Food photography tips: Ingredients make great photo props. Take a look

1/23

Sure, you might be able to tell this is an apple strudel from the slices in the dish. But adding a colorful red apple -- against a vivid green background -- really reinforces the dish and helps to balance the composition.
Apple strudel recipe (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

2/23

This image was shot as a potential cover photo for a gazpacho story. Not only do the avocados quickly explain what is in the dish, but they also add texture to the overall shot.
Avocado gazpacho recipe (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

3/23

The beer bottle is a quick giveaway to the viewer that the recipe includes beer. (I also kind of like to think Old Rasputin is giving his blessing to the brittle here too.)
Beer brittle recipe. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

4/23

Another gazpacho image. Not only do the ingredients indicate what is in the recipe, they also add rich color.
Andalusian garden gazpacho recipe. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

5/23

That same gazpacho as a vertical shot.
Andalusian garden gazpacho recipe. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

6/23

Sliced nectarines quickly explain the pie without having to slice into it.
Nectarine almond crumble pie recipe. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

7/23

Another pie shot from the same story; the blueberries add a nice pattern at the top of the shot.
Blackberry pie recipe. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

8/23

Although cherimoya is the main ingredient in this recipe, kumquat zest plays a colorful part in the dish. The kumquats, slightly out of focus at the back of the image, help to explain the zest and add color.
Cherimoya semifreddo recipe. (Eric Boyd / Los Angeles Times)

9/23

A dramatic (soft focus, soft light) still life of some of the ingredients used in the dish.
Recipe: Potato pancakes with apple-onion jam and horseradish creme fraiche (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

10/23

Instead of filling the shot with plain bulgur, we decided to play up the pomegranate sauce, placing the bright fruit out of focus at the rear of the shot. Recipe: bulgur latkes with pomegranate sauce (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

11/23

Like the pomegranate in the previous shot, the lemons at the rear add bright color and give weight to the empty space at the back.
Recipe: Lazy Mary’s lemon tart (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

12/23

You can’t really tell what the vegetables are at the rear of the shot, but they help to fill up the empty space.
Autumn vegetable hash (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

13/23

A few hazelnuts add a playful touch to the composition and fill up empty space.
Hazelnut and sherry zabaglione recipe (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

14/23

This recipe uses fresh and candied ginger. A few pieces of candied ginger help to identify the ingredient for readers who may never have cooked with candied ginger before.
Recipe: Hans’ ginger scones (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

15/23

The brown sugar doesn’t do much to add color to this shot (we leave that to the colorful blue plates), but it does help to identify what makes this shortbread recipe unique.
Brown sugar shortbread recipe. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

16/23

A wedge of Parmesan helps to identify these beignets -- which are usually sweet -- as savory.
Cheese beignets recipe. (Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times)

17/23

If we went for a simple shot of grilled chicken, the viewer wouldn’t be able to appreciate all the flavors that make the marinade unique. Here we show a simple breakdown of one recipe from a story on marinades.
Thai coconut chicken recipe. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

18/23

Another photo from the same story on marinades; each recipe was photographed showing each of the ingredients to serve as an easy reference.
Mediterranean balsamic marinade recipe. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

19/23

For a story on New Mexico chiles, we wanted to feature the fresh chiles with each recipe. Here they add color and help with composition.
Recipe: Green chile, corn and zucchini frittata (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

20/23

We shot this tart in a variety of ways, both tight (where you see only a bit of the tart to show the flaky texture of the crust) and as a whole. For this whole shot, we needed something to fill the empty space and used whole strawberries.
Fresh berry tart recipe (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

21/23

Whole fresh strawberries provide a nice bright background to this photo of old-fashioned strawberry shortcake.
Old-fashioned strawberry shortcake recipe (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

22/23

From a story on grilled cheese variations, the blue cheese and pear in the background help to identify this particular sandwich.
Recipe: Grilled blue cheese and pear sandwich (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

23/23

Another recipe from the same grilled cheese story, the onions in the background may not be identifiable given the lack of focus, but they help to balance the shot and add weight to the background.
Recipe: Grilled Gruyere and marinated onion sandwich (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

By Noelle Carter

April 23, 2013 8:30 AM PT

You want to share a photo of that great new dish you just prepared, but the composition looks a little ... flat. How can you improve it? Consider adding ingredients to the shot.

In the food photos we shoot here at the Los Angeles Times, we frequently add ingredients from the recipe to liven up the image. Ingredients can lend color as well as weight when you’re composing the shot. And when you’re looking to explain a dish, ingredients are a no-brainer -- nothing tells the story more quickly than when some of the ingredients are propped alongside.

READER PHOTOS: Send us your food photos!

Check out the photo gallery above for a visual demonstration. The captions give additional details and links to the related story or recipe. I include photos from various Food stories for which ingredients help to make the shot successful. Continue reading below for additional tips.

Explain the dish: Nothing explains a recipe more quickly and easily than ingredients. Whether you’re shooting a pie or soup or anything in between, piling some of the ingredients into the shot gives the viewer an immediate sense of what’s in the dish.

In the shots above, for example, we illustrate how adding ingredients to the composition helps to immediately identify the flavor of a gazpacho and a covered pie. Or sliding a bottle of dark stout beer next to a bowl of brittle immediately explains the rich mahogany color of the brittle itself.

Add color: When you’re thinking about color for your finished dish, consider your ingredients list as a potential color palette. Bright yellow limes, ruby red pomegranate. Fresh herbs -- a bunch of deep green basil or silvery sage -- can work wonders for added color.

Sure, your apple strudel may be the best in the world, but shot alone it’s nothing more than a collection of tans and browns. Add a bright red apple (and perhaps a vivid green background) to lend a little color, as we did in one of our shots above.

PHOTOS: Using ingredients in the shot

Help with style and composition: As with color, ingredients can lend a hand with style and composition, adding weight to empty space in a shot, and even helping to train the viewer’s eye.

In the blueberry pie shot above, the spaced berries around the pie add an almost geometric pattern to the top of the shot. A handful of strawberries or hazelnuts fill empty space in a few of the shots, and a simple glass of gazpacho doesn’t look complete unless it’s surrounded by garden-fresh vegetables.

Perfect as props: When you’re looking to complete a composition and fill space, a recipe’s ingredients should always be a first thought. Because they are used in the dish, they’re typically a natural fit in most any shot.

This is part of a series of posts on food photography, sharing some of the tips and tricks we use here at The Times. We’ve received a number of great questions from readers, which we will answer in upcoming posts.

Questions or suggestions? Food photography challenge? Comment below or email Noelle Carter at noelle.carter@latimes.com.

ALSO:

Create food porn with texture

Great homemade pizza can happen at home

Food photography: Using background and props