"ugly" food- before and after

When Becky and I teach our Food Styling and Photography workshop, we always have an ugly food challenge. How do you photograph something that's inherently challenging or unattractive?

In the photos below, you can see our before and after from a recent workshop we taught in Vermont. The subject is clam chowder.

I think we succeeded in making it better the second time around, no?

workshop demo

During the farm to table workshop I mentioned in my last post, I did a quick demo for the students in our food photography segment. Below are two different dessert "stories." ;)

food photography tip: plates

Have you ever looked at a food photographer's prop collection? Have you noticed the size of the majority of their plates? In most cases, there are a whole lot of salad and dessert plates. You know why? Because smaller food tends to photograph better.

So size down those plates!!