Episode 591: 7 Common Food Photography Mistakes and How to Avoid Them with Alexandra Shytsman

EBT591 – Alexandra Shytsman

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Intro 00:10

Food bloggers. Hi, how are you today? Thank you so much for tuning in to the Eat Blog Talk podcast. This is the place for food bloggers to get information and inspiration to accelerate your blog’s growth, and ultimately help you to achieve your freedom. Whether that’s financial, personal, or professional. I’m Megan Porta. I have been a food blogger for 13 years, so I understand how isolating food blogging can be. I’m on a mission to motivate, inspire, and most importantly, let each and every food blogger, including you, know that you are heard and supported. 

Megan Porta  00:53

This episode is packed with photography tips all across the board. So whether you’re a brand new photographer or you’re a veteran blogger and photographer, you are going to find value in this episode. Alex Shytsman from The New Baguette, talks about seven photography mistakes to avoid. She talks through lighting, camera angles, food styling, prop styling and a handful of other things that you should keep at the top of your mind, to avoid, to make your photos look more enticing and just more appetizing. As someone who has been taking food photos for a really long time, 14 years now, I pulled out a few tips from here that I wasn’t anticipating. So I think no matter where you are on the spectrum, you are going to pull out some great tips as well. This is episode number 591 sponsored by RankIQ. 

Sponsor  01:46

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Megan Porta  03:17

Alexandra Shytsman is a recipe developer, food photographer, and creator of The New Baguette, a plant-based recipe site. Her mission is to inspire people to cook healthier plant-centered meals at home. She is the author of Friendsgiving, co-author of The Complete Vegan Cookbook, and contributes to sites like Simply Recipes and EatingWell. She has also been teaching in-person food photography classes (in groups and one-on-one) since 2018. Originally from Ukraine, Alex moved to New York City at a young age and has lived there ever since. Welcome to the podcast, Alex, how is it going today?

Alexandra Shytsman  03:53

It’s going great. Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Megan Porta  03:57

Same I love this topic, because we can all benefit from just hearing about ways to improve our food photography and mistakes to avoid are always good to hear too. So excited to get into it. But before we do that, do you have a fun fact to share?

Alexandra Shytsman  04:12

Sure? One fun fact is that I really love to dance, and I started dancing only as an adult, and I started out with salsa dancing, and I’ve since, you know, tried a couple of other styles. And, yeah, I just think it’s super fun to, first of all, it’s super fun to do something for me that’s like, not work related at all, you know, because my work is, like, my number one passion is food, and now my work is food, and it’s like, I need to do something that is like, you know, not competitive doesn’t really the outcome doesn’t matter, you know, it’s just like something fun, and it’s also a fun way to exercise that doesn’t feel like working out, you know. So I really, really enjoyed that. And I think also, like, there’s this misconception that people who dance like need to start out as children, you know, but you can start dancing at any time, and even if you’re very bad, it doesn’t matter, because it’s all about just having fun and letting go. And dancing is like, I feel like something that comes from the soul, and we can all do that, you know. And I’m not the best dancer ever, but I still have a really good time. So if you’re also someone who’s always wanted to dance, I really encourage anyone listening to give it a try.

Megan Porta  05:25

Oh, I love that. I think dancing is fine, but I feel like I’m so terrible, so I have to let my guard down a little bit and just maybe just allow myself to be bad for a while until I learn it exactly.

Alexandra Shytsman  05:36

Yeah, it’s so good to just like, push yourself to be uncomfortable, get out of your comfort zone, and yeah, it’s all about having fun, and the people on the dance floor who look the best are always the people who are having the most fun, right? It’s not the best, like technical dancers.

Megan Porta  05:51

Right? And that applies to, I feel like everything in life, not just dancing, but the people who are having the most fun look the best to the rest of us.

Alexandra Shytsman  06:00

Yeah, exactly.

Megan Porta  06:01

All right. Well, super exciting to hear that about you, Alex, and to learn that. And I’m very excited to learn from you as far as food photography, and it sounds like you have some mistakes that you’ve been able to avoid. So to frame this, do you mind giving us just a little bit of a background about your blog? 

