by Todd Porter
“I haven’t had a warm meal since I started blogging!” said Chef John of Food Wishes at dinner.
How many times has some variation of this proclamation been heard or muttered in our food blogging circles? Everyone knows the meal time drill- Cook. Plate & style. Run it over to the home “mini-studio”. Fire away. Decide the angles are no good. Photograph again. Still don’t like the lighting. Shoot some more. Decide to settle with what is in the camera because the hunger pangs are making you shaky and the extra nibblings aren’t enough anymore. Finally it is time to sit down with your plate of wonderfully cool food.
There is a way to still have a warm meal. It doesn’t even require the ability to go back in time or have a clone to do everything for you. Just a little planning and organization to set up your “Mis en Place for Food Photography.”
Mis-en-place set-up waiting for the warm food
Nearly any scarred denizen of the restaurant world’s underbelly with have the term and principles of “mis en place” burned into their psyche. Have everything prepped and ready that you may need before the day’s madness begins, ’cause when the rush hits, if all isn’t organized and ready it is going to be a long, miserable shift. This mindset carries into one’s home cooking, instilling a calm, organized way of cooking which can make preparing nearly any meal seem effortless.
This same approach can be applied to the food blogger’s photographic routine at home in the kitchen. Anticipate, organize and prepare whatever can be done before even starting to cook so that when the dish is done, the time spent capturing its beauty through the lens is quick and efficient.
Setting is ready to go for the finished food
Set up Where and What will be needed for the shoot.
- Choose the best place to photograph and set your scene and equipment.
- Cutting boards or whatever surface you’ll be shooting on or using as a backdrop ready and laid out.
- Bounces, foam boards, scrims. Whatever will be needed for managing light.
- Styling accessories ready and laid out (napkins, utensils, glasses, plates, garnishes).
- Don’t forget the camera. Choose the best lens, check battery life and camera settings. Make sure the media card is loaded.
- Setup up flashes if needed and get them dialed.
Do a Mock Shoot with a stand-in before taking final shot. This is huge!
- Setup everything like it would be done with the final dish, only using a stand-in dummy (Not your husband, ladies. A substitution for the food!) ~ Yes, there will be a couple extra dishes to wash, but this is where the time-consuming, dish-cooling photographic work can get hammered out. The same time which was spent figuring out the lighting, styling, and composing with the live dish is now appropriated to a moment before any cooking happens. (Or if your dish is has a long time of solitary cooking, the mock shoot can be done during this break.)
- Sometimes this may mean buying an extra ingredient or two, but not always. If shooting a pork chop, maybe shoot the raw version first. A paper weight, crumpled paper towel, a bowl full of dried beans can work as stand ins. (Sometimes the shot is simple enough to not even need a stand in on the plate.) Use imagination and what is convenient and on hand.
Mock looks good ~ Set out clean plates for the final dish and cook.
- Remember to have clean plates, utensils, etc ready for the final dish.
- After making the final dish, all that is needed is to swap out the dummy, garnish, sometimes make minor adjustments to the styling or lighting, and shoot.
All of this work seems like it’s going to add extra time in photographing the dishes. However after developing a routine, if anything it will make shooting the food faster. Everything for the shoot needs to be taken out regardless of whether it is done before or after cooking, but by doing it ahead of time without the pressure of quickly changing food and the impending dining, it is easier to remember everything. All the time spent during the mock shoot was normally moments wasted fiddling with the completed dish dying in front of the lens. Same stuff just different time. A better time.
By using a “mis en place” mentality, everything is organized, it’s easy to develop quick routines, and the final dish doesn’t sit in front of the lens forever. Welcome back to the land of warm meals.
final shot and the pastries are still warm!
I have started adapting this concept as well. I find I am more efficient with my time. Thanks for sharing this. What I need to do more is utilizing a stand-in. I forget this step sometimes because I am so eager to shoot.
“By using a “mis en place” mentality, everything is organized, it’s easy to develop quick routines, and the final dish doesn’t sit in front of the lens forever. Welcome back to the land of warm meals.”
Great post! There’s lots of useful info here – I’m forwarding this to a few friends. Can people who aren’t part of the forum read these posts?
Thanks!
Anyone can read the posts, they’ll just need to be a member to comment and participate in the forums.
T
Yeah.. wow this makes total sense. I do the whole mis en place while cooking/baking, but not taking photos. Would definitely save time and really would help my photos look more presentable
Thanks for sharing, always great info.
Loved the post, mostly when i take a lunch pic, you can see the seam as i click few pics fast and then to the table for the hungry looking hubby and daughter.
I agree that doing this makes a world of difference. Comparing the shots that I’ve set up beforehand to the ones that I’ve done on the fly are like night and day, plus they are so much quicker because there’s less fiddling around to do!
It’s amazing what a little organization will do, huh?
This is a great post with lots of useful tips. And easy enough that I think I can implement the approach – thanks!
Yesterday I “officially” shot in my new space and used mis en place. It made my work flow better and at the end I was able to take some quick shots of the hot food before dinner. It’s a great habit to get into!
I’ve been thinking about how to streamline the whole photography process so I can still enjoy my meal. There are a lot of great points in this article, now I just need to focus on not procrastinating when it comes to setting up these steps ahead of time!
