Category Archives: tutorials

Mar 05 4 comments
biscuitsandsuch news, tutorials

The Photography of Biscuits & Such

Happy March! This week, courtesy of a conference Dan’s company is sending him to, we are in California (yay!). It’s my first time in California, second time on the West Coast, and first time ever traveling as the spouse of someone going to a conference. I feel very much like I expect my Grammy did in the 60′s and 70′s as she and Poppie traveled around the country (World? They’ve been everywhere). While I’m gone I’d like to share a little look into one of the things I get asked about most, the photography on Biscuits and Such. It’s something that I work constantly to improve and I thought it would be fun to give some background information, tips, etc.

a panoramic holga image from wrightsville beach, nc. made in 2003.

To start, for those of you who don’t know this about me, I have a BFA in photography from the Maryland Institute College of Art. I was lucky enough to have a mother who twisted my arm into attending Durham’s arts magnet school, Durham School for the Arts, which is where my interest in photography began. Not just any photography– specifically alternative processes. Three different (equally amazing) teachers guided me towards pinholes, medium format, cyanotypes, toy cameras, and more during high school. I had a holga long after they became cult classics but long before Urban Outfitters sold them for $60. I loved everything about experimental photography– I ate it up. That passion stayed with me throughout my years at MICA. While I, of course, learned formal darkroom skills, the art of the Fine Print, and processed hundreds of rolls of film, my real passion was for (almost) forgotten processes like palladium, Van Dyke, and cyanotype. As seen in my senior thesis, shown in part below.

multiple cyanotype panels of myself in scuba gear.

This is all to say that when I started Biscuits and Such in October 2008 I had spent more of my photography education painting chemicals on paper than behind a viewfinder. While I am (and have been for many years) a photographer, food photography did not come naturally. See as evidence a photo from that first post, Country Style Steak.

That is a horrible photo. The composition is bad, there’s crap in the background, the lighting is weird, and the food does not look appetizing. Nevertheless, I leave the photos untouched on that post because, well, it’s the first. Since those days, I’ve improved. Significantly, I think. Here are some of the things I try and consider when I’m photographing food:

Composition:

Every time I teach a photography workshop I get to the part of the lesson where I’m supposed to explain the rule of thirds, and then I forget it. I mean, as a photographer I understand it- don’t center things, images have more interest and tension if the subject is off center- but I always forget how to explain it. Essentially, there are two rules I always follow when I’m photographing anything– don’t center your subject (that applies 99.9% of the time), and MOVE YOUR BODY. The most helpful photography advice I’ve ever received, in all my years of formal training, is to not just pick one spot to stand and photograph. You might think that one shot, one pose, one position is perfect (why waste more time, right?), but you’ll always be surprised at the better picture you can get if you walk around your subject, squat, stand on a chair, tilt your head, tilt your camera. More often than not, the final photo I take of something ends up being the one that I use (though that rationale could lead me to never stop taking photos– there has to be an ending to every photoshoot).

Lighting:

Our second apartment in Takoma Park had the best lighting in the world. It was seriously incredible- perfectly diffused, every sunlight hour was golden hour in that room. Since we left that apartment, however, I’ve had to struggle to find the light and make images that are well lit. The number one rule in photography, particularly food photography, is that whenever possible use natural light. Hopefully you’ve heard this over and over again. The thing that takes a ho-hum picture and makes it great is the light. Natural light can provide all the tone and shadow you need at a low barrier. It’s free- just find the sun. That being said, there might be times when you need to photograph indoors (away from windows) or at night.  In the winter I find myself photographing at night (or in our windowless kitchen) more often than I would like because of timing and the short daylight hours. In these cases, an external flash is a wonderful tool. I use the Canon Speedlite 430 Ex II, which is pure magic. It allows me to bounce light around the room, creating images that are evenly lit and clear.  However, not everyone is ready to purchase an external flash– it took me many years of food photography before I was there! If you’re not the owner of an external flash but want to make photographs indoors there are a few options- you can put a UV bulb into a lamp or light to add some white light to your kitchen scene, you can use a tripod to take images with a slower shutter and white balance your images to get rid of the orange hue, or you can diffuse the built in flash in your camera. Now, I know everyone will tell you that the built in flash on your camera is the worst. thing. ever, but it can work to your advantage. Simply hold a white business card or piece of paper in front of the flash as you shoot, which will diffuse the light to make the images a little softer. It’s not a perfect substitute for natural light, but in a pinch it will do.