Megan Porta  06:20

Of course, yeah. So my blog is called the new baguette, and my mission is to demystify plant based cooking and just inspire people to eat more plants. I’ve been blogging for actually, an extremely long time, like since before Instagram, if you can believe it. But of course, like my blogging journey has evolved so much in that time. So I’ve really been doing it, like, seriously, you know, for the past five years or so, and, like, monetizing it and stuff. But yeah, and apart from from The New Baguette, which can be found online on thenewbaguette.com and on Instagram, also @thenewbaguette, I also contribute to some other food sites, and I also do some freelance food photography work for like cookbooks and stuff. And I also teach one on one food photography classes. So I kind of, you know, do a lot of things.

Megan Porta  07:12

So you’ve been blogging for a while. How long have you really been into food photography? I know we all have to do it because we’re food bloggers, but yeah, has it been an interest all along? Tell us about that.

Alexandra Shytsman  07:27

Yeah, for sure. So I’ve actually been into photography for a really long time as well. It’s like, I’m, you know, interested in both both of those aspects of food blogging, the writing and the photography. I actually even took some, like, photography classes in high school. So that was, like, my very, very beginning. But I’ve been, you know, shooting with a professional camera for like, I guess, close to 10 years. So when I started blogging, like, I was already into the photography aspect as well. 

Megan Porta  07:57

Okay, yeah. I mean, eventually we all have to get into it, whether we like it or not. Some people like it more than others. So you have learned some food photography, things along the way because of mistakes maybe you may you have made, or something, things that we’ve all made. So you have some mistakes to avoid that you want to share with us. Do you want to start talking through those? 

Alexandra Shytsman  08:21

Yeah, for sure. So I actually, I mean, obviously when, when I was first starting out, I was also making all of these mistakes, and obviously that’s how we learn. So that’s totally okay if you’re making some or all of these right now as well. But like I mentioned, I also teach food photography classes. I teach one on one so, and I’ve been doing that for about seven years now. So a lot of these mistakes I notice, you know, from former students. So pretty much every person, every new beginning photographer that I need, pretty much everybody does this. So I’ll just jump right into the first mistake, which is using terrible lighting. I know that this is like so universal, and when I look back at my first photos, the lighting was certainly awful. And the number one problem is that people tend to use, like their overhead kitchen light when they first start out. And we never want to use, you know, the lights that are like built into our home. Basically, if you’re going to be using any artificial light for food photography, you should be using a, you know, photography specific equipment, and not the lights that are coming down from your ceiling. So a couple of problems with that are that, first of all, you never want to light your food from the top. It’s a really unflattering angle from with which to light your food. So that’s the first problem with using overhead light. And the second problem is that the color is off right? So a lot of the time the lighting in our house is too green to yellow to blue, so it kind of warps the colors of the food. Food, and we want our food to look, you know, the way it does in real life. So the best way to light your food is, of course, with natural light. So the light that’s coming in through the window and also placing your food next to the window is the best way to light a plate of food. So it’s not like going outside through your backyard, where, you know, there’s also, like, too much light going on, and it’s also bouncing off of everyone. So the best way to photograph is next to a window, or, if that’s not an option for you, exploring some artificial lighting options. 

Megan Porta  10:35

Yeah, I for the longest time, I was like, my kitchen light is fine. It’s overhead, but it turned out so yellow, and the shadows it created just made the food look disgusting. But it did take me a while to learn that the side and back lighting.

Alexandra Shytsman  10:49

Exactly yes. So are you using window light or artificial light now? 

Megan Porta  10:53

I use natural lighting. I used artificial lighting for a little bit way long ago, but I don’t know, I just so sporadically take photos anymore that I just use natural lighting.

Alexandra Shytsman  11:06

I got you, yeah, yeah, yeah. That definitely makes sense if you’re not shooting all the time. But actually, for people who are shooting, you know, at least once a week, having an artificial lighting setup can really change the game for you, because that kind of light is always consistent. It means you have to do a lot less editing later, and you don’t have to depend on the time of day, right? So you can shoot at midnight if you want to, and you’ll always have the same exact light. So it’s really a game changer. There is a bit of a learning curve, obviously, to learn artificial light, but it’s really like it just really takes away so much of the worry.

