Photographing Food by Award-Winning Chef
I had the opportunity to photograph an outdoor dinner event catered by Chef Tyler Anderson, award-winning chef. Tyler was nominated for the James Beard Best chef Northeast award for 6 years, and also was on the Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay TV shows!
Although I would have loved to photograph Chef Tyler at this event at the Hill-Stead Museum, the shoot plan didn’t allow for it…as I was to photograph guest & speaker candids. Plus Chef Tyler was also very busy cooking away in the mobile trailer! The event was a hit, with many guests enjoying music with their meals at sunset.
How to photograph food fast!
In some cases, food can’t be sitting too long, and shooting dishes without being styled is a quick thing. After I finished photographing the candids needed by Hill-Stead Museum, I setup my strip box, which is a long, narrow softbox. I put it next to a small table where they’d put my food. The strip box offers nice, smooth directional light on my plate, and also adds a nice highlight down the wine glass, giving it a slick appearance.
Exposing for the sunlight, and then adding extra light from a strip box, creates a nice lighting situation where I can just pop dishes in quickly and shoot.
Because the setting for these photos was quite large (being outdoors, too), I was able to create different “looks” by shooting in different angles.

