Folks here might be interested in this course (it appears to be free) on photographing food: http://nikas-culinaria.com/2007/11/02/food-photo-101/
Here's Nikas' course summary:
This is the first in what will be a series of posts that I will be producing in concert with the lovely Curt from the delicious BBQ and bread blog called Bucky’s Barbecue and Bread.
Course Objective:
To guide interested budding food photographers through the technical and creative barriers they may be experiencing with their Point and Shoot (P&S) or DSLR cameras.
We will cover:
* hardware (cameras, lighting, computers, other tech)
* software (capture and post processing tools)
* wetware (food styling)
* creative aspects (composition, lighting dynamics, etc)
Philosophy:
* We are going to do this in a way that, we hope, gives you something you can use right away.
* I think its important for people to not feel “disadvantaged” by having a P&S beause these cameras actually have quite a lot of capability that many people never really explore.
* We will cover topics in a way that hopefully makes you feel more comfortable with your P&S or DSLR.
* I do not know everything, no one does.
* I have much to learn from you.
Reading List:
There is ONE book I will ask you to read, slowly, cover to cover. This would be the MANUAL to your camera. I suggest reading it several times and have it on hand whenever you are shooting your food or other subjects (maybe not at the theme park, but at home). I like to sit on the couch with my camera and my manual and go through each section and manually perform each operation as I read the manual. Simply reading it is a start but purposeful practice (fiddling) will pay off more than 100%, I promise you.
Attendance:
I want to make sure at least one message gets through - we want your participation. I have created a flickr group for this series (Food Photo 101) and I want to see your photos!
I have also created a discussion area here on this blog called “Class Forum” where you can post your questions and your images and we all can discuss them (depending on your participation!). It will ask you to register, please do. That information just goes into my wordpress administration system and nowhere else.
If you would like to simply sign up as a participant in this activity (without signing up for the discussion area) and receive a weekly newsletter that reviews that week’s topic, fill out the contact form at the bottom of this post (or on the Food Photo 101 page) and type “Food Photo 101″ in the subject field.
Methods - the logistics of the Photography for Foodies series are as follows:
* Each entry will be about one aspect of food photography, and when it makes sense, the topics will build on each other.
* We’ll explain the topic, and I will go into how to achieve the results for that topic.
* Once I go through the topic, Curt will then try to go through the lesson, showing not just the how-to part, but the how-did part (or didn’t!).
Timing - The target is for me to publish a new post that includes a discussion and assignment on Tuesdays (I will also post it to the Food Photo 101 page on this blog). Curt (and others who wish to participate) will publish his (their) entry on Thursday with his work and his impressions. We will both do a wrap up post on Sunday where we show what people have submitted at the Food Photo 101 flickr group. If you like, please email me a link to your post (like Curt’s) where you talk about how it went for you. I will post those links on Sunday too.
Should learn something, even just by auditing the course.
Regards, Bob