Megan Porta  11:43

Yeah, I feel like lighting is supremely important. With photography, if you don’t nail lighting, you can, yeah, your photos just suffer so greatly. So that is, like, I love that it’s point number one, because I do think it’s very, very important.

Alexandra Shytsman  11:58

Yeah, for sure. Well, the word photo means light. So everything that has to do with photography is so largely dependent on light, and how much light, you know, gets into the camera and into every the way every photo is lit. So yeah, that’s super important. And then also, one really important tip is that if you are using window light, so if you’re shooting your food next to a window during the day, you have to make sure to turn off all the other lights in the room. So even if you have like the let’s say you’re shooting in the kitchen, but then your living room, which is the room next door, you know that light is on, you should also turn off that light. And that’s because all light has different colors, you know, so the light coming through the window will have a different light quality than the light coming from the living room, and you do not want to use two colors of light in the same photo, so always turn off the lights in the room. And also, something that happens, and I see this all the time in photos, is that when people don’t turn off their ceiling lights when they’re shooting with their window light. You can see the glare from the overhead lighting and the plates are in the food that is not flattering. And also, you would be potentially, like, eliminating some of those really sexy shadows coming in, you know, with the window light. So you don’t want to do that. So turn off the lights. 

Megan Porta  13:21

Yes, I remember that I’d be like, What is this yellow spot in the spoon? And it took me a while to learn that as well. Yes, very important points. Okay, what is your number two mistake to avoid?

Alexandra Shytsman  13:33

So the second mistake is tilting the camera. So what I mean here is, instead of keeping the horizon of the photo straight. You tilt the camera and like the food is, you know, looks like as if you would tilt your head to look at a plate of food, right? We don’t look at food like that in real life, and the horizon should always be straight. So no matter if you’re shooting from overhead or if you’re shooting a three quarter angle, always avoid tilting the camera. And if there is a bit of a tilt in your final photo, you can always correct that in Lightroom or Photoshop or whatever you use after but yeah, just keep the horizon straight. There’s actually a name for the tilted camera look, and it is called the Dutch angle. And this is a technique used in filmmaking. And so sometimes, like next time you watch a dramatic movie or a show, pay attention to the angles that the camera was using, because if the angle of the camera was tilted, and you’re seeing a tilted angle, it kind of will make you feel a little bit uncomfortable, as if something bad is about to happen, or something, you know, you should be on guard. And actually, right before we got on our call, I Googled Dutch angle, and the Google page that came up was tilted like Google, weird. It’s so funny. You should do it like everyone listening should do it. It’s very funny. So you’ll see exactly what I mean. The actual search results will be angled. It’s very weird and kind of funny. 

Megan Porta  15:04

Oh, I remember back in the day, when I very first started blogging, people would experiment with this and like, do the weird angle. And I always felt like the plate was like, sliding off of a hill or something. And you’re right, it does make you feel a little bit uncomfortable. Like, wait, what’s happening? Like you almost have to grip your your armchair, the arms of your chair, or something, like you’re gonna start sliding off

Alexandra Shytsman  15:27

Exactly. It looks like the plate is falling off the table. I always think that too.

Megan Porta  15:33

That’s a funny but it’s good to keep that in mind, because, like you said earlier, you don’t look at food that way. You don’t tilt your head when you’re looking at your plate of food. That’s not natural. Exactly, look at it directly.

Alexandra Shytsman  15:44

exactly, yeah. And you know, I used to do this for sure when I first started, too, so it’s okay, but this is actually an easy, a really easy one to fix, right? 

Megan Porta  15:54

Yeah, exactly, just being aware of it, yeah. And then, do you like to do you, first of all, do you use a tripod?

Alexandra Shytsman  16:01

I do use a tripod for about 80% of my shots, especially if I’m shooting, like, a bunch of overhead shots, like back to back to back. And then if sometimes, you know, if I want to, like, experiment with some other angles, I’ll shoot freehand. But yeah, for the most part, I do use a tripod.

Megan Porta  16:20

And then, yeah, with a tripod, you can do kind of set your angles so that you’re not doing anything weird or crazy.

Alexandra Shytsman  16:27

Exactly. And there’s actually a really great little tool that you can buy at any photo store or on Amazon. It’s like $10 it’s called a hot shoe level. So it’s literally a tiny little, like one inch cube that’s a little level that you place on top of your camera, and it will help you level your camera so you’re always straight with the horizon. And I’m happy to put that in the show notes.

