My go-to tools for my cooking videos and food photoshoots!
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Starting out with food photography and cooking videos can be quite a challenge… Then another challenge, and another, and so on. I’ve been doing this for about 10 years now and have come a long way, but I can still clearly remember the struggles that I ran into in my first few years of producing delicious food content.
Between figuring out backgrounds, affordable quality equipment, perfecting angles, and everything else that comes up, it can be overwhelming to even get started! I want to help ease some of those beginner frustrations for you by sharing some of my cooking video knowledge that I’ve built up over the years.
To give you a bit of a jumpstart on figuring out just where to start, I want to share my list of My Favorite Tools for Cooking Videos! These are my absolute favorite cooking tools and equipment that I run to for my cooking videos. These kitchen tools and recording equipment are present for pretty much every one of my recipe recordings and photoshoots!
One particular thing I find that really helps me out is that I like to keep everything in monochrome. Colors are constantly going out of style way too quickly to be able to keep up with which ones are currently in-style. I need my photos and videos to withstand time as long as possible! Especially considering that the average life of an image or video is 8-10 years. Plus nobody has time to swap out their tools and equipment to constantly keep up with stylish changes.
My Favorite Cooking Tools
Let me start by going over some of my most commonly used cooking tools. These are the most common kitchen tools that I use in just about all of my videos and photoshoots and I love them! Remember, you want to use cooking tools that look nice but are also functional and can do the job you need in the recipe videos.
Go-To Cooking Tools:
- Single burner electric stove
- This single burner is perfect for studios, so much more eye-pleasing to look at in video content, and it’s really easy to handle and store.
- Silicone spatulas
- These are perfect for both cold and hot recipes as they are heat-resistant.
- Wooden spoons
- White dishes
- Simple utensils
- Kitchen towels
- Blender with a glass pitcher
- KitchenAid Stand Mixer
- Glass mixing bowls
- Hand mixer
The Best Background
Hands down, my all-time favorite background surface to use in my cooking videos is my DIY marble background! It took me a while to figure out the best method for this DIY but it was absolutely worth it. I love having the fancy marble look as my background without having to pay the price of the real stuff just for my studio.
This marble background is absolutely gorgeous! Plus, it’s actually pretty easy to make, easy to carry and store, very durable even with heavy cooking equipment, and much, much more affordable than real marble! Here is how I made my own Marble Background for Food Photography.
To see other backdrops and backgrounds I’ve tried -and to get a more in-depth look at how I found the best way to make this kind of background- check out some of my other helpful blogs:
- Best Backgrounds for Video Recipes
- Storing Backgrounds for Food Photography
- Backdrops and Backgrounds
Here’s the camera equipment I just can’t live without:
- Camera: Sony A6400
- Good, inexpensive, and reliable camera
- Lenses:
- External monitors
- These allow me to see what I’m shooting in real time.
- Large memory cards
- These are so useful because I don’t need to stop and swap cards during the photoshoot or video. Nobody has time for that!
- C-stand
- Low floor footprint, which just means it doesn’t take up a lot of space.
- Easy to use with arm extension.
- LED lighting
- Low profile
- No overheating
- Remote control for cameras
- This allows me to start my cameras all at the same exact time and keeps me from having to press a start button and shake the cameras.
For a deeper look into more of my specific equipment, check out What’s in My Toolbox?
Cooking Video Equipment Help
When starting out in food photography and recipe videography, everything can be really confusing. You might find yourself asking questions like, where do I even start? What should I use? Where do I put all this stuff? Well, here are some more helpful blogs to help get you started with confidence:
- Best Camera for Cooking Videos
- Best Equipment for Video Recipes
- 7 Tips for Studio Equipment Safety
- 5 Ways to Improve Studio Organization
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