Tips for Spring Egg Photos

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A few years ago I tried naturally dying eggs and I had such great luck with using three methods - black rice, purple cabbage, and red beets. A couple years later, I tried again, varying the length of time I let them sit in the liquid. 

The deep colors led to some fun photos so I thought I’d break down a few ideas for photographing eggs for spring. Whether you dye Easter eggs or you want to capture the beauty of all those colorful farmstead eggs, these are a few of my ideas. 

Add natural elements. 

In these first two photos, I used this piece of driftwood that I found years ago on a hike. Well, that’s not true. I didn’t find it, my husband did. And he said - you could use this in a photo. He knows me well. 

I went much darker and moodier in this third photo because this was the year I let the eggs sit in that black rice liquid for a few days to see how dark it could get. I coordinated the colors with the scarf and plate and added dried flowers and greenery. 

Find fun egg cartons. 

I bought this 6-pack egg carton at the farmers market for the carton itself. I have used it in so many photos thanks to its natural color and that its size keeps the eggs from overwhelming other subjects in the photo. 

The octagon egg carton I found on Etsy a few years ago and had to order them. They are still available and actually on sale right now.

Add interest to the shot. 

The two ways I love adding more interest to egg photos are with the table I photograph them on and capturing some of the floor below. The first photo is a small white table set on top of a plank wood surface that acts as the floor. In the second, I’m using a white wood stool over vinyl surface on the floor. It’s the same vinyl surface you see in the octagon carton photo. Oh, and baskets are always fun for eggs. 

Play with the ombré.

Whether you buy eggs or you dye them, you can take advantage of their colors and arrange them in shades for the shot. These brown eggs were purchased at the farmers market. I bought a few dozen so I’d have several shades to choose from. 

You could also pick one natural dye and leave the eggs in for varying times, 4 hours, 12 hours, and 24 hours, to get light and deep shades to work with. 

Here’s that post from my old food blog with my method for naturally dying eggs if you want to try it. Let me know if you do!

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Creating Sense of Place with Food Photography

Just about 2 ½ years ago I decided to rent a studio space outside my home. This was after nearly 10 years of creating my photos for clients in everything from corners of apartments to landings on the stairs to home offices. 

Today, I write this having just made the opposite move. 

This past weekend we moved into a new home, one we purchased with the intent of me moving my work back home. I decided to terminate my lease a few months early, as of the end of this month. 

The new studio space. A guest bedroom in our house.

I wrote about it on my Substack, From Every Corner of the World, with details about my experience with having a studio. The post is there if you’d like to read it. 

There were pros and cons of doing my creative work outside my home and I’m in that expected state of reflection. As I took a quick photo of my breakfast yesterday morning, I realized one thing I started to do rather unexpectedly was embrace the background in my photos. 

While it was having the space the studio granted me that prompted me to do this, I was unintentionally applying this to much more of my work in other places, proving that I didn’t really need space to accomplish it.

Embracing the background changes your photos. 

I love tabletop shots, but by catching a corner of your surface or a sliver of window, a photo tends to come alive. Environment evokes a whole new mood for an image and allows viewers to see themselves there. It creates a connection. 

Backgrounds don’t have to be beautiful. 

We create barriers when it comes to capturing more of our environment in a photo. I did for a long time. But backgrounds don’t have to be styled or beautiful. 

Using a shallow depth of field created by a wide aperture keeps a not-so-appealing background blurred. This photo I took this morning used f 3.2.

That quick shot of my breakfast this week that prompted this whole post.

A plain white wall, or a surface taped to the wall or board propped up behind the scene like the photos below works well, too. 

On the left, a mimosa photographed for the California Pomegranate Council. On the right, a photo for the article I wrote on creating a basic formula for salad dressings last year in Hobby Farm Magazine.

Keeping the background dark and showing the edge of your surface is another method. Drape anything in the background with a dark blanket or darken the background in Lightroom in post-production. 

On the left, a quick creative shot for myself after buying cherries at the farmers market. On the right, an autumn scene I set up in my old studio.

Move yourself to capture just the right angle of the set so that the hero is the focus and any clutter around the set is cut out. It allows you to still get a sense of the full scene where the event or action is taking place.

Both photos for my Farm Fresh Photos stock photography membership, taken in my old studio.

Pushing your boards or a table up against an open window creates interest as well. 

Both creative work for myself. The pie taken at home previous home studio. The pasta at my old rental studio.

Do you struggle with capturing more of your environment? Let me know.

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We talked all about Prop Selection inside Club CreatingYOU.® in February, from choosing props to selecting colors. March’s topic will be announced soon. Come join us!

Club CreatingYOU.® is a community exclusively for solo creative stylist-photographers who want to grow their skills for capturing food, drink, and its origins while cultivating a distinct style. It’s always open to new members. 

Food Styling Tips for Pizza

Pizza. Flat. Round. Sometimes oblong. Sometimes colorful. Often little dimension. 

I love pizza in every form that I’ve encountered around the world, but the truth is, I’m not the biggest fan of styling pizza or photographing it. 

That doesn’t change the fact that my clients have me create and photograph pizza and flatbreads. I have also created it for my own cookbooks. Like it or not, I’ve had to develop some skills and styling tips for pizza throughout the years.

These are a few quick tips to help you style pizza and flatbreads. Some to think about before it hits the set and others to help it be its stunning self as you pick up the camera. 

Think about your garnishes before you take it to set. 

Sometimes when we look at pizzas we know there are so many good things tucked inside, but to the eye, it just looks like cheese. Think about what colors and textures you can add to the top to break up the monotony and make the subject sing for the camera. Fresh herbs, crushed red pepper, crumbled or shaved cheeses, cracked black pepper, flake sea salt, and ground nuts are a few ideas.

Pull a piece out.

Add some action and space between the sea of ingredients by moving some slices around on set. 

Overhead is nice, but don’t forget about 45-degree angles.

Overhead is often my go-to for pizza, but when it is piled with toppings for texture, an angled shot may turn out the be the winner. 

Elevate with boards. 

Pizza is most often flat. Give some distance between the whole pie or individual slices and the backdrop or surface. 

Add something to support the star. 

Pizza and beer are classic. But it might be wine. A bowl of crushed red pepper or a pizza cutter. When the pizza itself doesn’t have a lot going on for it, something added tightly in the scene can help complete the image.

Blacklight loves pizza.

Especially simple flatbreads where there is a lot of space that the light can catch. 

Change the set.

If your pizza is baked in an interesting spot - Outside, in a brick oven or on a grill - capture some of that scene. It’s so much more interesting than a pizza on a board.

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Club CreatingYOU.® is a community exclusively for solo creative stylist-photographers who want to grow their skills for capturing food, drink, and its origins while cultivating a distinct style. It’s always open to new members. This month we’re covering surfaces as they relate to style in our training and photo breakdown. The supporting podcast comes out next week where we’re talking about that elusive style and if you need to try so hard to find it, based on the work you hope to do. Hosted on Substack by me, Lori Rice.