Here is our course library. All completed courses are available for Club members as soon as you join – future courses have “Coming Soon” under them. New courses added often.
Beginner Program
PHOTO EQUIPMENT: Cameras, lenses, tripods, and other necessary food photography equipment and accessories. How to buy new and used equipment.
BASIC CAMERA SETTINGS I: F-Stops, Shutter Speed, ISO, White Balance, Camera Modes, Getting Correct Exposure, Exposure Compensation, Using the Histogram, Metering Modes
BASIC CAMERA SETTINGS II: Camera Focus, Jpeg Files, RAW Files, File Sizes, Color Settings, Video Settings, Live View Mode, Setting Back to Factory Default, LCD Brightness.
SETTING UP YOUR CAMERA: How To Set Up Your Canon and Nikon Cameras. As many students don't have Canons or Nikons, this course will not be counted in your course progression on your Dashboard page.
TAKING PICTURES: Various Composition Rules and Suggestions, Vertical VS Horizontal, 3/4 Shot, Overhead Shot, Straight On Shot, Other Angles
NATURAL LIGHTING FOR FOOD PHOTOS: Basic Lighting Principles, Light Modifiers, Natural Side Light for Overhead Sets, Natural Side Light For Tabletop Sets, Natural Back Light, How To Do A Light And Bright Shot, How To Do A Dark And Moody Shot, Beverages & Glassware
Intermediate Program
ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING FOR FOOD PHOTOS: Basic Lighting Principles, Light Modifiers, Artificial Side Light for Overhead Sets, Artificial Side Light For Tabletop Sets, How To Do A Dark And Moody Shot
PRE-PRODUCTION & PLANNING: Planning Your Shoot, Making A Shot List, Planning Your Shoot With a small Client – big clients will be handled in the Business of Photography Class
STROBE LIGHTING FOR FOOD PHOTOS: Basic Lighting Principles For Strobes, Types of Strobe Lights, Necessary Equipment, Strobe Side Light For Tabletop Sets, Strobe Back Light, How To Do A Light And Bright Shot, How To Do A Dark And Moody Shot
FOOD STYLING: Food Styling Do's & Don'ts, Keeping Food Stable, Various Food Styling Techniques, Contents of a Food Styling Kit, Building Burgers, Plus more modules being added regularly
PROP STYLING: Prop Styling Basics, Prop Styling Do's & Don'ts, Finding Great Props, Making Your Own Backgrounds and Surfaces, Various Prop Styling Tricks, Working With Fabrics, Propping For A Job, Working With A Prop Stylist, How To Pick The Best Plate, Best and Worst Colors For Food, Prop Styling Kits, and Propping For Your Story
POST PRODUCTION & EDITING: Lightroom Importing, LR Editing, LR Exporting, Using LR Presets, Optimize for the Web or Print, Photoshop Editing, Free Editors
SHOOTING TETHERED: Course 13 – Lightroom Setup for Tethering, LR Editing While Tethered, LR Exporting, Capture One Pro Setup, Capture One Pro Editing While Tethered, Capture One Pro Exporting, Organizing Files, Naming Files, How To Capture Wirelessly Without LR or COP.
SETTING UP YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS: Naming Your Business, Getting A Business License, What is a DBA, What Is A Sole Proprietor, Difference Between DBA, LLC & S-Corp, What Is An EIN, Sales Tax, Business Insurance, Workman's Comp & Payroll, 1099 Forms and Your Crew.
BEST PRACTICES FOR RUNNING YOUR BUSINESS: Forming Your Crew, Using Photography Accounts At Stores, Photography Agents and Reps, Renting Studios, Copyright, Licensing Images, Model and Property Release Forms, Keeping Organized, Your Business Team, 1099's, and Some IRS Tips.
Advanced Program
BUILDING YOUR FOOD PORTFOLIO: What To Call Your Website, Website Hosting, Using Website Template Builders, WordPress, To Blog Or Not To Blog, How To Organize Your Images, How Many Images To Use, What You Must Show As A Food Photographer, Portfolio Books (Physical Books), Portfolios On iPads, Adding Estimate Forms On Your Websites, SEO For Your Website, Google Analytics
GETTING CLIENTS MARKETING: What Kind Of Clients Do You Want, Finding Your Client, Using Emailers, Emailing Etiquette, Blogs, Using Printed Promos, Online Directories, Test Shooting, How to Handle Potential Client Phone Calls, Qualifying The Client, Working With Ad Agencies
PRICING FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY JOBS: Figuring Out Your Costs, Types of Clients VS Types of Budgets, Types of Jobs, Stop Shooting For Free, When It’s Ok To Shoot For Free, Pricing For Small Clients, Pricing For Agency Clients, Questions You Must Ask A Potential Client, The Package Deal, Anatomy of the Estimate, Expenses For Your Jobs
YOUR FIRST JOB: Scheduling First Meetings, Estimating The Job, Billing For The Advance Payment, Contracts, Renting Studios, Producing The Job, Getting Your Crew Together, Shooting The Job, Dealing with Overtime, When Clients Add Shots, Getting Your Crew Invoices, Billing Your Client, and Following Up For Payment.
COPYRIGHTING YOUR WORK: Introduction To Copyright, Difference Between Published and Unpublished Images, How To Copyright Your Photography, What Happens When Someone Steals Your Images
RESTAURANT PHOTOGRAPHY: Treating This as a Business, Business License, Business Insurance, Pricing, Getting a Shot List, How To Deliver Files, Follow Up, My Food Kit for Location, Equipment I Use For Restaurants, Interacting With The Client, Collaborating with the Chef, Shooting Tethered, Incorporating People in Your Shots
PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY: As a food photographer, it will be expected that you also shoot food products. This can be jars, containers, boxes, any type of food packaging. Christina will show you several product photography demos.
PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY: No matter what you specialize in as a photographer, you will get asked to photograph other things. In this course we'll go over basic portrait lighting principals, posing your subject, basic lighting equipment, best lenses, best camera settings based on certain situations, and types of portraits you might get asked to d
PRINTING AND COLOR MANAGEMENT: Course 24 – In this course Christina will teach you about color management and how to take your images to print with Photoshop, and Lightroom. There are 5 modules in this course.
Extras & Bonus Content
SMARTPHONE FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY: Basic Settings, Equipment & Shooting Techniques, Lighting and Lighting Tools, Getting Your Files To Your Computer
DARK AND MOODY FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: This challenge will take you through all the steps you need to create a beautiful Dark and Moody image.
5 DAY LIGHT AND BRIGHT FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: Learn the lighting technique that launched Christina's career – the Light and Bright style.
5 DAY FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE – BEVERAGES AND COCKTAILS: Learn several easy ways to photography beverages and cocktails.
