A-Z Food Photography Project – Q is for Quiche

Q is for Quiche, check out the Q challenge in my A-Z Food Photography Project. Frustration, a letter that nobody uses and razorblades are involved, keep reading.

Well I knew this one would be a challenge and I was right. Not one of the best looking letters around and not the most fun food to use anyway. That didn’t stop me, let’s see how things went.

Choosing food in Q is for Quiche
Let’s face it, there are very few foods that start with the letter Q. We have quiche, quinoa, quince and a few others. After some agonizing I decided to bake a pie. Or a quiche to be more exact. They are usually round so I figured I could cut out a Q out of the entire quiche.

Making some Quiche
Making quiche is not very hard. A pie crust is filled with whatever you like and then a mixture of eggs and creamed is poured over it. The egg filling fills out all the gaps between the filling leaving you with a completely filled pie crust.

To make this easy I bought a pre-made dough to use for the quiche. I then cut it up and made three different quiche’s. I wasn’t sure how they would look or how difficult it would be to cut them so I wanted some options.

Then I prebaked the dough and then filled it, two with sliced zucchini and one with tomatoes. The tomato one turned out looking best but cutting it up wouldn’t have made it look better so I skipped that one and sort of ate it instead.

Cutting out the Q
So I chose the pie with zucchini but I made one big mistake. When I made the pies I prebaked the dough. This is something you usually do when making quiche so the dough will be crisp and not soft and feel unbaked. But if you don’t want to eat your pie and instead cut out a Q from it to gain some internet fame, prebaking is a problem.

I used a paper Q, a razor blade, a sharp knife and loads of patience to be able to cut through the crust without breaking the pie. Luckily it turned out decent.

Taking the photos in Q is Quiche
The color of the pie was not so fun, baked zucchini turns into a not very appetizing dark green. The quiche also looked very dry. The second problem was easily fixed, I just brushed the Q with some vegetable oil. A common trick for any food stylist, myself included.

The color was what it was, I increased the green a little bit in post production but maybe I just need to realize that a quiche is not the best looking food around.

As a background I tried to use some oak wood. That usually looks nice but with my dark green and brownish quiche the contrast it lacked contrast and the Q simply looked ugly. So back to my trusted friend black.

Then it was just a matter of time to snap some photos, edit them and post. Next letter coming soon.

Buy Prints from Ateriet A-Z in Food
I’ve just opened up shop at Society6, this means that some of the photos from A-Z in Photography will be available to buy. I will be making prints available as I go and there will be other food photographs that would look great on your wall as well so make sure to visit there and get some good stuff to hang on your wall. Find the shop here.

About A-Z Photography Project at Ateriet

A-Z Photography Project is a photo project here at Ateriet and at Instagram. The idea is to photograph each letter of the alphabet and let it represent one food or something edible. I am making the project for fun and to hopefully improve on my photography skills.

You can follow the project on Instagram under the tag #atozinfood where some of these photos will be published from our Instagram for Ateriet that you’ll find at @AterietFood.

Feel free to share and contribute and come with critique about this project, just send us an email, leave a comment or connect on social media.