thePictureKitchen blog

The Art of Food Photography exhibition now on

18Apr11

It is often said of typography that you don’t notice “good typography”. It sits easily on the page or the advertising hoarding and you read the message without seeing how it has been conveyed.

To the food photographer it can feel that food photography is also regarded like this by most people and that if those outside the business do contemplate it at all it is to wonder what dreadful things have been done to the food to make it look palatable or if it is all ‘fake’.

This exhibition of the work of Marie-Louise Avery, a well known London food photographer attempts to open the eyes of those who have not looked at food photography closely before and show that those images that appear in adverts or in the pages of glossy magazines are the result of careful observation, a love of light and of food and real artistry. These images are strong and interesting in their own right and work brilliantly as decorative works for interiors.

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Blueberry smoothie

17Mar11

This is the most wonderfully sustaining breakfast! It’s quick to make and good for you with blueberries for anti oxidants, egg for protein, flax seed for protein and fibre, yoghurt and milk for calcium and a little fat. And most of all it is totally delicious!

Blueberry smoothie

1 egg

1 tblsp Greek yoghurt

1 banana

1handful blueberries

1pod of cardamon seeds crushed

1 dsp milled flax seeds,

milk to taste

all whizzed together in a blender.

Picture available from thePictureKitchen

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Frogspawn – it must be spring!

14Mar11

Frogspawn – it must be spring!

via SimplyTweet

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Brandy & soda. I deserve it I cleared out the larder!

11Mar11

Brandy & soda. I deserve it I cleared out the larder!

via SimplyTweet

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Swedish open egg sandwich with ansjovis | thePictureKitchen: food & lifestyle stock photos

09Mar11

Swedish open egg sandwich with ansjovis | thePictureKitchen: food & lifestyle stock photos.

Filed under: Food, Food photography, Gluten free, Recipes, thePictureKitchen | 1 Comment
Tags: stock food photography

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! My photo versus a college assignment to emulate it!

01Mar11

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
And I was very flattered recently when a twitter contact, Neil Llewellyn (@DesignPhotoPrnt), studying at Bridgend College in South Wales, used one of my shots as the basis for study, by copying it as part of an assignment. I think it is a really interesting way to learn, by trying to understand what another photographer was aiming for by doing this – like all those art students in art galleries copying the old masters! As I said I’m flattered!
As Neil has done this seriously, I am going to give it some serious criticism – so I hope he won’t be offended when all is not considered good.
One thing that was definitely to my advantage when I took this shot, was that it was for a client. The shot had a specific job to do, and fulfilling a brief is a great way of clarifiying what you want to show.
It was part of a series for Tenpin Bowling who are trying to give the restaurants at their bowling alleys a higher profile, and they are showcasing the improved quality and variety of food on offer. Things are served very simply so the shot had to be all about the food!
I had to shoot this at one of their venues, I didn’t have the luxury of the wonderful light in my own studio, and the dark red colour of the room I was working in made using flash impossible as it would have bounced around picking up the colour and dirtying my image. I resorted instead to opening the shutters over a fairly small window and using my large, curved reflectors, building a sort of little room for myself where the light was neutral and soft.
The shot was all about the cake and so the focus and positioning was governed by that. I used a 105mm lens to make sure the cake didn’t look small next to the coffee mug, set the aperture to f3 to give me a nice short depth of field, and make sure the viewer’s eye is drawn to my designated hero of the shot – the front face of the cake.
I then processed the image in Adobe Lightroom 3.0 to make sure the darks were really dark and warmed up the slightly chilly daylight by increasing the yellow very slightly.
When copying the image Neil has mad a pretty good stab at making it look similar, but I’m not sure he has had the confidence to really make it into a special shot in its own right. To my eye it is too sharp – I feel he may have been slightly seduced by that very nice shadow on the top of the coffee, and maybe he is thinking that to make a shot of coffee AND cake is more useful? He pointed out that the crumbs are too far away from the cake, but I would also suggest that the cake looks so perfect you cant quite work out where the crumbs have come from – scenarios should always be believable – and I think the crumbs in my shot are too regular too! Neil’s shot looks a little stiff – I wonder if it wouldn’t be improved by breaking the cake open – the outside is not particularly pretty and I’m sure the texture inside would be more inviting. Coffee and tea can be tricky to photograph – especially when there is milk it – it looks sort of flat and dead and plastic. Tea can be rescued by not adding too much milk, and by blowing a couple of bubbles into the surface with a drinking straw. Coffee always looks better when it is real coffee ( I suspect this may be instant??) as black real coffee produces wonderful little bubbles when freshly made and poured, and hot milk poured into real coffee also has a nice texture that really shows in a photograph. I had a sort of cappuccino for my shot which actually benefitted from the short depth of field as it wasn’t perfect!
I think Neil could have made more of this shot as it stands by improving the white balance, and bumping up the contrast a little. If he has Lightroom, using the clarity brush over the texture of the cake would give it more depth and increase the yum factor!
Good luck with the course Neil!

