My husband Jordon goes a long ways in making The Cooking Blog look good. He is a talented photographer and has launched his latest project called The Daily which is a great daily photoblog of what is catching his eye. Make sure you check it out and subscribe to his Twitter feed at @TheDailyYXE.
If you are like me, your food photography needs some work. Here are some tips on making it better.
Here are a few tips that will really make food images their best. They all apply if using the fanciest digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) or mobile phone camera.
Don’t forget the prep
Some of my favorite food shots have been made in the kitchen as the chef is cooking or assembling the plate. (Note: If you look a little hungry, the chef will usually give you a sample!)Flash vs. natural lighting
Nothing will ruin an image faster than using your flash. Turn it off and find the most flattering light on the table. Shooting during the day is much easier than darker dinner situations. Sit next to a window and let the natural, indirect light fall on the plate. If you need a little extra light to fill the dark areas, hold a white napkin near the lens, bouncing light into the shadows. You will be amazed how well this works.Candlelight
Candlelight is a special situation that is best shot with a DSLR because most mobile phone cameras do not perform well in low light situations.Find a place that is lit evenly, but not too directionally, such as under a spotlight from overhead. Grab a candle from another table and have a friend hold it near your lens to boost the ambient light. If you have a tripod, use it and set your shutter speed to 1 to 4 seconds. This will allow you to yield a less noisy image.
Get low and close
I tend to shoot tightly, cropping into the plate to emphasize the beauty of the food. Keep the camera low so you can see some of the background. Don’t be afraid to move some elements on the plate to cover parts that you don’t want to showcase.Tableware
If you are going to set the table formally, the fork goes on the left and the knife and spoon on the right. An easy way to remember this is that fork and left both have four letters. Spoon, knife and right have five.Clean plate club
The first order of business once the finished plate arrives from the kitchen is to wipe off the edges of the plate. Even the best kitchens have trouble serving a perfect, pristine plate.Move quickly
Delicate sauces and fresh garnishes look old in a few minutes, so be prepared to shoot immediately. Don’t be afraid to ask the kitchen for a few extra pieces of garnish if the ones on the plate look a little wilted or brown.Meat
Although I am an enthusiastic consumer of all types of meat, I don’t particularly think it looks appetizing in a photograph. For example, chain steakhouses always showcase a fine cut of charbroiled beef in their advertisements, but I rarely think the image is appealing to the eye. Often, I choose to cover some of the meat with a sauce to tone down the amount of visible flesh.
Ingredients
Directions
Jordon has heart disease. He just spent several days at Royal University Hospital having blockages cleared and getting the scare of his life. He is high risk because of his Type II Diabetes but we haven’t watched his cholesterol like we should have. Today I wandered out to Indigo! and bought some heart smart cookbooks which I will be trying out more and more around here and of course posting some recipes to The Cooking Blog in the new Heart Smart category. I’ll also be adding this logo to the recipe along with the source.
Not only are investors speculating on land, they believe they can make a profit leasing the acreages to farmers while they wait for the right time to sell. Investors in Saskatchewan are charging rent equal to seven per cent of a property’s worth, said Johnston. That would mean a farmer pays around $70,000 upfront in rent, per year, for an average-sized 2,000-acre farm from Agcapita. The number could climb with farm prices, which are already rising. According to Statistics Canada, the price of Alberta farmland almost doubled between 2000 and 2009. According to Marvin Painter, a business professor at the University of Saskatchewan, the dividend yield from the rent and the predicted capital gain from a future land sale works out to be only slightly below what a blue-chip stock would reap.
“It’s a forever asset that produces income,” said Brad Farquhar, co-founder of Assiniboia Capital Corporation, which controls more than 110,000 acres, worth about $55 million, in Saskatchewan. They began raising money for their venture in 2007, both from big clients and smaller investors—half of their approximately 500 investors put in less than $10,000, he said. To ensure they are buying land that can generate rental income, the company assesses the productivity of a farm, and therefore the worth of the land, by examining soil quality, past yields and rainfall. “The last thing you want to do is buy land where the nutrients have been extracted by the last farmer,” he said. They only rent to farmers who “farm well,” and agrologists go out every year to inspect the land. The company hopes to assemble a large farmland portfolio that might be of interest to big-league investors. “Maybe Canada Pension Plan takes an interest in farming,” he said.
Why do we read cook books (and The Cooking Blog) according to Rachel Cooke in the Guardian?
Well, let's see. What you must understand is that cookbooks are not just for those who cook – though if you do cook, it goes without saying that they are an essential part of your life's quest. Devout home cooks are like something small and hairy out of Tolkien; the search for the perfect recipe is endless. Why? Because cooks are perpetually dissatisfied; too often the making is more gratifying than the eating. The other day, going off-piste for the first time in three weeks, I made a lemon cake from a recipe by Arabella Boxer. It was damp, it was delicious, it looked exactly like the one in the picture. But still, I felt restless… Perhaps there exists an even better lemon cake than this one, I thought, forking it into my mouth. Cookbooks are a repository for such restlessness because only they can deliver the next lemon cake, and the one after that. Like a boyfriend who blows hot and cold, they encourage the chase even as they purport to be able to end it for ever (consider how many cookbooks aim for Bible-status, to be the "only one you'll ever need").
I got word this week that The Cooking Blog is a nominee for the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards in the Food and Drink category. I am up against some tough competition but thanks to my nominator and I appreciate the honor. Who knows, I may actually become the second person in this household to win one (Jordon has won a few times before).
The Cooking Blog now has a Facebook page and you can follow the blog over there as well as right here, via RSS, or on Twitter.
However you follow the site, I really appreciate it and I hope you enjoy your Canada Day/Fourth of July long weekend!
Some of you have noticed the small changes to the site along the blog roll. Most links now show updated content which should make it easier to find other tasty sites to check out. Also, since purchasing a small rustic cabin this summer, I am blogging the repair and renovations of it here. It's RSS feed can be found here.
I have been so busy for so long I really have neglected this site but starting today, I will be posting a couple of recipes and cooking links a week. If you are reading this, thanks for staying faithful to the site!
I made a quick change to The Cooking Blog's layout. The advertisements are along the top now and instead of two of them, there are four of them. If Google and the advertisers play nice, the ads should complement the content in the post which will give you more options and gives you an easy way to support The Cooking Blog. For those of you who are a part of The Coooking Blog community, thanks for reading and being part of it.