The Scene:

There is a delicate balance in food photography between being so close to your food that the image looks like an impressionist painting and being so far away that the food becomes just another element in an elaborate tablescape. Ultimately you want to create an image that shows the food in all of its glory, but also an image that is interesting and complex. One thing that I struggle with is making myself step back. For my final photo shot I’ve started creating a scene. That can be as simple as setting up a wooden board in my bedroom near the window or as involved as using different backgrounds and fabric to show the food paired with ingredients, tools, or other props. It’s nice for your lead photograph to be a visual summary, it sets the scene for the story and the recipe.

Action:

What drew me into food blogs in the beginning was the step-by-step style posts where I could look at my mousse and try and gauge whether it looked how it was supposed to. Over the years I’ve gone back and forth on process photos, not wanting to overwhelm readers with too many images, but also not wanting to just post three photos of the finished product. The reality is that some times I don’t take process photos because there’s too much going on, or because I forget, or because making food takes up all of my hands. Other times the process photos turn out poorly and I don’t think it’s worth posting them. However, I ultimately think that they add to the post and the recipe, so I like to include them. I really love action shots where things are frying, being poured, or people are demonstrating what to do with their hands. I think it makes an image that is dynamic and also instructional, which is the goal. For action shots where you are both the chef and the photographer a tripod can be your best friend. It allows you to multitask while taking clear images (and helps you not drop your camera!). You can set up the shot BEFORE you pour the beer into the pie crust, getting the photo you want without having to ruin your crust by pouring too much beer into it.

Focus:

More than anything else I see the photographs I take for Biscuits and Such as art. As such, I try and make images that are beautiful and that tell a story. One area where I love to experiment is with my focus and depth of field. Depth of field is determined by your f-stop, which controls the size of your aperture (the hole that the light goes through). Essentially, the smaller the aperture, the less light comes through, the more things are in focus. A classic example of a high fstop is the group f64, which included such photography heavy hitters as Imogen Cunningham and Ansel Adams. In contrast, a low f-stop means a larger aperture, more light getting through, and a shallower depth of field. This allows for creative focus, which can be a beautiful way to highlight different parts of a dish or scene.

Details:

A good post should include a few types of photographs. There should be process shots, there should wide shots showing the whole dish, and there should be detail shots. Detail shots are beneficial in two ways- they give further insight into a recipe by showing up close how the food should look at different stages. They also allow you to flex your creative muscles. In this age of constant photo sharing, having a few beautiful detail shots can take your blog (and your recipes) a far way. Don’t be afraid to get close to your food, and use your detail shots to highlight ingredients or moments that may not be imperative to the recipe, but tell a story that can enhance the experience.

Props:

At first, I was all about the food. My pictures were much more documentary, just including the materials and tools I was using to make the food itself. When we moved back to Baltimore and I lost my perfectly lit kitchen, I had to start taking my food out to the backyard to photograph. After I while I realized that I could only post so many pictures of food sitting on my outdoor glass table any longer without you revolting. So I started investing in things to create an outdoor “studio.”  Since then I’ve started to evolve, including more fabrics, patterns, props, and techniques (such as chalkboard paint) to make my photos more dynamic. I still think that as a community food blogs are moving too far from pictures of the food and that the food should be accentuated by props, not just an element in an elaborate tablescape, but I do think that experimenting with color, pattern, texture, and writing can all be interesting ways to make your images more interesting and dynamic.

Abstract vs Literal:

Finally, I think that a really interesting direction to head with food photography is the abstract. I often have enough to say in a post that I need a lot of photographs, and it’s boring for them to be all the same. I like to include a huge variety, from carefully set scenes to detail shots to more abstract images. Abstract images can be a beautiful way to let the ingredients, settings, or tools sing. Food is beautiful, and the in the process of making food you can find some wonderful glimpses. Photos that are more literal in content, showing when/how to add ingredients or how things should look during different steps are incredibly important, but a well rounded post includes images of all types. Keep your eyes peeled for the beautiful moments!

 

I hope this has been helpful! I’d love to hear your photo tips and feedback!

