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
-
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.
najwa kronfel says
Very helpful tips! Thank you so much for sharing!
Kiran @ KiranTarun.com says
One of many reasons why I love our blogging community!! Thanks for sharing, Naomi. Love your styling and unique finds 🙂
And thanks for featuring this fab post, Sylvie 🙂
Ashley says
Such a great post! I haven't really done much searching online, so this gave me a lot of ideas. Naomi - you are no "beginner" photographer. 🙂
RavieNomNoms says
Wow what a great post! I love all the props!
Maria says
Oh wow... This is very dangerous information. I just love it! Thanks for sharing!
Deeba Rajpal (@vindee) says
Fabulous! I love all these props and the passion she's collected them with! A lady after my heart!
dassana says
thanks to naomi and you for such a splendid post. i remember once searching on a site for wooden rustic boards and i just could not get the correct search results. i am going to come back to this post again when i have to buy props online.
i think there is an error in the keywords mentioned below - White and patterned plates: Home Goods Store
they are the same words mentioned below - Pie pans: eBay
to sum it - "the words Pie pans: eBay
Search words: Vintage pie tins, vintage pie pans" are repeated.
Russell at Chasing Delicious says
Such a helpful post! I want to go shopping now!
Sam @ My Carolina Kitchen says
Exceptional post filled with fabulous ideas. Thank you so much. And thank you Naomi for your generosity in sharing your ideas and sources. This is like taking sharing recipes to a whole new level.
Sam