So, I thought I would share a little bit of a tip I learned while making this beautiful dish before heading into the technicalities of photography. French Onion Soup is super delicious but it’s definitely not your typical hurry things up kind of dish. If you’re not willing to stand at the stove top for at least 2 hours, then I’m sorry to say you’re better off just ordering it from a restaurant. I hadn’t realized how long it takes onions to caramelize. It for sure wasn’t the 30 minutes that the recipe claimed. If you really want the onions to turned a nice golden brown (without burning mind you), then get ready to stand for…wait for it…3 hours. Yes, it took 3 hours to make this soup. I probably won’t be making it again for some time but boy was it tasty. Anyways, now onto the actual point of this post.
I’m a photographer striving to become a professional. In order to achieve that, I practice as much as I can. Since Covid-19 has put a few gigs on pause, I’ve shifted to food photography. This is one shot in particular that I’m very pleased with. It helped that my parents had those special ramekins lying around the house. They have the perfect aesthetic. As you could probably tell from my earlier photos, they all lack those little details that really make the picture pop. It was because I focused solely on the object at hand but completely forgot to actually STYLE the setup. Styling and taking the photos go hand in hand. You could have the camera settings down and have all of the equipment but if your aesthetic is lacking, people won’t be so eager to eat whatever you’re trying to photograph.
So one tip is to add ingredients that you used in the cooking process. In this photo, I used Thyme which is a common herb used in this soup. Just sprinkle a few pieces and you have some subtle accents. I did the same thing with the baguette (another important component) and just placed it to make the picture look less empty. So if you’re trying to make pictures look less flat and are trying to give more dimension, play around with textures. You never know what you’ll come up with.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading my blurb if you made it this far. I’ll make more again soon but for now, go take some nice photos!