Megan Porta  16:52

Yeah, that’d be great. All right, what is your next tip or mistake?

Alexandra Shytsman  16:56

Yeah, so the third mistake I see everybody making, myself included, 10 years ago is zooming in too close to the food. So if you look at any like vintage blog photos from 10-15, years ago, everybody used to do this. People would zoom in so close on that salad or that piece of cake or grilled cheese or whatever, to the point where, like, the whole photo basically was taken up with that super close up shot, that super close up food, where we see absolutely no context. So while there is, like, you know, a way to sort of master this where, you know, the whole frame will be pretty much filled with food, it does take a bit of planning and, you know, photography mastery, to make that look good. But in general, my advice is to zoom out a little bit at least show the entirety of the plate, because we do want to see a little bit of context, right? You don’t just want to see like, you know, I don’t know, like, three leaves of lettuce, right? And that Caesar salad. You want to see the whole bowl and maybe, like some some other things that are around it.

Megan Porta  18:06

Yeah, you’re right back in the day when Pinterest was first coming onto the scene. I remember so many super, super close up shots. That was the trend back then. It was definitely the way food blogging started, I think. 

Alexandra Shytsman  18:22

Absolutely, yeah. And you know, back in the day when, you know, obviously, like, our phones didn’t have these great cameras, people were just like, in general, worse at taking photos, because we weren’t taking photos all the time. And we also, like, weren’t seeing food photos as much as we do today. So we kind of, like, didn’t really have an understanding of what this medium even is or can be. So we definitely, like, I feel like the first three things I said, like, if I look at all of my old photos, or any of those OG blog photos, like they’re they all have these three things, terrible lighting, tilted angle and zooming in too close. Like, that’s like, the hallmark of that photo.

Megan Porta  19:00

Oh my gosh, that’s so true. And if you do back up just a little bit, you can always zoom in if you want to, for like a Pinterest shot or something. So yeah, I think to err on the side of caution, just maybe take a few steps back and show a little bit more of the scene.

Alexandra Shytsman  19:18

Yeah, exactly. And even if there is nothing else in the scene other than one plate of food, like, let’s say you just have one grilled cheese sandwich on one white plate, and that is literally your entire scene. That’s okay, because if you zoom out and show more of the edge of the plate, you know, you create some negative space around that plate, and that frames the photo really nicely, and gives it a little bit more breathing room and a little bit more, yeah, just it makes it a little bit more comfortable to look at, right? So we want to see the whole thing, yeah, as opposed to just like a few crumbs.

Megan Porta  19:52

Yeah, I am a graphic designer also, and I’ve found over the years that people are terrified of that white space, or, like, blank space, just freaks people out. It’s so funny. It’s like, No, you have to be comfortable with just a little bit of nothing around the edges. Sometimes it’s, yeah, it just is easy on the eyes, but it feels weird somehow to a lot of people.

Alexandra Shytsman  20:17

For sure, that’s such a good point. I think, yeah, people are uncomfortable with that empty space. I think also, if we go, like, really, back to photography 101, and think about the rule of thirds, you know, where you divide the canvas into three sections. So if your subject is, you know, let’s say in the right hand quadrant, then, like, having some negative space on the opposite side will actually balance it nicely. So, yeah, having some empty space is definitely totally okay. And also, like, one good way to get comfortable with negative space is just to look at a lot of other people’s photographs and analyze like, what’s going on in those photos. And you’ll notice that a lot of those photos have a lot of empty space, and it looks totally fine. It looks great.

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Alexandra Shytsman  22:39

As another mistake, actually, that I see you know in this similar topic is that when people do zoom out more and they do have that empty space, a lot of beginner photographers have this instinct to, like, fill that space with stuff that is completely unnecessary, for example, like a bunch of berries that are just simply hanging out on that white tablecloth, right? Or, let’s say you’re photographing a lentil soup, then you’ll take some dry lentils and you’ll toss them around the tablecloth, right? We never see this in real life. Okay? So this is really unnatural. So if you’ve just made a lentil soup and sat down to eat it, right? Which is like what you’re trying to convey with a photo of lentil soup, you would never have just dry lentil scattered around the table, right? So always think about what would actually be natural for this scenario. Maybe if you had bowl of lentil soup in front of you, you would have a little side plate with like, some bread on it, or maybe you would have, like, a linen napkin next to it, or a glass of wine, maybe, but you would probably not have dry lentils, okay?

