Tips for taking great food photos

It’s all about the light! It is advice that to become aware of the intensity of the light and how it hits the food, and learn to adjust accordingly. some tips include

• Taking photos under natural light. Do not depend on built-in flash. 
• Moving around to find the best light source. Don’t feel confined to taking photos in the kitchen.
• Minimizing the clutter. When it comes to styling, if that spoon/napkin/busy background doesn’t add to the photo, it detracts from the photo. Focus on what is most important but don’t zoom in so much that viewers can’t tell what the food is.
• Adjusting the white balance when necessary. When you’re editing your photos, if your plate of food looks very blue, yellow, magenta or green, use your white balance tools to fix it! Colors come alive when the white balance is set properly.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I have trouble with plating, I don’t have a clear idea of how to make things look interesting. To fix this, I mostly just try for simple shots, and take lots of them and see what ends up looking good. I figure eventually I’ll learn what I like best.
  For me the struggle has been with styling and staging. To keep at it I look at different photographers work and see what elements make their images work. It’s important to remember to take your cue from them, but find your own style. Your images won’t look exactly line theirs, but you don’t want them to, you want to stand out on your own. That’s also a tough challenge, finding your own style and it get get frustrating as well.
   the picture below are some of the photos my friends took. Overall, the lesson today benefits me.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Vincent's Food Photography

Look at the picture below! Are you craving for a tasty Mac Donald's meal now?

This is what we learnt in our food photography lesson! When taking this picture, I tried to ensure that the food takes up around one third of the picture. I also tried to increase the volume of the burger by..hehe (take a look below!!!). More tomato sauce were added to the 'dried' burger to increase its visual appeal. We also choose a right spot with the suitable lightings and backgroud to have a better colour contrast. This picture could have been better if the complete cup of drink was captured, the background was rather plain so we decided to include a caption to save the picture! I hope you will have some Mac craving just by looking at my photos!

The wrapper of the burger was actually used to increase the volume of the very flat burger (look at the picture below). FREE and good way to maximising the burger volume!! wahaaha

This is the original burger before I attempted the volume 'modification'! Oh well, from this lesson, I learnt that photos can be deceiving. so never trust the photo 100% unless you see the real one! And the make or break of the food's visual appeal is totally up to the photographer!Thanks Ernnestine for providing the drink!

WON'T YOU EAT ME?!

What you need for a perect shot:

1. Pretty food

2. Pretty good photography skills (extremely sturdy hands)

[During class, we were taught briefly how to take good shots..]

Some pointers I remembered that were mentioned during class are to:

1. Play with focus/contrast/depth

2. Add oil to savoury dishes

3. Don't over decorate

4. Balance the photo with the imaginary triangle 

5. Control the lighting

I bought 3 different coloured macaroons from Bakerzin (It was a hard time resisting the urge to eat them), skittles and kit-kat. 

 

Really enjoyed the lesson! (: 

Here are some of the food I ate for the past weeks, to treat myself after all the work and late nights.

Magnum Ice cream shop @ Clark Quay

Taken in my hostel

Some of the shots I've taken over the year:

Fine palate

Box and sticks

Loola ohh la la

First practical lesson + Coursework experiment + Learning Festival

During our very first practical, we are tasked to cook a one dish meal. My partner and I cooked fried noodles with oreo banana milkshake.

Initially, our noodles tasted a little salty as too much sauce was added. We then added the rest of the noodles and it tasted better!

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For our coursework experiment, we are to plan an investigation that demonstrates the role of eggs in a food product of our choice. We chose to do muffins and vary the amount of eggs added.

Here is a picture of our results:

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During the learning festival, the theme for this year is Around the World. We made cous cous which is an African dish, fruit tarts, tortillas and thai green curry. The Earth cookies are the door gifts we made for the students. I find it really interesting as it follows the theme very well and is interesting/unusual/uncommon.

Earth cookies! I'm a picky eater but I find it good!

