Parks-Whitfield - Food Styling and Photography For Dummies

Food Styling & Photography For Dummies

by Alison Parks-Whitfield

Food Styling & Photography For Dummies

Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com

Copyright 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2012931724

ISBN 978-1-118-09719-9 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-22368-0 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-22646-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-23015-2 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Author

Alison Parks-Whitfield is a successful technical writer and food photographer located in the San Francisco Bay area. After studying photography in college, Alison worked as a photographer in several different capacities, eventually finding her true bliss in food and vineyard photography. Her tasty images have been published in books, magazines, newspapers, on packaging, as well as in many online venues. To see some of her work, check out her website: www.alisonparkswhitfield.com .

Dedication

To my amazingly awesome children, Gary and Chloe.

Authors Acknowledgments

A huge thank you to Erin Calligan Mooney who first approached me about doing this book. And special thanks to Tim Gallan and Jennette ElNaggar for your mad editing skills! I am so grateful to you and the entire team at Wiley.

I want to also give a big thank you to Janet, Adam, and all the chefs at Ladies who Lunch Catering in San Francisco, California. The chefs provided many of the beautiful (and delicious!) dishes in this book.

Thanks to Kingdom Cake in San Francisco, California, for kindly preparing some of the yummy cupcakes for this book, and to 3 Bee Baking for making such darned tasty organic baked goods.

And a big shout out goes to Keeble & Shuchat Photography in Palo Alto, California, for helping me with all things photographic.

And finally, I want to say thank you so much to all my family and friends for their encouragement, love, support, and patience over this last year.

Publishers Acknowledgments

Were proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com . For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Vertical Websites

Senior Project Editor: Tim Gallan

Acquisitions Editor: Erin Calligan Mooney

Copy Editor: Jennette ElNaggar

Technical Reviewer: Lisa Bishop

Assistant Editor: David Lutton

Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen

Editorial Manager: Michelle Hacker

Editorial Assistants: Rachelle S. Amick, Alexa Koschier

Cartoons: Rich Tennant ( www.the5thwave.com )

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Sheree Montgomery

Layout and Graphics: Claudia Bell, Joyce Haughey, Lavonne Roberts, Brent Savage

Proofreaders: Lindsay Amones, Melissa D. Buddendeck

Indexer: Estalita Slivoskey

Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

Kathleen Nebenhaus, Vice President and Executive Publisher

Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director

Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel

Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel

Publishing for Technology Dummies

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Composition Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Introduction

Welcome to the amazing world of food photography! And it is amazing to create delicious images that can quite literally make your audience drool. Understanding what makes a food photo appear super appetizing is what this book is all about. In this book, I discuss the creative and technical aspects of food photography to help you discover how to best capture the essence of a food subject, using styling, focus, lighting, angle, and more.

My love of food photography started early on. I noticed that when traveling, instead of taking photos of monuments and notable sites, Id take pictures of the local cheeses, pastries, and other delicacies. Thats when I realized I had found my passion.