Hi Reader,

As Christmas approaches, I wanted to take you behind the scenes of how I took a photo of my beloved panettone (which I baked for the first time this year).

Step 1 - Deciding on the colors & mood

For me, as much as panettone is a Christmas dessert, it also has a very elegant, graceful note. So I wanted my photo to express that.

Here are a few things I like to think about when deciding on a theme:

• What colors express what I want to say? Purple is a color I find very elegant and one I haven't used a lot in my photos (at least not in terms of backgrounds). At the same time, I wanted to use a color not often used for Christmas photos to make it a bit different.
• What materials will go with my theme? Again, I wanted to emphasize the elegance. Because of that, I chose an elegant dark wooden backdrop, some soft, flowy fabric, and just a few candles for that festive spirit.

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Step 2 - Choosing the plate

One thing I like to do before styling my food on the scene is test that food with the props I am using.

For this photo, I knew I needed a plate of some sort to present the panettone. For that reason, I brought out a few plates I thought might look great for the theme, and the size matched the size of the panettone.

And I just tested them. So here are a few test shots with my panettone still in the bag, so it didn't dry out.

None of these worked, and I had a hard time finding something I liked in my collection 😅

I finally found a plate that I loved for its size, shape, and texture. But it was the wrong color, so I decided to go for it and edit that in post-processing.

Step 3 - Adding the final touches

While I was picking the plate, I already started to add other props to the scene, because it was easier to see how it would go with other props as well, not just the food.

I had my composition almost ready, but just a few more things were missing.

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The panettone shape was not clearly visible, so I was pretty sure at that point that removing the paper was necessary. It was just too dark and blended in with the background.

So I went and removed it and discovered there was an inner lining in the paper that was similar (if not the same) to thin baking paper. While I was trying to remove it, I saw the panettone was hard to remove from that inner lining (probably due to it being just slightly underbaked on the sides).

In the photo below, you can see how I dissected the back side of the panettone (the side that wasn't the prettiest) to see which one would work best.

And I decided to leave the inner lining and remove the dark outer one for my final photo.

The second thing that was missing was the candles. So, I added three elegant bright purple candles on top of the cake. I added some on the backdrop as well for the texture and context but decided to put them in the back so they don't take too much attention.

Step 4 - Creating smoke

When creating smoke, especially from more then one candle, it takes a lot of trial and error. So, I took a bunch of photos and actually ended up with more than just one final photo.

Here are my four final shots (Photos nr. 2 & 3 are composites):

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AAAAND you might be wondering how this entire scene looked from further away, so here is the photo of my entire setup:

Hope you enjoyed this photo breakdown and if you did, feel free to share it with your photography friends through this link. 💜

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This is also my last email of the year. I'll be taking next week off to spend time with my family and friends and hopefully do some fun activities in the snow. So you won't hear from me next week, but I will talk to you again in January!

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✨ Merry Christmas ✨