A tripod. I’ve decided that I have to just break down and photograph with a tripod until daylight savings comes back. Or, at least until we get through January. Right now, I envy people who live in cold but sunny places during the winter instead of a warm(er), damp, dark, rainy places. At least then I’d get an hour or two of decent light.
I started my Christmas baking this weekend with a new biscotti recipe titled, appropriately enough, Christmas Biscotti! How about that?
It was a bit of a dilemma for me because I realized I needed a new blog post but, I blogged most of my Christmas favourites last winter. So I had to try something new. The things us food bloggers must do! It’s incredibly stressful! (tongue in cheek implied here…)
Biscotti is an easy thing to make but I remembered why I’ve only ever photographed it once for the blog. Because it’s a giant pain in the patootie. That’s why. Cookies in general are hard (for me, anyway) but biscotti… arrrggghh…
Nearly pulled my hair out with these and I created an awful lot of chaos in my kitchen and office trying to find some props to make them interesting, trying to fake my way to more light and trying a hundred different setups and still not coming even close to the idea I had in my head. In fact, those pictures didn’t even make it here… was too frustrated by them. These are all Plan B photos. And I applied a Lightroom developer preset to get the retro feel to them (I tend to use develop presets when I hate the photos – they hide a lot of flaws…) but more on that below…
The recipe turned out really well though…
- ½ cup butter or margarine
- 1 cup sugar
- 2½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg divided
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- ½ cup chopped glazed cherries (I used more)
- ½ cup mixed glazed fruit
- 1 tbsp finely grated orange peel
- ⅔ cup icing sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- combine butter and sugar until fluffy
- add sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and cloves and mix till well combined
- add in 2 eggs and the yolk of the one you divided and continue mixing
- slowly add in your flour until – if you’re using an electric mixer, you may need to do the last bit by hand
- combine the fruit, cherries and orange peel into the dough by hand
- divide the dough in half and form into two 11x2x1 inch loaves
- place on a lightly greased cookie sheet
- mix your remaining egg white with 1 tbsp of water and lightly brush over the loaves
- bake at 375F for 20-25 min or until light brown
- cool on the cookie sheet for about an hour
- cut loaves diagonally into ½ inch slices (a serrated knife works best)
- place slices cut side up on an ungreased cookie sheet
- bake at 325F for 10 minutes
- turn slices over and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until crisp.
- cool on wire racks.
- mix icing sugar and lemon juice together and brush over top and sides of slices for a zesty glaze
Food Photography Tips
I don’t know how much in the way of tips I can offer here because frankly, these are a combo of sheer perseverance and grinding it out and some Lighroom presets that I use when I want to “cheat” for lack of a better word. I call it cheating because I use them when I feel I didn’t do what I needed to do in camera, which means, to me anyway, that I failed at what I set out to do. Not to be confused with when I use presets just to have some fun! The preset is called Color Creative – CP 2 and it comes standard with LR.
All photos were shot with a tripod between noon and 4pm and all of them used a white reflector in order to coax some extra light onto the scene.
Image 1: f/5.0, 1/30, 100mm, ISO 800
Image 2: f/7.1, 0.8, 100mm, ISO 500.
Image 3: f/3.5, 1/40, 100mm, ISO 800
And here is a picture of Sammy, fast asleep amidst all the chaos. I even pulled his bed around to get to my prop boxes and he didn’t even stir. No interest in biscotti. Or photographs…
They look yummy! I am going to have to dig the tripod out again… I need all the help I can get this winter
I’ve decided it’s really the only way. I’m just klutzy with one.
Love the last photo, from the looks of it, your pup has a more comfortable office chair than you do
Trying biscotti for the fist time this Christmas, we’ll see how it goes.
That chair should be placed in a dumpster and be put out of its misery. A new chair has been on my list for ages! Sam definitely has the more comfortable spot. Biscotti takes a while but it’s easy and it’s a great way to use up baking odds and ends!
Photographing in the winter is definitely a challenge. I always use my tripod and also try to use a bristol board or Styrofoam board to bounce the light from the window back on to my food. Since I don’t have any clamps to clamp the board onto the table I adjust the settings on my camera and then set it on self timer so I can maneuver around the camera/food and hold the bristol/Styrofoam in place!
Don’t even get me started on photographing cookies – it’s definitely hard!
i prop my foam board up with the fruit bowl on the dining room table. It works! But I have been known to hold it up with my knee, elbow, etc and I have knocked an entire tray of cookies off the table when I lost my balance once trying to hold it up! The things we do!
Oh my gosh Melissa that Biscotti looks awesome! Not like it would cut the roof of my mouth like most Biscottis do. Oh man and can Sammy sleeping get any cuter. I want to eat him more than the Biscotti!
XO
Sam
Sam is a love bug. My big ball of fluff. I take way too many pictures of him!
Melissa I totally feel your frustration. Just a few days ago I couldn’t take a decent photo or set up the scene. The only thing to do for me is just stop and try again later or the next day. But I think your photos look great. As does that Christmas biscotti. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Nancy. I’ve had days like that too – where I just have to leave it or go photograph something completely unrelated to food.
I’ve been commenting all over your website today, as I’ve just discovered it (via twitter). I have just seen this biscotti recipe and I have a similar one on my blog made with Provence Glace cherries. I would like to link this to my post if I may.
Hello Melissa,
I saw Chef Dennis Littley’s post about your photography tip article and checked it out. I love this Christmas Biscotti recipe and would love you to add some of your exceptional photos to the Photo section of my online cooking magazine, called “Cooking Up a Storm All Over The World!”
http://CookingUpaStorminCA.ning.com
If you join you would be the 156th member.
It would be great to have your input aboard on the site!
Polly Motzko
Creator of Cooking Up A Storm All Over The World!