I wonder if it could also be helpful to dish out the picture-ready plate and then go back and photograph it after you enjoy the dish yourself? But then I guess you run the risk of the dish looking not-as-fresh. Something to consider though.
Depends on what you are shooting. Most of the food we shoot looks its best right after cooking, but there are some things which hold their look very well. Our focus is to get the best image possible in a practical manner, so that’s why we’ve adapted this approach of mis en place. The food looks it’s best and we interrupt the “normal” flow of life as little as possible. However, a peanut butter cookie it going to look the same right out of the oven or 30 minutes later. Life’s short, have dessert first!
T
This is such a good topic!! Having everything ready at the shooting location is so important..hate running back and forth into the kitchen
I never did end up with a satisfying photo of my cooking adventures because of exactly this reason, this mise en place seems the answer and I cannot wait to try it out! Great topic!
I’ve started doing the stand-ins – it does help keep food hot. One time though, I was holding this hot pan of roast chicken (with both hands) only to realize I did not remove the stand-in. So I had to lay down the hot pan…uhm…somewhere.
I try to do this as often as possible. The other option, if you’re eating early enough, is to make up an extra plate and photograph afterwards. One big reason I’m happy it’s summer again.
This is way better than eating something stone cold! How depressing! I have also found using something with a similar shape can help too.
My new mantra will now need to be “Mis en Place”! Makes so much sense.
I’m learning to schedule my photography time during the best day light periods for my kitchen/window….now that takes some planning ahead. It’s all new to me, but I’m workin’ on it. Hate to post any current pictures until I have more time to practice!
Can those pastries be made with Cherries, too? Yum!
This is great info! I’m going to use it tomorrow and maybe I’ll actually eat a hot meal for a change. Thanks!!
[...] en place of shooting food at home Mis en place of shooting food at homeWe’ve all encountered this before: cook, plate, style, shoot then eat. All before your [...]
I like how your have set everything up before cooking. I never do this and always end up eating cold food. These are some great times. Thank you..
This is incredibly helpful, as are the photos. Thanks so much.
This makes so much sense. How a “mise en place” set up eluded me–the ‘restaurant insider’–is a mystery. Thank you for your great visual tutorial. With every food styling set up you share with us, the more proficient I get! Yipeee!
Great article. Thanks so much for the common sense pointers.
Great article. Since I’ve started staging my pictures before I start cooking, I find myself less frantic and rushed when I’m taking the photos too. I give myself about 2 minutes to shoot – if I prep ahead of time, i have 2 minutes to tinker. If I don’t prep before hand, i have 2 minutes to set up the whole thing which is definitely not enough time.
Keep the articles coming!
Thanks for this! I actually had started doing this a few weeks ago. One thing that was frustrating was when the lighting changed between the time I took the test shot and when the food was ready, so further adjustments were quickly made. In fact, lighting is simply the biggest challenge for me as a new photographer just as much as learning to style food/props attractively.
I agree with Xiaolu. Lighting and shifting light, etc., is definitely what I’ve been struggling with the most as I learn to photograph food (learn to take photos in general, actually!). Especially the struggle to take photos in natural lighting when most of the time what I want to take pictures of is dinner. Does anyone have any tips for photographing dinner if you live in a place that’s still pretty dark by the time you eat it? Sometimes I’ve been trying to set aside a plate to keep and reheat in the morning and shoot it in that light, but that’s a)inconvenient because I often try to make just enough for the two of us for dinner b)inconvenient because reheated food usually doesn’t look as nice as fresh food and c)inconvenient because, well let’s just say it’s not convenient. Has anyone found clever solutions??
Great job Todd! It’s good to know I’m not the only one shooting food on the floor, lol.
Such a great article! Another trick I use that I learned from Helen (Tartelette) is to photograph my food cold, once it has settled down and stopped moving. I use this when I know I can set aside a portion or two to photograph later. That way we can eat right away, and I can then spend the time I need playing around with my setup later!
Todd,
Great article! I will definitely try to do that. My husband will love it! He will not have to wait “ages” to eat while I am shooting anymore.
This seems very practical, but I am not sure I can do it! So far, I’ve forgotten to take pictures of certain steps or I am trying not to burn the food, so I really do forget about styling and setting up. (even before hand! yipes!). I will definitely try it out though. How do you get yourself into “I must photograph this food” mode? Because not everything I make is picture worthy. Thanks for the post and the tips.
My husband thanks you for this post:) He is always ready to eat and I take forever taking photos. I have been setting up in advance lately and it really helps! Great tips! Thanks!
This is a great idea, but it’s so hard to collect all these cute props and accents when I have a tiny apartment shared with my boyfriend. Any rec’s on multi-taskin props or decorations? I only have windows on one side o the apartmet,
Gah. Silly iPhone and it’s typos! I only have light on one side of the apartment and there are no counters, shelves, tables, or even a window sill over there. We also don’t have a table!
GREAT idea!! I may be able to eat hot meals now. Until early dark sets in, anyway!!!
Love the idea of Mock Shoot. This will help me to experiment more than I would do with the final setup.