Food Photography Workshop with Nina Gallant
by Audrey Reid
We all love drooling over those stunning pictures of food in magazines and online. Don’t deny it, you are reading a food blog, of course you love to look at food. Well, it is people like Nina Gallant that we have to thank for appeasing our delightful addiction. Nina is a food photographer. She has a knack for revealing the truth of a dish. Like a sculpture, it is what it is, but finding the right way to portray it takes time, talent, and vision.
Nina’s family has always been in the food business. So intimidatingly so, that she left Massachusetts to pursue a more artistic outlet at The Cooper Union School of Art in New York. Nevertheless, no matter how much she thought she was escaping the family profession, her work always seemed to return to themes of food and hospitality. It wasn’t until she was working as a photographer’s assistant on a food shoot, though, that she had her great ‘aha’ moment to become a food photographer. Since then, she has opened her own brick-and-mortar studio in Allston, working on cookbooks, food product packaging, and the occasional portrait.
Nina recently joined the Boston University community to share her skills with eager students and community members. This spring, she is leading a workshop on the essentials of food photography through the BU Metropolitan College Program of Food, Wine & the Arts. Following the four week course, which meets on Saturdays in April and May, students will be comfortable using their cameras on manual and editing their photos in Photoshop Elements. To be a good photographer, you must be able to see the end result and know how to overcome your limitations to get there. This is where Nina comes in.
Nina’s goal is to find students who want to learn how to use their cameras as more than a point-and-shoot, and those who want to learn the finer techniques of capturing the perfect food shot, and transform them into confident, capable food photographers. During the first two weeks, Nina will teach students how to maximize the use of their camera’s settings, frame a shot, and to manipulate and enhance photos in Photoshop Elements. The third week will be an adventure into the field to learn about taking photographs of foods as you might normally encounter them. The last session will be a day of eating and photo sharing. Each student will have chosen a dish or meal to photograph at home and will display their creative vision in a mini art show. The more you do, the easier it gets. So yes, there will be homework, but only the fun kind.
This amazing workshop is for photographers of every experience level who wish for a little guidance in their practice and are seeking that ‘aha’ moment where everything clicks into place.
For more information about dates, requirements, and pricing, please visit the Program of Food, Wine & Arts website.
To see more of Nina’s work, visit her website at ninagallant.com
Audrey Reid is president of the Gastronomy Students Association, manager of the Gastronomy at BU blog, and in her final semester of the Gastronomy Program. She has a BS in Chemistry, is a graduate of the Culinary Arts Program, and is earning her MLA with a concentration in Food Policy.