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Testing the SLR Magic 35mm f1.7 lens on my Olympus EP-1

26Jan11

This is a quick comparison series using the SLR Magic 35mm f1.7 lens I bought recently. The first two are shot with the Magic, the first at f1.7, and the second stopped down – unfortunately I can’t quite remember how much, and as the lens is manual there is limited EXIF info. The third was shot on the Olympus 14-42mm F3.5-5.6.
I love the effect of the Magic – although if I were shooting for a client I would definitely cover myself by shooting on a conventional lens in case they didn’t understand that the softness was deliberate!
The lens is small and neat with an excellent lens hood and feels solid and well made – it’s a real bargain for about £60. You can buy it on Ebay.

The beautiful loaf was made by my brother-in-law. He makes these enticing sourdough loaves from a starter yeast that he made about a year ago, and bakes them in a huge wood fired oven he built at Moon’s Green, in Kent

Filed under: Food, Food photography, Photo equipment, Photography, thePictureKitchen | 1 Comment
Tags: bread, Olympus EP-1, SLR Magic f1.7 lens

Making Gravlax the Swedish way

22Jan11

A friend just asked me how I make Gravlax so as I was sending her the recipe I thought I would post it here as well. It is something I make pretty often so have refined the method to make it as easy as possible. This recipe can be used to cure a large piece of salmon for a party or simply to cure a little piece as a weeknight treat.

NB I have now also added the recipe for Gravlax sauce below.

1 of 4

View Slideshow

Classic Swedish Gravlax as made in Sweden

Per I kilo raw salmon:
4 Tbsp sugar I use Billington’s natural caster
4 Tbsp salt regular fine salt – not rock salt
2 tsp white pepper coarsely ground
1 large bunch fresh dill chopped
clingfilm
2 large sealable plastic bags

Buy good quality salmon and ask your fishmonger to remove it from the bone, leaving the skin on. It’s worth buying a substantial piece as it can be kept in the fridge for at least 3-4 days once the salt etc has been removed.
Make sure all the pin bones are removed from the fillets feeling carefully with your fingertips and pulling out any remaining with a pair of tweezers. You can get special pin bone removing tweezers but eyebrow ones work well too!
Mix together the salt, sugar and white pepper.
Spread a large piece of clingfilm on your work surface and lay one half of the salmon on it, skin side down. Spread the salt mix over the salmon, and add the chopped dill. Lay the other salmon half flesh side down on top, thick end to thin end. Now you will understand why you put the clingfilm down first has a lot of the cure ingredients spill out, but just use the clingfilm to wrap it all around the salmon and then put the whole parcel into one of the plastic bags, seal and fold it neatly and then put inside the other bag and seal. I find that a single bag always leaks – belt and braces!
Leave the parcel in the fridge for 48 hours turning it over now and again.

When it is ready, unwrap the salmon and scrape off the cure ingredients, pour away the liquid that has been produced and wipe the fish down with kitchen paper.

In Sweden gravlax is usually sliced quite thickly straight across the flesh or at a slight angle, and should be served with Gravlax Sauce, Add lemon wedges, and black and white pepper to grind on if wished. And it can be served as a main course with boiled potatoes, buttered spinach and perhaps poached eggs.

