That's a strange question of course, because if you look around you, you can see that food photography and food porn are very hot. Not to mention the food recipes. Foodies seem to emerge as if there has been some kind of 'foodie boom' with a significant emphasis on health and diet variants.
Confession:I'm not a foodie.
But you might already know that 😉 . I just want to clarify this a bit. I am not a foodie in the sense that I am very good at coming up with the latest recipes that no one knows yet. No, I can cook well, but not very special. In addition, I have no particular knowledge of nutrition, I just use common sense. What I am good at is eating food. That's about the best thing I do! By the way, I'll show myself from my best side... read on...
Read also: the tastiest healthy pancake recipe ever!
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That seems clear to me. A Foodie is someone who can prepare extremely tasty food. Who spends days in the kitchen trying out new recipes, beaming with every new product in the store and can't wait to eat it. And a food eater? Well, that is a thoroughly Burgundian who has little time to stand in the kitchen himself. He doesn't cook haute cuisine, but I do love to eat well. At home or out, it doesn't matter.
Personally, I think it's a nice term, Foodeet! Actually quite Van-Dalen-worthy. Just like food porn! I actually like that term a lot better. It fully covers the load. I therefore think that you should only use the word Foodporn if you take very nice pictures. And as a Foodeet, my mouth is of course already watering when I see beautiful food photos, the so-called food porn photography.
In fact, they are 2 very different things, food porn and food photography. But one is nothing without the other. Foodporn is super fun, but if you don't capture it on the sensitive plate -or don't know how- then the ohhhhs and aahhhhs will be left behind. And you certainly can't boast about it. And food photography… well, that seems obvious to me. If you can't cook and you only make a mess, then you can still do your best with photography… that photo won't turn out very well! Which brings me to a workshop I recently attended.
As a blogger, I think it's important to be able to shoot nice photos. I will not soon become a top photographer, but photos that are a bit nice to look at (just like the food porn itself) that is a plus. The workshop was organized by Semilo and (obviously) based on food and photography. Because if you say Semilo, you say food. And as a food eater, that makes me happy, you get that. And taking beautiful photos is also important to me, for example for product photos, or photos at events, so a food photography workshop was not so bad after all! In addition, there was also a nice lunch 😀 .
Packed and bagged, I went to Amsterdam on November 18, a few days after I had my eyelid correction done. Camera with me? Check! Notebook with me? Check! Phone with me? Check! Good mood? Check! Nerves? Check! You may wonder why? This has everything to do with my food-eating content and my non-foodie content…
Read also: Eyelid correction before and after, the entire process from intake to implementation
Anyway, those nerves turned out to be completely unnecessary. It was very educational and fun to do. Especially because food photography has everything to do with food porn and styling. And styling is fun, just about every woman thinks that, right? Tastes differ, and you notice that when you work with 2 people on an assignment, but of course that is also instructive.
The workshop was provided by Ester and Hester. It sounds like a comedy duo 😉 , but they know everything about food photography and food styling (read:food porn, but that might not sound neat enough). An example of a photo of Ester that I was completely impressed with is shown below. Fantastic isn't it? I want that too!
After the necessary theory, the real work began. Practice yourself. So I started using my Canon to take the most beautiful pictures. And for the much-needed tips, because fair is fair. I'm not a hero with my camera. I prefer the automatic mode, because then I don't have to think. But most 'real' photographers are disgusted by the automatic mode. In the end I learned a thing or two about iso, aperture and anyway where I can set it all 😉 . Very nice of course, but man… what a time it takes. And that's just something I slightly lack.
Do you recognize that? Really want something, but can't really make the time for it? That's how I do it with 1001 other things. I want it all. I also think that I should be able to do everything well. Or no… I like that I should be able to do everything well. Except raising… I gave up on that a long time ago 😉 . An unpleasant quality of course because it means that you are never satisfied with anything. It always has to be better.
And here I came to an important conclusion… I can also take very cool photos with my Huawei. Without having to do too much about it and know about it. That phone actually does it for me! A little bit of sliding here, a little bit of diaphragm there and hey presto! I'm ready.
Of course, my interest in food photography has not diminished, but I now often consciously opt for convenience instead of lugging my Canon. It just looks very unprofessional – that's for sure.
In the field of styling I can improve a bit, but there is also a lot to learn. One of those things I've learned is that you shouldn't throw anything away . Gosh, what a lot of stuff for the styling the ladies had brought with them. And to be honest… there was also a lot of stuff that I just threw away myself before! Because I didn't like it anymore. But what struck me here is that it is mainly the combination that matters. A sign that you actually find very ugly, can just turn out to be a beautiful example with the right surface!
Well, you can learn to experiment, it turns out!
