Top tips on everything foodie Shoot your food - photograph your Cookalong

Date Published:

18/01/2008

Getting ready for the big night? Record your Cookalong for posterity by photographing your dinner party. Channel 4's Picture Editor takes you through the steps to taking the perfect shot

Hello, I’m Andrew, the Picture Editor for Channel 4. We’d really like to see your images of the night - add them to our Flickr group. Gordon’s going to teach you how to make a great three-course dinner, and by following these tips, your food will look fantastic on the screen as well as on the plate.

A lot of food photography involves 'food styling', where each item is carefully placed and lit under large studio lights. That’s fine for glossy books and magazines, but the chances are you’ve not got that sort of set-up at home. Besides – you’ve got a three-course meal to cook!

Pictures of plates of food are OK, but it’s often people that bring an event to life. You wouldn’t throw a birthday party and only photograph the cake, would you? Focus instead on telling the story of the evening through pictures. Did your guest enjoy themselves? Did your partner help set the table? Who did the washing up? We’d be really interested in seeing the whole process from start to finish. So as well as following Gordon’s advice, take mine and put your camera on to charge.

Handy tips

1. Fill the frame. If you’re using any standard digital compact camera, it probably has a ‘macro setting’ indicated by a flower. Turn this mode on.

2. Don’t just shoot the finished dishes. Try to show the preparation and raw ingredients as well as the cooking process. We want to see you buying, preparing, cooking and enjoying your creations along with your friends.

3. Try taking photos from different angles rather than just straight-on or at eye height. Think of the camera as an extension of your hand rather than your eye. With auto focus on, you can pretty much stick it anywhere.

4. As it’ll be dark when Gordon’s Cookalong takes place, turn your kitchen lights on or maybe bring a desk light to help illuminate your work surface.

5. Don’t ask someone to look at the camera and smile. Candid photos are so much more interesting than posed ones.

Finally, have fun and enjoy yourself. If it’s too much to cook and photograph things as well, get one of your hungry guests to earn their supper and give them the camera!