Megan Porta  23:52

That’s a great point, not something we typically do when we sit down to eat. Yeah and yeah, just to try to train yourself, I think, to be more comfortable with that empty space or that white space, and just experiment with it, right? Just to see how it looks. You might feel resistance to it, but after you take the pictures, you might realize that, oh, that actually looks really good. Exactly. Yes, exactly.

Megan Porta  24:16

All right, what’s your next mistake to avoid?

Alexandra Shytsman  24:18

Okay, so this is actually, you know, still in the same topic. But the fourth mistake is using distracting props, right? So distracting prop could certainly be, you know, dry lentils next to a finished bowl of soup. But really, a mistake that I see a lot is just people using the wrong color props. And when I say props, I mean, you know, plates, bowls, cups, etc, right? Silverware, napkins, things like that, or sometimes even surfaces can be distracting. Yeah, I would say if you’re a beginner and you are just starting out, you should maybe focus on neutral colored props, so things that are like in the white, gray, pastel kind of color scheme, as opposed to saturated primary colors, like bold yellows, bold blues and bold reds, like that, is always going to be extremely distracting. So our goal with food photography is food is always the star, right? You never want to distract from the food. So I really recommend basically never using primary colors, right? And I know that we, you know, a lot of us, when we first start out, we’re here a lot about complementary colors, right? So using the color wheel to choose props that will that will suit the food that we’re shooting. So for example, let’s say I’m shooting a spinach salad, right? So that would be green. And if I use the color wheel to search for a complimentary color, I might get, I might want to use something that’s like pink or red and my props, right? So I would not put a spinach salad on a bright, saturated red plate for if I’m shooting a photo of it, because it’s going to be super distracting, and the red is going to steal the show from the green. If I do want to use a little bit of red or a little bit of pink with that green, I will make sure to choose something that has, like, pops of that color or that color in a very pastel tone, and not something that’s like, super saturated, if that makes sense?

Megan Porta  26:21

I think this takes a lot of experimenting too. Like when you’re just starting out as a food photographer, you really don’t know these things, but after a while, you just start to learn what looks good together and what steals the show and all of that. So it’s a little bit of just… 

Megan Porta  26:36

Trial and error, trial and error. Yeah, exactly, yeah,

Alexandra Shytsman  26:39

Absolutely, yeah. I think the color wheel, you know, it’s a really good theory to use for when you’re feeling stuck and you’re kind of like, oh gosh, I don’t really know, like, how to make the salad look better. You know, throwing in, like, a pastel pink napkin next to a green salad, you know, will help that that green pop more. So it’s good to know the theory. But of course, yeah, there’s a lot of this. A lot of these rules are meant to be broken. And yeah, it just just takes a lot of experimentation. And while we’re on that, something else that a lot of people do in the beginning is using shiny silverware, and I always recommend to just avoid anything of that, like shiny silverware texture in your food photos, because the finish on it is like reflective. It will actually reflect the light, and it will almost look like a tiny mirror in your photo. So it can be, again, really distracting. So if you are just like starting to put together your prop closet for your food photography, I really recommend going to a flea market, a thrift store, an antique store, and looking for those like bins of old tarnished silverware. And that’s the stuff you want to use, right? So it’s not reflective, and that’s the stuff that always looks the best. 

Megan Porta  27:55

If you look closely, you’ll see me in a lot of my dishes and silverware from the beginning, because I, I didn’t realize this was on my radar. And then afterward, you’re like, oh my gosh, that’s a picture of me right back, reflecting back, wearing a pink shirt or whatever. It’s so funny. 