Feb 23 3 comments
tutorials

The Cast Iron Chronicles: Part 6

I want to begin this post with an anecdote. My specialty, if you will. One school break (winter, I think), I was at my parent’s house making myself breakfast. As I was heating up the pan to fry an egg (my breakfast of choice since as long as I had a choice) I was chatting with my dad and he started to tell me a story about his father. According to the story, his father had been very particular about the appropriate way to fry an egg, and had often taken over as my dad attempted to fry eggs, telling him he was doing it wrong.  Almost immediately after he told me this story we chuckled, then he looked over at me and said ELENA YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG. He pushed me out of the way and fried my egg for me as I fell onto the floor laughing.

Follow up question– how do you fry an egg the WRONG WAY?

Anyhoo, welcome to the last post in The Cast Iron Chronicles. It’s bittersweet, I’ll admit. On one hand, I’m immensely proud of myself for successfully salvaging a wonderful cast iron pan while also managing not to burn the house down or drive Dan crazy with the noise produced while trying to sand and watch Criminal Minds at the same time.  On the other, this series has been a lot of fun and the response has been incredible, so I’ll be sad for it to be over.

After giving the pan it’s final sanding and a good scrub it was time to gently season it. For those who have just received new pans (or old pans that need to be reseasoned) this is where you pick up the story. As with everything, how to properly season cast iron is hotly debated on the internets. I’ll tell you what I did, but feel free to consult anyone else who probably knows better than me. I’ve always been taught that to season a pan you coat it in animal or vegetable fat (or a combination), and put it in a warm oven for an hour. Then you let it cool, rinse, and repeat.

That was pretty much what happened here.  I alternated between vegetable oil, shortening, and bacon drippings, giving the pan a thorough coating and then letting it cook in a 200 degree oven for an hour.  Then I would let it cool completely, wipe it out, and start all over.  I’ve been doing this once or twice a night for about a week, probably a total of 10 times.  Once the pan looked more charcoal than pewter, I decided to try and cook something in it (the real test).

I had intended to christen the pan with bacon, but on Saturday Dan was making taquitos and it just seemed like the pan was the perfect size for four giant taquitos at a time. So, we broke her in with what was essentially a fried taco (yum).  The next morning she got her proper porky christening when we made bacon and eggs.  Since then she hasn’t left my stove, and my other cast iron pan is starting to feel jealous. And yes, I’m using female pronouns, BECAUSE CAST IRON VESSELS ARE LIKE BOATS (see what I did there).

So far, she has been amazing. With each thing that I cook in her she gets a little darker, and I’ve been careful to recoat her with oil after each use because she’s still fragile.  This process has been so much fun, I really appreciate you reading along- your support and feedback have been incredible!  What has been most exciting for me is the feedback that so many of you feel empowered to try and salvage/reseason your own cast iron. I would love to follow along as you do this, so please send me links to pictures!

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5

p.s. Real money says that after I post this I’ll get an email from my dad that explains the ways I’m frying an egg wrong in that top photo.

Feb 15 1 comments
tutorials

The Cast Iron Chronicles: Part 5

Okay, so after our last super exciting installment I’m back with another boring me-sanding-in-my-living-room-watching-Criminal Minds post. After setting the pan on fire (on purpose), I had two things left to accomplish- I needed to make sure the last of the rust/carbon residue was scrubbed out, and I needed to clean the rust off the bottom of the pan (an area I’d mostly been ignoring). So I sat down with my sanding paper (coarse first, then fine) and set to work.

After about an hour of admiring Dr. Spencer Reed’s new haircut (circa Season 4), the pan was looking pretty incredible.  By this point all of the visible rust was gone and it looked like a raw but useable piece of cast iron equipment. It took me a few minutes to accept it, seeing as how I’ve been cracking at this beast for weeks I didn’t think I’d ever get to the point where I’d be ready to fry an egg in it.

And fry an egg I will, after a few additional steps. I rinsed out what had been sanded off and took to the pan with very hot water and a lot of soap. I know I always preach that soap and your cast iron are mortal enemies, and that is VERY TRUE, with one exception. Right before you reseason a pan a gentle soap can be a great help in ensuring that your pan is ready to use with food. I took a good long crack at the pan in the sink, scrubbing it until the cloth wiped clean.  The next step is to season it gently, which will be our next (and final) installment. And then the bacon, naturally.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

 

p.s., It’s weird that I didn’t get a lecture from anyone about using the wrong amount of oil in the last post. I get nasty emails about so much less (coughgrammarcough). You guys have gotten soft.

p.p.s. That wasn’t an invitation to send me a lecture, thankskbye.

