad de obturación están hechas. Es de gran ayuda para poder entender lo que explica. Ideal para iniciados en la fotografía y aficcionados a fotografiar alimentos. Es una pena que sólo esté en inglés, pero está bastante bien. Al final del libro hay un resumen de equipamiento a comprar con direcciones de páginas web de venta y otro de programas de procesamiento de fotografías.