Ecrire avec la lumière: Photographie Culinaire avec Isabelle Rozenbaum

On a rainy day in Paris, I ventured out with Maniko to Boulogne-Billancourt to attend a workshop at the Kitchen Studio (http://blog.kitchenstudio.fr/) on food photography led by Isabelle Rozenbaum, who has been in the industry for over 25 years. First impression: So glad I went!


The beautiful set up of Kitchen Studio. A culinary club for foodies to learn everything related to the culinary world: food photography, cooking classes, degustation events, Q&A and demos from well-established Chefs, etc...

One of the kitchens (used for TV ads and other media-related demonstrations)

Rozenbaum has written many articles about French cuisine and has published 26 books, notably with French chef Cyril Lignac among others.
As Rozenbaum explained today, taking a picture of an object only focuses the viewer onto the object but food photography heightens all 5 senses of the viewer who must feel what it is like to eat, smell, taste the object in view; you must make them want what is in front of them.


Until today, I tend to rely on 'automatic' and 'macrofocus' functions of my camera but I learned about Aperture, Shutter Speed, the focus spot - all this playing into making the perfect picture. Now I know the buttons on my camera! hahah Before I only knew 1 or 2 and dare not touch the others. 


In the end to be honest, it's all about the LIGHTING and there are no rules to photography of what it should look like. At the end of the day, it is about what you want to portray, not what others want, and a reflection of yourself.


So here are some selected photos.


Practicing white balance on a glass of sugar. You must strike a balance between natural light and what's in front of you (ie. if you want it more towards the shades of blue or shades of yellow).

Focus-stop: Focusing at a specific product and changing the level of clearness in the background.

The theme of the week was bread.

This one I took randomly...(Lettuce leaf and topinambours in the background)

Obviously, there's so much I can improve on and will improve on, photography cannot be taught and learned in a day. But with all the knowledge I acquired, I realized how much more patient I must be. You guys will be the judges of my photos (as they improve...or hopefully they do!)