The kitchen is a pretty impressive place. Wonderful food can be created there, but it’s also an ideal place to create different and interesting shots that can help your work stand out from the crowd. Keep reading and within just a few minutes you’ll have a list of great ideas that’ll set you off on a shoot that’s only going to be limited by your creativity.

Grab your camera and get ready for the fun as I share seven ideas for original shots that that you can start taking within the next few minutes. This isn’t about careful planning; this is about impulse and instant results, shots you can take NOW. Make your next week all about the kitchen and take one shot each day.

Monday – Make a mess.

I’m on a constant look-out for the perfect scene or subject to shoot; but the imperfect and messy can also make for a frame that catches people’s attention. Let your hair down and have some fun; kitchens are easy to clean so make a mess! Maybe not flour bombs at dawn, but dropping an egg on the floor isn’t going to cause that much trouble.

Try this: break an egg

Here is the setup for this shot:

 

Write with food:

Tripods are great bits of kit but not in the kitchen, it’s just too easy to knock one over and damage both yourself and your camera. This is going to mean lots of handheld shots. If you’re using a point and shoot set it to portrait mode and it’ll open the aperture and let more light hit the sensor. If you have a bridge or DSLR camera then raise your ISO a little and manually lower your f number.

 

Tuesday – Look at the world differently

How tall are you? I bet you look at your kitchen from the same height and angles each visit? But what happens when you sit on the floor, or stand on a chair, or put your head under, inside or next to an object?

If you are not feeling athletic you can just move your camera and look at something old and familiar in a new way.

Try this:

Lay on the floor and look up, what do you see? Keep a wide aperture so as much of the scene is in focus as possible, a sharp shot from front to back will add to the surreal effect in your frame.

 

Open your washer and look in?

Reflections can be a huge problem and there’s very little you can do to completely remove them. What you can do, however, is to use the biggest light source possible and soften it as much as possible. Think about bouncing light off ceilings, worktops etc.

 

Wednesday – Use the light

Kitchens are filled with light sources and reflective surfaces. Stop and look at your fridge: it’s a little like a light box and great for product photos with its shiny white sides and internal light.

Try this:

Here is the setup for this shot:

Take a seamless product shot of a fruit or vegetable in the fridge. Remember that more light isn’t necessarily better, don’t blast your subject with so much light that all traces of shadows vanish: a completely shadow free shot will look two dimensional and flat.

Use sheets of white paper to make a continuous background and hide the shelves.

 

Thursday – Create a story

If your kitchen could speak it would have plenty to say.  A narrative shot shares a story with your audience getting them to engage with and think about your shot so set a scene and tell a tale.

Try this:

Tell the story of a midnight snack. Content is important here but don’t forget your composition.

You can use lighting to alter the mood of your shot and add to the story of it being a sneaky snack. To help keep the lighting suitable for a sneaky event use a small light source. This will increase shadows and help give the feeling that your subject is doing something in secret.

 

Friday – Experiment with shutter speed.

Mastering how to select shutter speeds can feel overwhelming but once you’ve got the knack all sorts of new photo opportunities become possible!

Use shutter priority to set a fast shutter speed if you want to freeze the action or go the other way and slow it down to show motion. Try not to make it solely a technical exercise; remember composition and content and enjoy yourself.

Try this:

Bake a cake, or at least drop some flour and milk in your food mixer and catch the action. For a fast shot turn all the lights on, use either sports mode or a high ISO and wide aperture combination.

If its motion blur and silky water you need, pull the curtains closed, use a night mode or lower the ISO and narrow the aperture.

 

Saturday – Release your inner artist.

Indoors with time to experiment means you can try for more abstract shots. Get close for macro or move out for a wider more bizarre frame.

Try this:

Search the kitchen for a stack of interesting items and get in close to fill the frame with lines and colour.

 

I took this shot by bouncing light off the underside of a cupboard to create soft light that removed the shadows.  At the end of the post I’ll link out to the awesome and inexpensive LED lights I used for these shots including the one shown above.

 

Sunday – Composition counts.

However beautiful your kitchen is, you still need to think about composition. A kitchen is a place of angles and lines, use these in your composition as geometric patterns, leading lines or as the subject themselves.

Try this:

 

Here is the setup for this shot (you can’t get more simple than this!):

Keep things simple and elegant as you take a minimalist shot.  Raid the cutlery drawer and balance an interesting item on two forks. The prongs of the forks will be shiny so hard lighting will keep them crisp in the final image.

If you use something with soft edges as your other item you might struggle to have the impact you’d like. The way to avoid this is to choose something with clear edges and colours that won’t blend with the background. Think also about what else is going to be in the shot. A busy background isn’t going to help show off the work you’ve put into the composition, making a continuous background is going to help in this shot too.


Finishing up

I hope you agree the kitchen is a great place to get both your digestive and creative juices flowing. Expand your portfolio with a set of frames that are different from everyone else’s.  Go on, try working down the list, I’m willing to bet you’ll surprise yourself with some great shots. Avoid spending too long planning, grab your camera and jump into action!

 

Helpful tools:

Easy and inexpensive light sources: Neewer LED Photography Studio Setup

 

The light source shown above is great because its cheap, easy to use, and runs on simple regular batteries.  You can purchase them both for only $69.99 total on Amazon.com.

They include a surprising amount of goodies: both lights, both tripods, a diffuser and orange correction gel each, and they even mount in a standard DSLR hotshoe mount (you can put them on top of your camera when shooting video), and they run on AA batteries!

 

If you want to start with only one of the lights without the tripod you can get it on Amazon for only $29.99.

 

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