“Instant Inspirations” is my series for you if you look for something to overcome “Photographer’s Block” or simply want to shoot something that you have never tried, or at least not recently. Episode 25 is about shooting some quick “foodporn” with your iPhone. For some how-to, my workflow and more of my iPhone Sushi photographs continue after the jump…
Sometimes there is not much opportunity for real photography. Like for me this past week in Portland. I didn’t even bother to bring a camera (not true, I had the Ricoh GR II in my bag, but didn’t use it in the end). Endless meetings the whole week. But there is always the itch to get something creative done, like an internal pressure that needs to be released. The opportunity came last Tuesday evening, when two friends took me into Portland to eat some Sushi.
We sat outside on a beautiful, warm summer evening. When I saw all those beautiful (and even more delicious) Sushi dishes, I loved the creative way they were arranged on the plate. And I just had to take some photos. The only camera I had with me was the one of my iPhone 8plus. So I snapped away. I am by no means a food photographer, very rarely shoot what’s on my plate. But I tried to get close to the Sushi pieces, working with limited depth of field, and paying attention to clean compositions.
I also played with angles, as nothing is more boring than shooting straight down at the plates.
I have Lightroom CC on my iPhone set up in a way, that it automatically imports new photos into the app. There, they sync directly to the Adobe cloud. And when I open my iPad Pro 12.9, they already wait for me in the iPad version of Lightroom CC. As I wrote in this post, Lightroom CC has the possibility importing user defined presets from the desktop version (Lightroom CC classic) and syncing across all mobile Lightroom clients.
So on my iPad I applied my favorite color preset to the Sushi photos, used a healing brush to remove stray food and stains from plates and table (you can also say, I did some dish washing), and cropped a bit where it helped the composition, also adding a vignette here and there.
After finishing the post processing, I exported the images back to camera roll, from there I uploaded to the WordPress App and started writing this post. So a totally complete mobile process, from taking the photo to post processing to blogging and publishing.
I hope you feel a bit inspired to try your hand at some foodporn / food photography. I’m sure you are in front of some nice dishes this weekend, and don’t be afraid to use your phone for shooting. It doesn’t always have to be a camera.
Make sure to regularly check out my free Learning Center for all of my tips and many more inspirations around photography.
I wish you a great weekend!
Marcus
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Not only was this a delicious post, I learned something new! lol Thanks for this!
Thanks, so glad you found the post useful! Marcus
The second pic with avocados made me reach through the screen. thanks for sharing this adventure!
Glad you like it – thanks for commenting! Marcus
This is very interesting and brings a new perspective to food photography. I generally just ‘snap’ dishes if I feel the need to, but actually creating something (other than the food I’ve just cooked, or am eating) is a new thing I must try. Thanks again for the inspiration 🙂
Your are welcome, Jill, and thanks for your kind words! Marcus
Thanks for linking and your kind words! Marcus
Thanks for an interesting read! It had me thinking about investing in Lightroom CC. Then I wondered whose cloud storage to go with (Google Photos, Apple, Adobe). Another stream of thought and I was searching online for portable light studios, etc. And then circled back to your post to go over what you had done 🙂 Love your photos and your explanations!
Thanks, Cindy, this is so much appreciated! With the Adobe Creative Cloud for photographers plan (about 10 bucks per month) you get Lightroom, Photoshop and 20 Gigs of Cloud Space. I store most of my images in a local Lightroom catalogue, then sync to the cloud what I want to show on my mobile clients or want to work on remotely. It sounds more difficult as it is 🙂 I do have one or the other posts about mobile lighting, search for „Studio Anywhere“ (by the way an awesome book on the subject)…Marcus
https://secrettasted.wordpress.com/2018/07/24/vegetable-toast/ Follow her..! She is just awesome
Many thanks for another very helpful, interesting and informative post. Have a great day.
Thanks, Goff, your feedback means a lot! Marcus
I keep clicking lots of food pictures but I don’t make much of blog post. I like the term dish washing
Thanks, Arv! Happy Sunday to you! Marcus
Have a great week ahead, Marcus!
What a good idea Marcus, from the side. We are going out for a nice meal tonight, so will have a go 🙂 Have a great Sunday 🙂 Lynne
Thanks, Lynne, glad you find it inspirational. Happy Sunday to you too! Marcus
🙂
Both the sushi and you photos are amazing Marcus. Next time I’m eating a nice meal I will take your advice and photograph it from an angle and not from above. Thanks for your welcome advice and hope you are having a nice weekend. Marion.
Glad you found it helpful, Marion, appreciate your kind words! Wish you a happy weekend yourself! Marcus
I happened to be hungry when consuming this blog. Now I am véry hungry . 🙂
Sorry for making you hungry, Peter 😉 ! Happy Sunday! Marcus
Very tasty, and interesting workflow! Well done 👍
Thanks, so much appreciated! Marcus
It all looks very good!
Thanks, Hien, as always very much appreciated! Marcus
Lovely photos of food this week. I also took a lot of food photos and haven’t figured out how to incorporate them into my blog but I will.
Thanks, Carol, looking forward seeing yours! Have a splendid weekend! Marcus