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Plate To Pixel: Digital Food Photography & Styling (2000)

by Helene Dujardin(Favorite Author)

4.17 of 5 Votes: 3

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review 1: Plate to Pixel: Digital Food Photography & Styling by Helene Dujardin of the blog Tartlette. I don't do very much recipe photography from my cooking- more often it's food while I'm out at a restaurant or event- but I was sure there were still tidbits I could learn.This book is written with the voice of hands on experience, yet also casual and conversationally that keeps a reader engaged like being taught by a friend. She often tells an anecdote from her past, and there are plenty of pictures (she never goes 4 pages without a photo) to help illustrate her points, including showing the differences between different options. I find this a great way of learning, peppering information with lots of examples.She devotes 2 of the 8 chapters to explaining camera basics, clearly try... moreing to coax the beginning photographer using a point and shoot from the automatic mode by explaining all the flexibility and power the equipment can give you. Next, 2 chapters (one on natural light, and one on artificial light) explain how to work with the next most controllable part of food photography. It was these two chapters unfortunately that I found the most disappointing, as she talks about diffusing and reflecting or putting together setups, but not with enough details on how to figure out the setup such as illustrations of how to take a first guess or how to see how to improve from your first attempts. Although it's true you may just need to experiment, I was hoping to leverage more sage advice like an apprentice here than spend hours attempting a setup- here the photos showing the difference between setups should have been complimented by also photos of each of those setups.Her last chapter covers basics of transferring files, lists some possible software to consider for editing photos, backup/storage, a chapter I can't really comment on because I just skimmed it: you would be better off researching what fits you online, as there is no way she can keep up with current offerings or meet how your mind wants to organize. She does bring up the vary valid and important consideration of copyright though, so I have it on my to do list to understand this better.Helene won me back with the Chapters 5-7, the 3 chapters that include high level concepts of different compositions to try, planning shots varying from picking the story points of a recipe to using ingredients to help flesh out the background of the food, and 1 of those 3 chapters goes into detail on styling all the categories of food (bread, sauces, fish, stews, cakes, ice cream, beverages!) I know I will be referring to this particular chapter over and over again. Everywhere, her beautiful photos emphasize her skill and are something to aspire to.Not only that, but she has multiple appendixes, one of which includes what's in her bag (including her prop/tool box) and an entire appendix with urls to more resources such as recommended other websites by food photographers and food stylists and for purchasing styling props.
review 2: There's no denying... This is a beautiful book. C'mon! It's filled with pictures by Helene Dujardin. She's fabulous and really knows her stuff. I was very much caught up in just looking. Then, of course, I wanted recipes for half of the pictures in the book.But that's not what this book is all about. This book is "about" photography. Specifically, photographing food. Which is really difficult. I am great with people, animals, still life. But food is something I'm trying to master. Because it's so difficult.There were three chapters that interested me. Artificial light photography - this is just so hard to get right and so easy to get wrong. Styling - again, photographing people is easy. But making food enticing, not so much. Appendices - all the resources you can handle. less

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