E LEARNING ASSIGNMENT

1) Health promotion Board
- Two important things that HPB can be used in the teaching of theory or coursework is to teach about health promotion and dietary guideline

national nutrition survey 2004

healthy diet pyramid

dietary guideline for Singapore

1) Health promotion board helps to promote Health Promotion. Health promotion is the art and science of helping people discover the synergies between their core passions and optimal health, enhancing their motivation to strive for optimal health, and supporting them in changing their lifestyle to move toward a state of optimal health. Optimal health is a dynamic balance of physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual health. Lifestyle change can be facilitated through a combination of learning experiences that enhance awareness, increase motivation, and build skills and, most important, through the creation of opportunities that open access to environments that make positive health practices the easiest choice.
2) Besides that, HPB also enables student to learn more about dietary guidelines. It is are crucial in helping people to adopt healthier food consumption habits. In Singapore, the dietary guidelines were first developed in 1990, and revised in 1993. A new set was then released in 2003, which reflected a shift from nutrient-based to food-based recommendations. some guidelines include, "Enjoy a variety of food using the Healthy Diet Pyramid as a guide", "Achieve and maintain body weight within the normal range", "Eat sufficient amount of grains, especially whole grains", "Eat more fruit and vegetables every day", etc. overall this guidelines would help students when doing their coursework.

2) Eating Well [10 tips of healthy eating and physical activity for you]
provides students with blogs, menu planner and meal plans. it promotes eating well by providing healthy recipes and diet tips which the students can use to plan their coursework. Besides that, it helps them to be more healthy. It also provides information on food news, and  diet, nutrition and health.

3) AMERICAN ASSOCIATION of FAMILY and CONSUMER SCIENCES
For more than 100 years, the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences (AAFCS) has provided leadership and support to professionals whose work assists individuals, families, and communities in making informed decisions about their well being, relationships, and resources to achieve optimal quality of life.
They provide research-based knowledge about the topics of everyday life, including human development, personal and family finance, housing and interior design, food science, nutrition and wellness, textiles and apparel, and consumer issues

Vincent's Assignment on F&N Web Resources

Interactive Digestion Animation

http://kitses.com/animation/swfs/digestion.swf

 

 

 

The above web resource is actually an interactive flash player which simulates the digestion of different kinds of food in a cartoon form. Students are able to choose foods such as apple, cake, fish or ice cream to begin the digestion simulation. It is good that a range of foods are provided so that the stimulation can show the digestion of the 3 main macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats and proteins).

This web resource will be very useful in the initial teaching stage of the topic on digestion. As the digestion process can be quite dry and difficult for students to understand, therefore for the introduction of this topic, students can be brought to the computer lab to have a hands-on session by exploring the website animation so as to have a good first impression of digestion. Students will be interested as the animations used are cute and in a cartoon form with sound effects. Being an animation, it is easier for students to understand the digestion process from the mouth right down to the anus and all the body parts involved in digestion is clearly depicted.

However, one drawback of this resource is that it did not state the exact name of the enzymes used in the digestion, instead it uses terms such as ‘digestive juice’, which can be quite vague. Therefore this web resource can only be used to arouse student’s interest in digestion before the start of proper lesson. After ‘playing’ with the digestion simulation, students will have some prior knowledge about the digestion process and the teacher will find it easier to teach digestion in detail as the web resource already covered the broad idea of digestion.

Kitchen Health and Safety Game

http://www.sensoryworld.org/kitchen_hygiene.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

The above web resource is an interactive game which shows a kitchen with different hygiene violations. Students are supposed to spot these safety issues and click on the violation observed in the kitchen (for instance an uncovered food left on the kitchen table). There are a total of 15 violations in the kitchen and when each violation is clicked, the correct hygiene measure will be shown in pictorial animations.

This web resource will be useful in recapping student’s knowledge on keeping the kitchen clean and hygienic after teaching the topic. The teacher can open the web resource in class and let students participate by pointing out the various violations they spotted. After each violation is spotted, the teacher can further explain the consequences of the hygiene lapses or even pose more questions or ask the students for their explanation to check on their understanding. Students will be more interested in this method of recapping knowledge as there is an interactive kitchen for them to observe, rather than the teacher just asking the students some questions to check on their understanding after the kitchen hygiene lesson. One of the disadvantages of this web resource is that some of the violations may not be very easy to observe as the picture might be very small (e.g. expiry date of food item), thus it will be good if the teacher can drop some hints to prompt the students.

