Food Photography Lesson: Sausage, Bean and Spinach Dip

Final Beauty Shot




Now I love shooting colorful, minimal, beautiful food just like the next food photographer, but not all assignments are quite that simple.  Here is an example of one such assignment.  Let's call it extreme comfort food.



The ever-popular, but photographically challenging all-American dip.  In this case, Sausage, Bean and Spinach dip.  (Southern Living ran this story in conjunction with the Super Bowl.)







Stand-in #1












Stand-in #2


Let's take a closer look at the before and after shots:

Between stand-in #1 and #2, I played alot with shaping the window light.  Evening out the background and foreground.
Notice the dip is not baked in the stand-in photo #2, which gave me time to model the light without the added pressure of food dying.
In the hero, we decided to move the red pepper slices to the back of the frame because it they were creating almost a bullseye effect; drawing attention away from the dip.
As always, we paid close attention that the key recipe ingredients - sausage, bean and spinach - were clearly readable in the final photo.