Pumpkin cookies are a perfect subject for building up fall food photography skills. I had a few ideas when photographing this recipe: feature the paisley design, complement the ‘spiced orange’ color of the cookies, and capture the spirit of fall. If I could get all of those in 1 photo, that would be ideal.
First idea: use a contrasting background
I like to start simple and build up from there. Sometimes simple is best when you have a lot going on with the food itself, like a brightly colored salad with a lot of texture, or these cookies with a paisley design.
First, you can also see that I just eyeballed the placement of each cookie. I should have measured and marked their positions because in a composition like this it’s pretty obvious that the alignment is off.
I like the gray-blue background and how the flecks in it mimic the dark spots on the plain cookies. As I mentioned, the simplicity of this photo really highlights the paisley design and I’d normally really like that. However, this didn’t feel very autumn to me.
The background is a vinyl print from Swanky Prints on Etsy. I did minor contrast and color adjustments to edit the photo.
Summary:
- Feature paisley: yes
- Complement orange: yes
- Capture fall: no
Next: Add more visual complexity
Building from the previous photo, I placed a gold grate on top of the blue background in hopes that it complemented the paisley design. I then placed the cookies on a wooden stand to make them pop a bit more against the ‘busy’ grate design. The spacing of the cookies could be a bit more uniform, if I was being overly critical.
I like how the complexity of the grate does work well with the paisley and surprisingly it matched the spiced orange color of the cookies. I like this one better than the previous photo.
This photo has minor color adjustments and I blurred the background a little more than the original photograph had.
Summary:
- Feature paisley: yes
- Complement orange: yes
- Capture fall: no
The Winner: Fall props
What says fall better than winter squash and gourds? I grabbed some gray and dark ones at the market when planning ahead for this photo. I worried that too much orange would make the cookie color look dull.
The big orange and white squash in the upper left as well as the gray and dark squash keep this photo coloring in control so it works with the cookie color and not against them.
The other two photos might feature the cookies color and the paisley pattern a little bit more, but they were completely missing the seasonal feeling. For this recipe, capturing the essence of fall was the most important thing for me, so this picture was the clear winner.
This photo has only very tiny edits – the original is on the left and the edited version on the right. I just bumped the contrast up a bit after cropping it – you can see it in the contrast in the mini pumpkins, but it’s quite subtle. You can also see I edited out a flaw in the top left cookie.
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