Food photography tips: Ingredients as props

This image was shot as a potential cover photo for a gazpacho story. Not only do the avocados quickly explain what is in the dish, but they also add texture to the overall shot.
Avocado gazpacho recipe  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

The beer bottle is a quick giveaway to the viewer that the recipe includes beer. (I also kind of like to think Old Rasputin is giving his blessing to the brittle here too.)
Beer brittle recipe.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Another gazpacho image. Not only do the ingredients indicate what is in the recipe, they also add rich color.
Andalusian garden gazpacho recipe.  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

That same gazpacho as a vertical shot.
Andalusian garden gazpacho recipe.  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

Sliced nectarines quickly explain the pie without having to slice into it.
Nectarine almond crumble pie recipe.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Another pie shot from the same story; the blueberries add a nice pattern at the top of the shot.
Blackberry pie recipe.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Although cherimoya is the main ingredient in this recipe, kumquat zest plays a colorful part in the dish. The kumquats, slightly out of focus at the back of the image, help to explain the zest and add color.
Cherimoya semifreddo recipe.  (Eric Boyd / Los Angeles Times)

A dramatic (soft focus, soft light) still life of some of the ingredients used in the dish.
Recipe: Potato pancakes with apple-onion jam and horseradish creme fraiche  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Instead of filling the shot with plain bulgur, we decided to play up the pomegranate sauce, placing the bright fruit out of focus at the rear of the shot. Recipe: bulgur latkes with pomegranate sauce  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

Like the pomegranate in the previous shot, the lemons at the rear add bright color and give weight to the empty space at the back.
Recipe: Lazy Mary’s lemon tart  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

You can’t really tell what the vegetables are at the rear of the shot, but they help to fill up the empty space.
Autumn vegetable hash  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

A few hazelnuts add a playful touch to the composition and fill up empty space.
Hazelnut and sherry zabaglione recipe  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

This recipe uses fresh and candied ginger. A few pieces of candied ginger help to identify the ingredient for readers who may never have cooked with candied ginger before.
Recipe: Hans’ ginger scones  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

The brown sugar doesn’t do much to add color to this shot (we leave that to the colorful blue plates), but it does help to identify what makes this shortbread recipe unique.
Brown sugar shortbread recipe.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

A wedge of Parmesan helps to identify these beignets -- which are usually sweet -- as savory.
Cheese beignets recipe.  (Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times)

If we went for a simple shot of grilled chicken, the viewer wouldn’t be able to appreciate all the flavors that make the marinade unique. Here we show a simple breakdown of one recipe from a story on marinades.
Thai coconut chicken recipe.  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

Another photo from the same story on marinades; each recipe was photographed showing each of the ingredients to serve as an easy reference.
Mediterranean balsamic marinade recipe.  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

For a story on New Mexico chiles, we wanted to feature the fresh chiles with each recipe. Here they add color and help with composition.
Recipe: Green chile, corn and zucchini frittata  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

We shot this tart in a variety of ways, both tight (where you see only a bit of the tart to show the flaky texture of the crust) and as a whole. For this whole shot, we needed something to fill the empty space and used whole strawberries.
Fresh berry tart recipe  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Whole fresh strawberries provide a nice bright background to this photo of old-fashioned strawberry shortcake.
Old-fashioned strawberry shortcake recipe  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

From a story on grilled cheese variations, the blue cheese and pear in the background help to identify this particular sandwich.
Recipe: Grilled blue cheese and pear sandwich  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Another recipe from the same grilled cheese story, the onions in the background may not be identifiable given the lack of focus, but they help to balance the shot and add weight to the background.
Recipe: Grilled Gruyere and marinated onion sandwich  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)