Alexandra Shytsman  28:12

Yeah, exactly. Or even if you’re using a tripod, right, or an artificial light and you have something, a reflective surface in the photo, a reflective prop, it will come up in the photo. Yeah. So that’s something to be aware of. And then also, while we’re talking about props, something other things I like to avoid. Again, this is for beginners. Like, if you’re, like a professional, if you feel really comfortable, you should definitely experiment with anything you want to experiment with. But if you’re just trying to, like, master the basics, I would say that you should probably avoid geometric like square angular plates. So for some reason, like square and rectangular plates are a lot more complicated to shoot than like ovals or circles. I’m not sure why. I guess because ovals and circles are a bit more of an organic shape, so it’s not like a distracting, you know, contrast for the food. So if you are going out there to buy some new props, I would avoid any angular items, and I would also avoid any loud patterns. So I love a little bit of pattern, whether it’s like etching in a water glass or, you know, some tiny floral patterns, but any like big, bold patterns I would also avoid in the beginning. 

Megan Porta  29:26

Yeah, that’s all great advice with thinking through props and styling. Thank you for all of that. What is your next mistake to avoid?

Alexandra Shytsman  29:35

Okay, so the fifth thing to avoid is fuzzy focus. So this is actually probably the most difficult thing to learn not to do, right? So when your photos are blurry, it’s probably because you don’t have enough light or your camera settings are wrong, right? So if you are going to be taking your food photography seriously, I really recommend learning to use your camera in manual mode so you can. Actually learn how to set a manual exposure, and you know what all of the camera settings do, so your photos are no longer blurry. And again, if you don’t have enough light in your scenario and you’re seeing you will probably have a bit of that fuzzy focus. So you know, with food photography, we do love things to be nice and crisp. And that’s something I always look for. 

Megan Porta  30:23

Yeah, for me, I had to train my eye a little bit with this, because I remember when I first started taking photos of food, I thought I was doing everything crisply, yeah. Like, I would look at it and I swear, like, Oh, this looks great. And then, like, a year later, I’d look back at those photos and realize that they were not actually in focus. I’m like, what was I looking at? That’s so crazy. So I think it’s a matter of training your eye sometimes just to know what crisp looks like and which part of the photo should be crisp

Alexandra Shytsman  30:53

Exactly. That is such a good point. You know, one of my favorite things about food photography is that I feel like any time you have a photo shoot session, it is always your best work ever, because all all of the like shoots you’ve done in the past, right? It’s all like cumulative you’re always building up your knowledge, your practice with each practice session, you’re getting better and better. So today, my photos are so much better than they were last week and last year and 10 years ago, right? So some of these things, of course, you’re simply just, you don’t see them until you see them, right? So you’re totally right that a lot of these things you need to train your eye for. But yeah, I also, you know, definitely had the same thing with my photos in the beginning. One tip here, like especially for people who are using a DSLR camera or mirrorless camera to shoot. So when you think you have your like, final hero shot and your camera before you like, break down your scene and turn off your camera, I really recommend just zooming in really, really close into the photo on whatever area you know, you you meant to focus on and making sure that it’s crisp. Because a lot of the time, a photo will look good on that tiny display screen, but once you upload it to your computer, you’ll actually notice that it’s blurry, right? So always zoom in before you stop shooting.

Megan Porta  32:16

Yeah, because you don’t want to have to reset up the entire scene just to take that photo again, exactly? Yeah, yes. All right, what’s your next mistake to avoid? 

