The kit you use for food videography can have a large impact on your work, but you don't have to spend a lot of money to get great results. Jessie believes that your lens choice matters more than the camera, and recommends a 50mm lens with a wide aperture such as the Canon RF 50mm F1.8 STM. "This gives me the resolution and quality I'm after," she says. The narrow depth of field also makes the food stand out and ensures it's the centre of attention.
Jessie also used the Canon RF 100mm F2.8L MACRO IS USM lens on this shoot and says she immediately fell in love with it. "It's ideal for getting close to the food, and the sharpness of the footage is amazing," she says. "I like to use it to showcase the delicious textures of a bake. The AF/MF toggle makes it super easy to switch between manual focus, when I want to maintain focus on the subject, and autofocus, when I want to track movement in a scene." Additionally, using a low aperture enables Jessie to emphasise the food and create a dreamy, blurred background. The lens boasts 5.5-stops of Optical IS for shake-free footage, but can deliver up to 8-stops when working in conjunction with a camera with In-Body Image Stabilisation (IBIS), such as the Canon EOS R6 Mark II. Dual Nano USM motors also ensure accurate and high-speed autofocus in near silence so the lens noise doesn't interfere with your subject.
The versatile Canon RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM is a compact and lightweight option. "The wide focal length enables me to capture long shots to show the entire subject, and then zoom in for close-ups without the need to change the lens or move the tripod, and without losing resolution," says Jessie. "It also responds quickly to movement and focuses on the subject without making a noise – perfect when recording video with sound." This lens features up to 5-stops of Optical IS and if you pan your lens with IS activated, it switches automatically from Standard IS to Panning IS. This means you can shoot videos handheld and move your camera about to capture every detail.
As for her camera, until the start of 2023, Jessie used an APS-C DSLR before upgrading to the full-frame mirrorless Canon EOS R8. "I use artificial lighting so you have to match it with the colour on your camera, otherwise you end up with green or pink tones," she says. "More so with food, as you don't want white cream to look yellow. The EOS R8 has really helped as it enables me to set a custom white balance so I can get the exact colours I'm looking for."
The EOS R8 is especially good for video as it records 4K at up to 60p oversampled from the sensor's 6K data, resulting in higher quality 4K video compared with that recorded natively at 4K resolution. Also, you don’t have to worry about missing a sequence as the EOS R8 has a pre-recording feature which captures 3-5 seconds of footage before you press the record button.