 Home Baking Association

http://www.homebaking.org/index.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The web resource is a website which covers multi aspects of baking, such as baking recipes, safety precautions in baking. They even have lesson plans and lecture notes on topics such as ‘why bake?’, ‘tips for baking’ and even ‘keeping food safe’. The website also features several videos on baking.

This web resource is very useful for both teachers and students.  This is because baking lessons are inevitable in Food and Nutrition coursework/practical, thus teachers will have to expose the students to baking as well as teaching them the skills of different cakes, cookies and pastries.

Firstly, the teacher can use the resource to explain the kitchen safety issues to the student with regards to baking, this is especially important before the baking lessons start whereby the students should be briefed about the Dos and Don’ts on baking safety. Secondly, both students and teachers can also use the website to search for interesting recipes, which is useful for the meal planning coursework. Thirdly, the video will come in very handy when students forgot about the making of certain pastries or even bread which might involved many steps, therefore they can view the demo video to refresh or familiarise themselves. Fourthly, other than baking tips, the website also includes general food knowledge such as the FAD diet myths, wheat facts and gluten in the diet, these are important facts which are not in the textbook whereby teachers can share them with the students.  Fifthly, the website also contains useful notes and slides on handwashing, reasons for baking and tips for successful baking, which may not be found in the textbook.

However, the teacher will need to exercise precautions when using the informatiom on the web resource. The information should be sieved and verified to ensure that they are acuurate and suitable for the target students. If possible, teachers should also try out the recipe as who knows that the interesting recipe might not work?! Most of the resources are linked to baking so it will be very hard for teachers to use the resource for other methods of cooking.

 

 

 

E learning week [Using ICT in Teaching]

Web resource 1: The American Dietetic Association

Theory

In theory, the textbook can be too wordy and points are generally written in paragraphs. The website above can tell the students the ideas of certain topics in short paragraphs and points. It covers topics such as diseases, nutrition facts, and women’s, men’s and children’s health. 

The website also acts as an added source of information such as food shopping and cooking trends which are rarely covered or touched during lessons as teachers usually rush to cover more important topics and leaving “less important’ topics for the students to learn by themselves.

It also has interesting topics such as 4 tips for better breakfasts, and helps to give ideas when planning meals. Topics such as fad diets also help to explain why people follow them and how to seek a better alternative which is to follow a balanced diet.

Coursework

In practical, the website can be used as it covers topics and most chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes. Such as in 2010, the coursework A question was to “Investigate how nutritious and healthy food choices help in preventing (obesity).” Students can then refer to this page and understand the causes of obesity and ways to counter it.

Note:

However, despite covering topics on theory and coursework, it does not cover on individual nutrients and their effects on baked products or how the various cooking method can affect the nutrition content and characteristics of the food. Also, only members have access to their scholarly journals and publications. 

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Web resource 2: Nutrition.gov

Theory

In theory, the website has links that divides the different stages of life to infants, children, adolescents, men, women and seniors. This can help the students to navigate the website easier and also check out for risks related to that age group and certain nutrients to consume more.

It also contains specific nutrients and information about it such as the overconsumption and under consumption of the nutrient.

Coursework

It provides a wide range of other nutrient and food websites of reliable sources for reference. This can help students in their coursework tremendously as they need to cross-reference their resources and need data from various websites to support their work.

It can ease student’s workload as the resources are provided for them and all they need to do is to find what they need for their coursework questions.

Note:

However, the extensive range of websites provided can overwhelm the students; if they are those types that are determine to check out all the websites to ensure that they are not missing out on any information. Also, it might discourage them since there are too much resources provided. 

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Web resource 3: Foodtv

Coursework

Students can source for inspiration and ideas from their websites through the recipes provided. The website categorises their recipes, thus allowing students to easily navigate their way to find the desired recipe.

It also serves tips to cook certain dish or food through videos. This can help the students to visualise how the food will actually look like during the process of making it. Coursework questions require students to demonstrate certain aspect of food, such as demonstrate how different cooking method can be used on starches such as potatoes. Most of the time, students will use boiling as it is one of the most basic methods. So their final product will just be boiled potatoes. What the chef actually did was, he created mashed potatoes using the boiling method, thus making it slightly more interesting than just boiling it.

Note:

The website does not carry any nutrient information that can be used for the students in theory lessons.