Alexandra Shytsman  32:24

Okay, so this one is skipping garnishes. So garnishes are so, so important when we cook dinner for ourselves, right? Like we don’t always, if we’re just in a hurry and again, you know, I’ll use my lentil soup example. Let’s say it’s a Thursday night, it’s late and I’m tired, and I just made lentil soup. I’m probably not going to be thinking about, Oh, gosh, how can I make this the prettiest soup ever? But if I’m shooting a photo of that soup to share on the internet, right or anywhere, I want it to be the prettiest bowl of soup that it can be, and garnishes really help with that. So adding something on top, you know, really adds dimension, color, texture, and it just makes it feel a little bit more dressed up, right? That’s one of the reasons why I think restaurant food looks often better than home cooked food, because, you know, usually there are some really thoughtful garnishes there, so it doesn’t have to be anything extreme, like coarse black pepper is probably my go to so when I say coarse black pepper, I don’t mean that I’m buying, like the little tin of ground black pepper at the supermarket and just sprinkling it all over my food. I use, you know, a specific pepper grinder, and I also, like set it to the most coarse setting, and then once that pepper is ground, I take it with my fingers and I sprinkle it, you know, very intentionally on the food. So I never pour pepper directly from the dispenser onto my food. So that’s a little pro tip. And the bigger those grounds, the better. Again, I’m not sure why, but it just looks so much better in photos. Also, aside from black pepper. You know, something simple would be sesame seeds. I also love black sesame seeds. Those are really pretty and kind of unique any kind of like chopped nuts or seeds, obviously fresh herbs. One of my tips for herbs is, I think, like, this is something I really used to struggle with when I was first starting out, is whenever I wanted to add herbs to my food, they just never looked good, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Now, my trick is so first of all, when you are using herbs, you should be using the freshest ones you can find. So you know, if you can buy them that same day and use them that same day, that’ll obviously give you the best looking herbs. But also, if they’re a couple of days old and starting to look a little bit wilted. Something you can do is just put that, you know, dill or parsley or cilantro or whatever, into a bowl of cold water for about five minutes before you need to use it. And that really just helps them, like, kind of get back into that nice, pretty curly shape. And also, I very rarely chop my herbs for food photography, I usually just, like, pick out the prettiest leaves with my fingers and I place it on the food. And I just think that that always gives it, like, the nicest look. 

Megan Porta  35:10

Your bowl of cold water tip, oh my gosh. I’ve never heard of that. That’s, yeah, it’s mind blowing. Because how often do we get herbs and then we’re like, Oh no, it’s just like a day too late. We have to use them anyway.

Alexandra Shytsman  35:24

Exactly. Yeah. So even if they’re looking a little sad and like soft and kind of collapsed already, put them in cold water, and they’ll come right back up. But something about garnishes that I do want to say is that you never want to use something that doesn’t actually make sense for the recipe, right? So if you know, let’s see what’s a good example. You know, I just posted something that’s like a Vietnamese inspired recipe, for example. So I’m just pulling from that. But that recipe, you know, for something like that, cilantro or mint, would be the most kind of sensible items to use, right? I’m probably not going to put dill on there, because it’s just not common to that kind of dish. So I’m not going to just throw whatever I have just to fill the space. Again, you have to be like, really intentional for what makes sense in the recipe. Because, you know, people are going to be visiting your blog, they’re going to take it literally, and they will put, you know, whatever you put on it as well. So it also has to work taste wise, right?

Megan Porta  36:23

Yeah, and don’t underestimate those little things, like your ground pepper thing is so huge, it can go such a long way just transforming a photograph completely, I think. 

Alexandra Shytsman  36:32

For sure, especially if it’s like something that looks really simple, like just one fried egg, right? Or a poached egg or some sort of pureed soup, like, if it’s a pureed cauliflower soup, that’s just like, literally, white or beige stuff in a bowl. It’s not so interesting to look at, right? So something like that, you definitely want to dress it up with, like a drizzle of olive oil, some coarse pepper, herbs, etc.

Megan Porta  36:58

Yeah, love that one. What is your last mistake to avoid?

Alexandra Shytsman  37:02

The last mistake is having no plan. So you I think, before you take any photo, right? Whenever you’re going through the trouble of developing that recipe, you know, shopping for that recipe, publishing that recipe and promoting it like that’s a lot of work. We are all food bloggers. We know how much work goes into one single recipe, right? So you don’t want to go into that photo shoot blind and just crossing your fingers and hoping for the best, have a plan. So I think that the best thing to do is look at inspiration photos beforehand, right? So again, if we’re talking about our famous lentil soup, right before you actually get in the kitchen, before you buy those ingredients, before you do anything, go online, look at some comparable recipes, and save those photos that you like, whether to a Pinterest mood board or maybe just like, leave those windows open on your computer so you have something to refer back to. Essentially, you’re making a mood board, right? So you can take notes of like, what kind of bowl you might like to use, what kind of angle would be the most flattering, what color props other people have used that you think work well. So you kind of have a plan of what you’re going for. And once you have a visual guideline, like a mood board, you can also write down a shot list, which is something I do for every single recipe, and especially if you are shooting for a food blog, you’re most likely, you know, posting those step by step photos, and you don’t want to miss a step, right? So I always write out the exact list of all the shots I need to get. And especially if you know you’re shooting multiple recipes per day, or if you have an assistant or other people around, right? It’s so easy to get distracted. So when you have that list and you’re prepared, you’re always going to get what you what you planned on.

