Tips for photographing food in the winter

I love blogging about food – sweet or savoury, they're all dishes we can relate too. But I dread the darker seasons in the year as I’m suddenly on a ticking time bomb to get a well-lit shot – especially as I work full-time too! So to help my fellow foodies, here are my top tips for taking photographs indoors in the winter.

• Become best friends with your camera

By this I mean, make sure you know everything about it, from all the different settings to all the buttons. Read your manual back-to-back, it's there to help you. Most cameras nowadays are built to help you in various light, so make sure to utilise your camera by testing the settings available.

• Choose your room carefully

This might seem obvious, but it's only been recently that I thought to myself 'hold on a minute, I've got a conservatory with three walls made out of glass – why am I shooting in my kitchen?!' If you've got a particular room that gets more light than others, or at a certain time of day has the most sunlight due to it's positioning, make sure to get in there.

• Use a Lightbox

Now if you're into this blogging stuff for the long haul, it's worth investing in a Lightbox (or try making one). A Lightbox allows you to shoot anything anywhere, at any time of day with the photo appearing as if it's been taken in the middle of the day. The white reflectors help soften the lights recreating natural light. A useful tip is to remember the bigger and broader the light source, the softer the light will appear on the subject.

• Use your mirrors

If you haven't got a Lightbox, use what you've got around the house to help reflect more light onto your subject. You could set up a couple mirrors, or even try sticking paper or aluminium foil to some card to make a couple reflector panels. 

• Don't forget where you're standing 

When you're not using a tripod, it's easy to tower over your subject to get a good birds eye angle, but this can block part of your light source. Avoid standing over overhead, test various spots to ensure you're getting as much light in as possible. 

Hope you found this useful! If you'd like to read more of these kind of tips? Let me know in the comments.

I try my hand at crafts too, so make sure to check out my latest DIY posts if you haven't already – I'd love to know what you think.