FOGUE: How I Styled and Achieved a DIY Creative Food Photo.

FOGUE  / fōɡ /  –  Food + Vogue

With the help of a friend, I came up with the term FOGUE to name my photo which I submitted as an entry to a photo challenge. It was play of two words, food and vogue.

“Fogue”

The theme of the challenge was food. That time I wanted to submit a photo that is both creative and different from all other entries. I already had this idea but I was hesitant since I was not sure if could pull it off.  It was already the last day of submission when I decided to give the idea a try.

It is not really common to use a black background in food photography, I find it unusual myself. But when I was looking for an inspiration, I got attracted to dark-themed food styling and the pictures I saw had encouraged me to try the style myself using my phone. I used Low Key style to take a creative shot of food.

Learn more about Low Key Photography.

As a back-up plan, I had other photos of food on plates ready, in case I was unable to achieve what I had in mind. I may share to you those photos on my next post.

At that time, what I had in the house were food utensils and some chocolates. I was actually lazy to go to a supermarket, so I tried to think of food items that are easy to find. I just went to a nearby eatery, bakeshop and “sari-sari” store to look for items to use. And these were the items I used to achieve the look of the photo:

1. Fork

2. Bread – Ensaymada

3. Nips Candies/Chocolates

4. Hard-boiled Egg

5. Malunggay / Moringa / Horseradish – I just asked for leaves at the eatery for free.

6. Banana

7. Ketchup – Colors and dots on the banana and egg

8. Black T-shirt – The Background

9. Clip Hanger – This was used to hold the forks while they were hung during the shoot.

10. Piece of thread – This was used to tie the bread and make it look like a donut.

11. Toothpicks – I used these to hold the chocolates together.

12. Flashlight – Lighting

After securing all items I needed, I went straight to do my DIY food styling. I initially thought of having the forks flat on the table, however, it formed too much shadows and it was also impossible to position the flashlight since there was nothing to hang it on.

I assembled all the food items on the forks. I did some Art-Attack-inspired designs and maximized every limited resources I had that time to come up with the most creative food presentation as possible. When the fork artwork were done, I slowly hung each fork on the clip hanger. I positioned the flashlight using my cabinet as a support. When everything was set-up well, I did not waste time to take the shot.

The photo was shot using my LG V20 smartphone. I enhanced the chosen photo using Snapseed and Lightroom Mobile.

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