Olya Babitskaya: Delicious food deserves beautiful photos
"When I see a chef or a storekeeper making good food, but their menu is 'mama mia,' I want to help." This is what Olya Babitskaya says. She transformed from a programmer in Belarus to a food photographer in Bulgaria. In her Instagram profile, although she writes in Russian, her posts attract over 4,200 people of various nationalities and an increasing number of Bulgarians. Her online blog, however, includes a version entirely in Bulgarian, to share not only her delicious recipes, but also her experience on how a dish can become a supermodel in front of the camera.
"First comes the understanding of light. When you understand how light works, everything becomes easier. Sometimes you don't need to put all the lamps you have to light up the shot. I can dress up in all the nice clothes I have, but that won't show that I'm the most beautiful woman in the world. The shot shouldn't be cluttered. And it shouldn't be cluttered with light either," she explains.
Olya works with Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and uses various lenses: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM, Canon EF 50mm f/1.4L USM, Canon EF 85mm f/1.8L USM and Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro. For the light, which she defines as the most important for a good photo, she chooses Godox Wistro AD200 Pro.
"The plates, the arrangement – that's secondary, it doesn't make the photo. You can have a very beautiful bun in front of the lens or wonderful fruits and vegetables, but if you don't know how to use your camera, the products don't matter at all. And it's not the camera, but the person who takes the photo first. And the lens is more important than the camera. I like the 85mm and to shoot with an open aperture," she notes.
Olya came to Bulgaria because of her husband's job. The company he worked for offered him a position in Sofia, and shortly after, Olya and their two children found themselves here.
"The children really like their friends and Bulgaria - the mountains, the sea, everything. They speak Bulgarian very well, not like me. When we are in a restaurant, for example, they order, and I don't understand when the waiter speaks quickly."
Olya doesn't hide that she's embarrassed by her mistakes in Bulgarian. But her effort to use it when communicating with Bulgarians is impressive. When asked if she chose to stand behind the lens because the language of photography is universal, she replies:
"In Belarus, photography was my hobby. Here, my husband started a company and I officially became a photographer. I thought a photographer shouldn't talk to people, but that's a big mistake. I have Bulgarian clients, I speak English with them and I really need to communicate a lot."
And indeed – we're having this conversation for her portrait in Bulgarian at a patisserie. Because Olya's great love, before photography, was pastry making.
"I started making cakes, cupcakes, various sweet things and I wanted to show this on Instagram, Facebook, etc. I wanted to photograph them, but I didn't like what I was getting. So I started learning food photography. Not people, but food," she recalls the beginning from about 4 years ago.
She learns through videos and articles in various languages online and begins to understand her mistakes. "I'm still discovering mistakes, I'm still learning," she admits. But she has no problem sharing what she's learned with people who are just starting to arrange dishes in front of their cameras.
So, after demonstrating live in February at the Dynaphos studio how to achieve fire and levitation effects when photographing food products, today her blog features the techniques and lighting schemes she used to demonstrate it. At that time, her husband also participated in the preparation of her sets. And it turns out that Sergey is also good in the kitchen, where Olya sometimes photographs his recipes, especially for pizza.
She shares them, along with those she prepares herself, on her blog, whose name "Praleska" translates from Russian to "dove's eyes" – the name of a flower that grows in Belarusian forests. And Olya's dream with the dove's eyes is to create a cookbook and have more and more restaurants trust her to photograph their food.
"I don't see an end. I want to work more and more in this field because I love what I do."
You can learn more about Olya Babitskaya's recipes and her work behind the camera not only on her blog and Instagram, but if you want to follow her advice on how to make your photos great, you can download her app Awesome from the Play Store.
