PHOTOGRAPHY
DEREK FELL
Tips on Photographing Vegetables and Herbs
Photographing vegetables and herbs— whether for seed packets, catalogues, your photo library, photo requests or any other use— requires the photographer to consider how the viewer will respond to an image and how best to capture each plant for maximum appeal. Each type of plant represents a different challenge.
Some vegetables, such as tomatoes, eggplant, pole beans and squash, show off best when photographed on the plant. Be sure to examine them carefully to remove any blemishes. Since shadows from overhanging foliage can create harsh contrast on a sunny day, take photos on a cloudy day and use a reflector to bounce light under the vegetables.
HERBS
Many herbs, such as parsley, chervil and cilantro, remain green in their mature stage and look very similar. An artfully arranged close-up of the leaf pattern is one way to pose the plant, but with herbs I find that some colorful props can enhance the appeal. For example:
• Pose a bunch of plain-leaf parsley beside slices of smoked salmon with chopped parsley scattered on the salmon.
• Place a bunch of cilantro beside a colorful mixed salad with pieces of the leaf clearly used as a garnish.
• Show chervil growing in a pot to illustrate how decorative it can be on a sunny windowsill. Pair with a small salad plate showing pieces of chervil leaves sprinkled on slices of cucumber.
LOVELY LETTUCES The lettuce family contains dozens of varieties that can look alike unless composed so their salient features are evident. For example, people like cos lettuces because they have a prominent, crispy midrib and elongated leaf that is green at the top and creamy at the base. Stand a blemish-free head so it presents a profile and fan out some of the erect leaves so the creamy base is prominent; the result is an appealing image without props.
My most appealing composition of a butterhead lettuce like‘ Buttercrunch’ shows the head sliced in half like a apple so the tight, crisp, crunchy, yellow interior appears as mouthwatering as a melon sliced open.
ROOT CROPS
Carrots can be tricky to photograph correctly because each variety has a distinctive shape. The variety‘ Nantes’, for example, should not be photographed with a pointed end, even though many of the roots you pull out of the ground may be pointed. Because‘ Nantes’ is famous for its rounded tips, make sure that all the roots you shoot are rounded with straight shoulders. Lightly mist them with water from a spray bottle to intensify the color.
Similarly, red beets and other root crops will glow with color when the skin is lightly brushed and misted.
Above all, make your composition look organic, as if the plant is freshly harvested from the garden. For example, store-bought tomatoes are often easily detected by a pale skin color, dried-looking calyxes and the lack of flowers or healthy looking leaves. To suggest a garden setting you might include a bushel basket of fresh-picked fruit peeking into the frame.
Derek Fell’ s Vegetables – How to Select, Grow and Enjoy( HP Books) won a‘ best book’ award from GWA in 1982, and sold more than 100,000 copies. Now out of print, Derek is seeking a new publisher to revise and reprint it for today’ s growing interest in vegetable gardening.
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