This week I am kicking off another photography series like I did last year with a number of guest posts from bloggers, photographers and stylists all sharing their best tips and tricks on creating beautiful images. Today please welcome my very good friend and fellow food photography lover Naomi Robinson of Bakers Royale who is going to share her secrets to sourcing great props for food photography.
I’m so excited to be guest posting here at Gourmande in the Kitchen. Sylvie's blog is one of my favorite food blogs for many reasons - one of them being Sylvie's incredible photos.
Given the professional grade photography on Gourmande in the Kitchen, let’s start this off right; I'm a beginner when it comes to photography. So I'm not here to talk about any technical aspects of picture taking. I'm here to talk about the one thing I have managed to do well, despite my protesting wallet - food prop sourcing.
Since I get quite a few questions about my backgrounds and my props, Sylvie and I thought it might be helpful to share with you where and how I find them. My top shopping destinations are eBay and Etsy. I can't say I like one better than the other, nor can I say one is less expensive than the other. What I can say and recommend is checking both sites when sourcing something.
To simplify things I'm going to display photos with the props I'm most often asked questions about. I've included where they were purchased along with the search words I used to find them. Finding the right search words is the difference between having a just few or a lot of pages returned to you for browsing. Now my style is primarily rustic so the words most often used to describe that category, outside of vintage and antique, are primitive and chippy or chippy paint.
Search words: chippy paint bench, farm bench, shabby chic bench (*Note: Make sure to check the size)
Plates: Wilton Armetale RWP | Purchased: Ebay | Search words: pewter plates, Wilton RWP, Wilton Armetale. (Note: While the plates look like, and are often tagged with pewter, they are actually aluminum. Although you can find knockoffs Armetale knock-offs that maybe pewter and not aluminum.
Flatware: Random pieces | Purchased: Ebay | Search words: vintage flatware, antique silverware
Plate: Enamel pie pan | Purchased: Etsy | Search words: enamel pie pan, enamelware
Fabric: Dishtowel | Purchased: Muhs Home
Platter: Brass platter | Search words: brass platter
- Canvas
- Sabre
- Gilt
- Serena & Lily
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One Kings Lane
Naomi Robinson is a self taught baker and the author of the blog Bakers Royale. She’s armed with an abundant reserve of passion and determination for baking and creating. You can find her on Twitter @BakersRoyale and on Facebook Be sure to read the full Summer Food Photography Series:
Styling for Food Photography with Chantelle Grady | Summer Food Photography Series Part Two
Food Videography with Russell van Kraayenburg | Summer Food Photography Series Part Five
Q&A with Food Photographer Jim Scherer | Summer Food Photography Series Part Six
Sylvie Shirazi is the recipe developer and food photographer behind Gourmande in the Kitchen. For the last 10 years she's been making eating more healthfully easy and accessible with gluten-free, grain-free, paleo and vegan recipes that are free from processed ingredients.
sabina says
where have you bought the acrylic spoons?
Scott Lamoreaux says
I love these ideas and have started using a few of them in my food photoshoots. Great work and very informative!
Kathy says
Thank you so much for sharing this information. Very much needed. And, as I actually own some of these types of the items that you listed!
KK says
I love this post - thanks so much!
Joshua @ Slim Palate says
Oh this post is perfect. It has all of the info I need for styling my shots. I love your photography and your photos are stunning and pure genius and you're one of my inspirations to start doing food photography. I'm just now getting into photography and food photography. In fact I just got my brand new camera in the mail last night! It's my very first DSLR camera and I'm so excited. I'm only 16 so I'm not a professional, but I got a Canon EOS Rebel T3 and so far it's a gorgeous camera. I haven't had the chance to take any pictures with it yet but I plan to soon. I will be looking over your posts about photography when I need help. Looking forward to more posts about photography from you