With over 10 years spent being a food stylist and photographer, one tends to gather a lot of photos of the same subject. It’s fun to look back at all the different ways I’ve managed to style and photograph the same type of food - a soup, cookies, and bread, for example. And I find that sharing these photos is a good way to help spark ideas in others who feel stuck.
In my recent post Idea Generation: How to Brainstorm Ideas for Food and Product Photography, I shared that coming up with new ideas seems to be one of the biggest challenge many people face. (If you feel that way, be sure to read that post.)
This challenge is never greater than when you are tasked with styling and photographing multiple photos of a single subject at one time.
When I wrote and photographed my cookbook, Beer Bread, I was definitely feeling those creative blocks.
But it was also a lot of fun. The challenge lead to some ways of thinking that hadn’t come to me before.
These are some of my favorite five ways to photograph bread with photos from that book.
Inside the loaf.
No need to cut multiple slices. Just give us a peak inside that beautiful loaf.
Whole loaf in the pan.
A simple idea, that is often forgotten. Show the bread inside the pan and resist the need for a lot of propping around it. Use a surface you love and let the loaf shine all on its own.
Slices neatly stacked.
I love how these shots show the inside while also inviting you to reach over and grab a slice.
Slices scattered.
Give the photo the casual feel of a snack board and scatter the slices.
Whole loaf overhead.
When the bread is a pretty loaf, let it be. Give the scene some color and let the loaf stand on its own. Or…
Slices folded over.
A little bonus with a sixth idea, because this can really only be done with the right loaf. For large round loaves that allow for big, long slices that tend to flop over. Keep the slices tightly intact at the bottom and let them gently unfold out of the loaf.