Gravad lax can also be frozen very successfully – put it in a plastic bag with plenty of freshly chopped dill – and when serving slice it before it has thawed completely to make very precise slices.

Gravlax sauce
The essential sauce to accompany classic Swedish gravlax, depends on masses of fresh dill to give a magical taste that complements the salmon perfectly
2 dl fresh dill chopped
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp caster sugar
1 dl Swedish sweet mustard can buy at Ikea or use at a pinch use French’s American mustard with an extra 1 tsp ugar
3 dl rape seed oil
1 pinch ground white pepper
1 tsp vinegar if necessary
Put about half of the dill into a round bottomed bowl, sprinkle the sugar and salt over and work into the dill with the back of a wooden spoon. Add the mustard and stir in.
Using an electric mixer whisk in the oil drop by drop gradually incorporating it, whisking all the while. It is essential not to rush this as the mixture can separate. As you whisk and add the oil, the emulsifying effect of the mustard will incorporate it all into a smooth shiny thick sauce.
Add the rest of the chopped dill, season to taste with a little white pepper and perhaps a drop of vinegar.
Tip: If despite your best efforts the sauce does separate add a few drops of lemon juice and beat again

NB 1 dl = 100 ml = 1/10 litre

Photo Notes
Shot on Olympus EP-1 using daylight, processed in Lightroom 3.

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Tags: food photography, Recipes, Swedish

Saturday brunch – shot on EP-1 at 6400ISO

22Jan11

Not a brilliant picture I’m afraid – I was too eager to eat this – and the anticipation was fulfilled – quite delicious.
Ciabatta roll (gluten free) split and fried in goose fat with a slice of black pudding (also gluten free from Findlay’s of Edinburgh) and some chestnut mushrooms with a poached egg on top. Unfortunately I grabbed my Olympus EP-1 to take the photo without checking the ISO. For taking snaps I often depend on the Auto ISO setting but one of the flaws of the camera for me is, that it is then very easy to knock the wheel and push the setting on to 6400ISO. This is what happened here and I was unfortunately far too greedy to check, before I had eaten the lot. Noise is not as well handled on the Olympus EP-1as on my Nikons and although it does well up to 1600, 6400 is just too far to be usable – or attractive. Ah well – I guess I will just have to repeat the dish and shoot it properly next time.

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Noodles with seafood in coriander and coconut sauce

18Jan11

Made this recipe for supper tonight although the shot is one I made earlier!

Noodles With Seafood In A Coriander And Coconut Sauce

175 g (6oz) tagliatelle or rice noodles
30 g coriander leaves
1 small red chilli, deseeded and chopped
1 cm root ginger, finely grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
165 ml tin coconut milk
Juice of 1 lime
250 g (9oz) mixed seafood eg prawns, mussels, squid

1. Cook Tagliatelle according to directions on the packet.

2. Blend together the red chilli, root ginger, garlic, coconut milk and lime juice in a blender or food processor until smooth. . Add ⅔ of the coriander and blend briefly.

:3. Stir fry the seafood until just cooked.

4. When pasta is cooked, drain combine with the seafood and sauce, heat through.

5. Roughly chop the remaining coriander. Pile pasta into a serving dish and sprinkle with coriander.

Photography notes:

This was shot for a feature for the WI magazine, WI Life, and the recipe is adapted from theirs. It was shot in my London daylight studio where the natural light does a lot of the work. I have a lot of space there so can easily use a long lens if I chose and for this used a corner of the studio where the window light can come from behind and from the side of the subject, and is diffused by sheer white blinds. There are also black out blinds so I can, for a different look eliminate the side or back light very easily. I have large reflectors pushing light back into the shadows to give this gentle natural look.

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100 photos: Reviewing photographic jobs, 2010

12Jan11

There’s something very contemplative about putting the year to bed by reviewing work and tidying up.

I have been emptying out my portable drives to be ready for new year jobs and in moving the old files to archive I found time to glance through and quickly choose some favourites to keep around.

Here they are – not very carefully considered – so they are not all masterpieces but just a selection that reflects something of the diversity of the work I do and how I try to make a photo out of all briefs even the more banal or unusual ones.