Megan Porta  38:49

Preparation can take you so far. It does take extra time, but I think it’s well worth the investment of time, for sure.

38:58

And it also, you know, helps you not panic, right? So when you get to your set, quote, unquote, and you’re looking at your soup, you’re like, oh gosh, it’s so brown, it’s so whatever, how do I make this look good, right? So if you already done that work before, it kind of saves you time. You know, at the end.

Megan Porta  39:13

Panic photographing isn’t ideal. 

Alexandra Shytsman  39:15

No, no.

Megan Porta  39:17

Yeah, these are all so good. Is there anything that we didn’t touch on relating to any of these points that you want to cover Alex?

Alexandra Shytsman  39:25

Let’s see, well, actually, back to, you know, props and styling your food and garnishing your food. I kind of like to think of like putting together your scene as putting together an outfit. I know we all dress differently, and, you know, we’re into different kinds of clothes, but I think this analogy really like makes sense. So let’s say you have, in this case, our lentil soup is like a little black dress, right? So it’s something classic, but it’s kind of plain, right? So if you are going to, like, put that into an outfit, maybe you would wear some kind of like statement shoe, maybe you would have some red lipstick. Maybe you would put on some funky jewelry, right, just to dress it up. Same thing for a lentil soup or anything else, right? So when you’re putting together your scene, you can add different textures, right? So you can add a linen napkin for texture. You can add some of that tarnished silverware you got at the thrift store, you can add a glass of wine or a glass of sparkling water, just to add more visual interest and make things interesting, even if it is something as plain as a fried egg or a lentil soup.

Megan Porta  40:32

Oh, these are such great tips. I love it, even for people who are not necessarily beginner photographers, I think these are still good even if you’re a veteran photographer, thank you, good points to pull out. So thank you for your time. We appreciate all of this so much. Alex, do you have either a favorite quote or words of inspiration to leave us with?

Alexandra Shytsman  40:55

I don’t think I have a favorite quote, but something that I think is really important, that I would love to stress to food bloggers in general, is always know your why, and know what you’re actually trying to say. So I think we’re all, we all get so bogged down with like, you know, researching the perfect keywords, getting the perfect photo, having the perfect Instagram reel, or what have you, then all of that stuff can really take away from what is your actual message as a creator and why you started doing this. So always try to come back to that, you know, to that kind of main mission that you have. And if you’re struggling to know, like, what your mission is, a good place to start is to ask, like, your friends or your partner or your family, whoever knows you really well. Like, what do you think I’m all about? Right? Why do you think I started this, or whatever? Because sometimes people from the outside can see us much better than we can see ourselves. And they can say, like, oh well, your your focus is like, you know, XYZ, and it might be something you never thought of. So, you know, for bloggers, we always think of this as, like, your niche, right? But it’s really like, I think about the mission and why you started in the first place. And also, another great thing to do is there’s a really great TED Talk by a man named Simon Sinek, and I think he has a book on this as well. I think it’s called Find Your Why. And you can, we can include this in the show notes as well. The TED talk is all about finding your why. So he tells you a really good like exercise to do to figure out what that is. And I’m telling you, it is such a game changer. I really hope everyone tries it. Oh, yeah,

Megan Porta  42:32

I love him. I love all of his work. It’s amazing. Yeah, such a great way to end. So inspiring. Thank you, Alex, we’ll put together, yeah, we’ll put together a show notes for you. Page for you. So if you want to go look at those head to eatblogtalk.com/thenewbaguette, tell everyone where they can find you, Alex.

Alexandra Shytsman  42:50

Yeah, so my blog is thenewbaguette.com. Baguette, like the bread. Also thenewbaguette on Instagram. And the best way to keep in touch is to get on my mailing list. And also, if you are coming to New York City and you want to do a one on one photography class, you can reach out to me as well. I’d be happy to meet with you. My email is hello@thenewbaguette.

Megan Porta  43:14

Awesome. Well, thank you again, Alex for being here and thank you for listening food bloggers. I will see you next time.

Outro  43:22

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so grateful if you posted it to your social media feed and stories, I will see you next time you.