Taking shots of food you have personally created can be a satisfying experience. Steve Love recalls how when he was a young cook in the Navy he bought himself an expensive Zenith camera to record his travels around the world, and all he did was take it for a walk instead of capturing his memories on film.

Since then he has developed his photographic skills to benefit his work in food development. This included 10 years with Nestlé as business development chef until he joined spice and herb specialist McCormick Foods in 2006 as concept development chef. His role there includes developing recipes and menus, writing and implementing culinary training sessions for clients, and researching the latest trends and food styles from around the world.

“I had a great desire to take photography up in the Navy but it was when I started in food development that it really came to the fore,” he says.

In his current position, he needed to record all aspects of food development, which included taking images of any dishes or products he worked on, so he booked himself on to a food styling course at Leatherhead Food International and a professional photographer’s course and hasn’t looked back.

At McCormick he was provided with a Fuji camera but having completed the 24 week online course in professional photography, gaining a diploma at the end of it, he quickly realised he needed a better camera and bought himself a Canon EOS 7D with a few lenses – in fact a whopper of a camera and multiple lenses used by professionals.

“I bought five lenses but only use three, but they’re good for close work,” says Love. “You need a professional lens because it gives you clearer shots.

“I’ve been cooking since the age of five – that’s all I wanted to do, and never thought of doing anything else until now. I fell into photography in the same way as I fell into food. The reason I’m getting good results is because of my love of food. Now my food is being captured and published.”

The course enabled him to understand the basics to become a good food photographer. Most of the time he uses daylight for his shots but he says he also sets up a light over the dish that he wants to shoot. “That’s so important – lighting is key,” he says.

He says McCormick has been very supportive and allowed him to complete the courses as part of his personal development. He has now been taking photographs at the company for the last three years and taking foodservice shots seriously for the last year.

“It gives me a different slant on how to present food. When I was in Russia for McCormick I had to look at recipes and come up with something different. We have a project on low salt and one recipe was a rice dish called Plov, a Russian type of biriyani, that doesn’t have any salt in it. I used the camera to show the layers of the dish and when I lifted the food, some spilt on to the table – it made an effective presentation.”

He says cameras can be expensive but, just like the knives that chefs buy, they can last for years. But researching the camera before you buy it and learning about the programmes on it is very important. “If you get it set up right, the image you want will be captured. It’s just like having a good knife or the best produce when you cook a meal.

“Another tip is to learn as much as you can about lighting. Shooting in daylight is much better than artificial light.”

Love doesn’t believe in any tricks to make a shot work. “I think food should be shot as food using your skills as a photographer to make it happen. If you are doing a pouring shot, practise it first and then take the picture.

“Remember, plan your shot first and see it in your own mind; make sure you have the right props and you fill the image properly.

“I like to hook up my camera to my laptop via a USB cable so that I can quickly preview the shot on screen. I tend not to look through the lens.” Does the laptop matter? Love gets technical when he says he uses a Packard Bell but “an Apple would be preferable because it has better graphics”.

“You can shoot raw and it allows you to process images in this format,” he explains. “However, when you convert raw it’s a whopping 100MB, but you can reduce it. Photoshop is good for manipulating an image, but from raw you can change the negative and the lighting.”

For chefs, he says, learning more about photography is great for creating personal portfolios. “When I told my tutor what I was doing, he thought it was a brilliant idea. You can style, use props and create the image. When I do consumer work, I have a stylist as it may need to be a more lifestyle image and the food may not be the hero of the shot.

“Taking up food photography has renewed my passion for food. It sells the food. It also gives me pleasure to see my images being used.”

Words - Sheila Eggleston