Feb 09 2 comments
tutorials

The Cast Iron Chronicles: Part 4

Okay, so I’m going to start this post with two statements.  The first is aimed both at my parents and my landlord- I promise that when we did this portion of the restoration we had a fire extinguisher on hand and that the pan was not close to anything that could catch on fire.  The second is aimed at my father and everyone who knows better than me- I know I used too much oil.  I mean, I didn’t know that at the time, but have since realized that I did not need to use that much oil.  Thankfully Dan is an Eagle Scout so all the necessary precautions were taken.

Now for the light-on-fire installment of our series. As you’ll recall from part 3, the next step was to coat it with oil and “burn the bejesus” out of the pan.  So on Saturday we hauled out our large burner, threw some oil in the pan, and sat around until it caught on fire (extinguisher in hand).  The Capt’n's advice was to only put the fire out “when it got a little crazy,” so I was expecting for this to get interesting.

We added a 1/4″ of oil to the pan, which I take it is too much.  The Lodge website suggested “a thin layer” and my dad (later) told me to put oil in the pan, spread it around, and then dump the excess oil out.  Somewhere in the middle is probably best.  From what I gather after reading about the process is that by bringing oil past its burning point in an iron pan you release free radicals that help to restore the iron.  Something about polymerization. Remind me to ask my chemist father-in-law about it the next time we see him.  I don’t totally know why it works, but I do know people have been doing it for centuries, and that’s good enough for me.  The internet is also full of arguments about what kind of oil to use, vegetable oil versus lard, etc.  I’m not going to get into that because I really can’t speak to what is best. I used canola oil and it worked just fine.

As the oil heated up Dan’s comfort level shifted from “this is really cool” to “this is making me nervous” quickly.  As soon as it started smoking a lot we cut the heat, and at that exact moment it burst into flames.  Following my dad’s advice I used baking soda to extinguish the flames, which worked like a charm.  The flames when out and then the oil-carbon-rust-baking soda combination formed these really gross/awesome bubbles.  Once it had cooled down I brought it inside and scooped out this gunk that was completely fascinating and disgusting.

After I got all the excess oil residue out I used a combination of steel wool and hot water to really scrub at the pan until it was rubbing clean and totally rinsed out.  This took approximately fifteen minutes.  After drying it off it looked like a brand new pan, it was amazing.

Even though it’s looking worlds better than it was a few weeks ago, I’m going to do one more round of sanding to really make sure I get the last of the carbon and rust out.  Then there will be two more steps- a gentle oven seasoning and its bacon christening.  I am so impressed by how (relatively) easy this whole process has been.  Time consuming, yes, but since I’ve been working slowly it’s been so much fun.  I can’t wait to pick up more cast iron to work on!

Part 1/ Part 2/ Part 3

Feb 05 2 comments
tutorials

The Cast Iron Chronicles: Part 3

I have to say, I’ve been cracking away at this thing and I’m starting to see real results! Today’s installment shows an additional 3-4 hours of heavy sanding. Or if you measure time as I do, one disc of Criminal Minds from Netflix (including the episode where Morgan (played by eye candy Shemar Moore) drives an about-to-explode ambulance into a field in the middle of New York City, I die).  Things at work have been really stressful lately (it’s grants proposal season for us) so taking some of my angst out on this pan has been really therapeutic.  After my last installment I switched from steel wool to coarse sanding paper, which really got most of the rust out.  As you can see, it’s come a far way.

After I posted the first installment my dad (known around the internets as The Capt’n) emailed me a list of advice.  Since he’s salvaged and conditioned many a cast iron piece I was grateful for his suggestions.  He sad that once I’d gotten most of the rust off that I should “burn the bejesus out of it,” so that is my next installment.  In our urban backyard we combined little oil, our large burner, and some baking soda (for fire extinguishing) and smoked out the neighborhood.  This process draws out a lot of the remaining rust, etc, and (according to the internet) restores some of the free radicals that the iron needs.  If you understand why this works, I would love to know.  I trust that it’s an important step but the science is a mystery to me!  Anyway, those that are following along on twitter will know that yesterday we set the pan on fire and it. was. awesome.  I can’t wait to share part 4.  Thanks for following along, and we’ll be back with more cast iron love next week!

Part 1 / Part 2