Filed under: Food | 3 Comments

One of my first DSLR food shots

10Jan11

Going through my files I came across this shot from 2003 – one of the first food shots I took on a Nikon D100, The quality is still pretty good but I thought it fantastic at the time!

Before the D100 I was using an Olympus E10, bought in 2000 and sometimes used for jobs, but mostly as a sort of backup to work shot on film mostly with a Mamiya RZ67. It came into its own, however, on a job photographing Susanna Gelmetti’s cookery school near Naples for a Good Housekeeping magazine feature.

There was a huge amount of material to photograph – classes morning and evening for 6 days plus outings and peripheral stuff – and the journalist I was working with (Felicity Barnum-Bobb) needed to write as she went along so the feature could be delivered on our return. I had originally planned to shoot on film (this was in 2001) but there just wasn’t time. I shot all day, and every minute I wasn’t shooting I was uploading to my computer and editing the results. Felicity would then go through the images and make her notes on them while I slept! Her computer wasn’t powerful enough to view my images on. I had no software for organising the images – only Photoshop, so everything had to be renamed with a meaningful name so it should be found and opened individually to check focus etc, I kept the original plus multiple copies for different purposes because there was no other way of doing it. The E10 had a fantastic lens - a useful 35-140mm – but integrated and not interchangeable although I had wide and telephoto adapters for it. Other than that it handled like a DSLR and although the files were only 4mp they were noise free and could be interpolated up very successfully to make good full page pics or even double page spreads.

I loved digital images from the beginning because of the control they gave me. Submitting film – especially to magazines – left things subject to the interpretation of the art director and the repro house and printer who would take your carefully shot and balanced image and ‘warm up’ the deliberately cool look you had given it, would work hard to find unimportant detail in the shadows that I used to give the shot character or bring up all sort of unwanted colour in an area that I had chosen almost to blow out. Time after time I would cringe when I saw the final result on a magazine page – a vague resemblance to my original vision with all character and individuality removed. By contrast the digital files were ready to go and printers tended to leave them alone.

The Italian shoot was the first job I shot entirely digitally and it worked really well – although it took a long time after that to get magazines to accept digital imagery regularly – largely because they weren’t equipped with digital asset management software and most importantly took ages to discover colour calibration so had terrific problems with seeing the colour correctly although if they left them alone they would work perfectly when printed because my system was calibrated as were the printers.

I still have the Olympus E10 – suppose I should sell it really – it produces a certain luminous quality in its the images that I find unique, but I just don’t use it with all the megapixels now at my command.
http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

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Fujifilm FinePix F550 EXR – another interesting camera

05Jan11

Lots of exciting camera news dribbling out from CES. This is the Fujifilm FinePix F550 which is the latest incarnation of the series of cameras that began with the legendary FInepix F10. These cameras have traded on their low-light capabilities which is the holy grail for many sorts of
photographer. The Fujifilm FinePix F550 continues the tradition with all sorts of clever technology. I quote from the Fujifilm website:
“Following in the footsteps of the award-winning FinePix F200 EXR and F300 EXR models, this latest recruit to the range is the ideal camera for discerning point-and-shoot photographers or SLR users who want to travel light but don’t want to compromise image quality and picture-taking versatility. Superb results are assured with exciting new features including an innovative 16 megapixel EXR CMOS sensor, advanced GPS functions, high speed shooting
capabilities, a 15x wide-angle zoom lens, Full HD movie functionality and an improved user interface.”
It also shoots raw and is very fast in use.
All of this sounds fantastic and I can imagine using one of these just for the GPS functions alone – for instance to use alongside other cameras on a trip. Apparently you can automatically build a Google map of your travels on your return or use it to find somewhere that you took a pic of. Wish I had had it for the wonderful road trip we did across the States in 2000 and it could be useful for finding your car in an airport car park.
Unfortunately the one thing they don’t mention in the blurb I have found so far is the lens. It doesn’t seem particularly fast. If only they were including a lens like that on the about to be announced Olympus XZ-1they might have produced the perfect pocket camera. I may be proved wrong but I think the camera I am lusting after is still the little Oly.

