Pizza Night & Food Photography Tips with Carly

At my first ever, Instagram live pizza night, we discuss food photography tips with Carly Hackbarth.

Pizza Night is Born

A few years back, my husband, step-daughter, and I started a Sunday night pizza night. From there, it grew into making handmade dough, having friends over, and playing games. It has changed many times over the last few years, but making/ordering pizza once a week hasn’t stopped. My favorite part of pizza night is the connection, the conversation, and the delicious toppings.

Most pizza nights this year have been my husband and me alone. I’ve missed hearing people’s stories. So the new pizza night emerged, and here we are. So that’s what you can expect from my Instagram Live pizza night once a month. We will share some expertise, talk about pizza, and hear some stories. Let’s dig into our first slice!

Introducing Carly

I know Carly from The Assembly in San Francisco, a lifestyle/fitness/self-care/coworking space focused on women’s health and growth. We both ended up getting into photography around the same time and bonded over our Sony cameras. While my journey took me toward branding, hers led to food photography. She has an interesting perspective from her experience as a social media manager and email marketer. She knows how to make food look delicious but also what shots get attention. 

Her Top 3 Food Photography Tips

Consider the lighting and time of day

Observe the light in the space you are using. What’s the best time of the day? Usually, it’s during the day, so plan your meal prep and photos during that time.

Create the dish for photos, not for consumption.

All too often we make a dish and then decide to take photos. Carly suggests doing it the other way around. Make the dish with the photos in mind at the right time of day with the best light. Plan to have extra amounts of each ingredient around so you can add detail and style your images.

Focus on what makes the image special.

Ask yourself what makes the dish so special? Is it seasonal, what ingredient is key, which ingredient looks the best? Highlight that in the images. 

For example, let’s say the most photogenic ingredient for Margherita pizza is basil. From there zoom in on the basil, highlight it on the pizza, leave extra sprinkled around the pizza. Take your first photo and then use that as feedback to experiment, crop, zoom, or add details.

More pizza night food photography tips

Watch the full conversation and if you have more questions, follow Carly or email her.

View this post on Instagram

At the first ever pizza night live Carly Hackbarth and I chat about food photography tips. 🍕 #pizzawithdanielle @carlyahackbarth

A post shared by SF & Palm Springs Brand Photog (@daniellepoliniphotography) on Jul 29, 2020 at 5:31pm PDT

The Next Pizza Night

Stay tuned for August’s pizza night. If you have ideas for topics or want to join me, DM me on Instagram or email me danielle@daniellepolini.com.

#pizzawithdanielle