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Tags: compact cameras, photography equipment

Another new camera to drool over – Olympus XZ-1

05Jan11

New Olympus XZ-1 Lens Specifications Leaked - Geeky Gadgets

I have a long ongoing quest for the perfect handbag camera. One that I can carry with me always and that works brilliantly in low light and focuses close enough on a long enough lens setting to make the food on my plate look good without having to stand up! A rather specific specification I know but a constant concern for me. I have run through a long collection of Fuji Finepix cameras each being the best available at the time, and have recently been gearing up to get a Canon PowerShot S95, which I believe to be the current champion on my very particular steeplechase, but just before I flexed the plastic this caught my eye on the Olympus XZ-1
! The Olympus XZ-1may be the next answer to my prayers. Very wide aperture – even at full zoom F/1.8-2.5, 4x zoom, HD video, bright OLED screen, hot shoe and very pocketable. It would also share accessories with my Olympus Pen. It’s to be announced at CES in Las Vegas, maybe tomorrow and I am keeping my ear to the ground for more news

The Olympus XZ-1has now been announced officially and there is a preview of it on the DP Review site. The only thing I can’t find out about it yet is if it has reasonably close focus when the lens is zoomed out – a requirement for good food photographs on the go. Nevertheless it sounds totally brilliant and I can’t wait to get my hands on one!

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Chopping red peppers really finely

03Jan11

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Merry Christmas!

24Dec10

With best wishes to you all for a Merry & Peaceful Christmas
Marielou

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Experimenting with Pic Grunger iPhone app

21Dec10

I love the effects I am getting using this app. Must work out how to achieve the same effect on full size images.

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Some of my favourite foods combined to make a great salad

02Jul10

This salad is just so self indulgent! Just like a list of my favourite things really!

Prawn, Mango and Avocado Salad
for 2

I packet large hot water prawns (shrimp) – raw
a little sunflower oil
I avocado
I mango
1 tbsp Thai chili dipping sauce
1 bunch coriander (cilantro), chopped

Quickly stir fry the grey raw prawns in the sunflower oil over a high heat until they turn pink. Stir in the chilli sauce and set aside.
Dice the flesh of the avocado and mango combine with the cooled prawns and the coriander.
Divide between two plates and indulge.

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Roast tomatoes with goats’ cheese recipe

30Jun10

Eating out of doors is probably the greatest pleasure of summer, whether it’s a quick lunch under the sunshade or a lingering dinner when the day is cooling. Everthing tastes better but this dish is I think distinctive enough to carry one away in imagination even when the weather isn’t as good as it might be.

This is such a simple lunch dish and yet it evokes all the flavours of the Mediterranean and suddenly you can imagine yourself in Provence in a shady square with a tumbler of rosé.

● 2 firm large beef tomatoes, continental type
● sugar to dust
● Freshly ground black pepper
● 2 tbsp olive oil
● 1 small onion, skinned and very finely chopped
● 1 garlic cloves, skinned and crushed
● 6 anchovy fillets, drained
● 8 basil leaves
● freshly grated parmesan
● 2 tbsp capers
● ½ goat’s cheese log

Cut the tomatoes across in half and arrange them in an oiled baking dish. Sprinkle with a little sugar and black pepper and leave while attending to the other ingredients.

Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan, add the onion and garlic and fry gently for a couple of minutes to soften slightly.
Remove from the heat and stir in the basil, with pepper to taste. (Do not add salt because the anchovies are salty enough.)

Divide this mixture equally onto the tomato halves, Arrange anchovy filets and capers and a slice of goat’s cheese onto each and then sprinkle with the parmesan.
Bake the tomatoes in the oven at 220C/fan oven 200C/425F/Gas 7 for 10-15 minutes or until just tender and sizzling. Serve hot.

This was photographed on the Olympus EP-1 which, with its standard 14-42 close focusing lens is ideal for quickly taking a food picture without delaying the meal!

Filed under: Food photography, Photo equipment, Photography, Recipes, thePictureKitchen | 3 Comments

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