Intro to Professional Food

Welcome to the Intro to Professional Food Photography class. The first in an ongoing series designed to help those interested in pursuing food photography, whether you have been shooting other subjects professionally or are just curious about what it takes to turn food into published photography.

Starting a career in food photography or styling is a challenge. While some art schools allow for specialist study, few offer in- depth classes covering food photography. While more general classes, such as dramatic portraiture or still life, sometimes cover subjects similar to food photography, few of them really prepare you for real-world shoots.

This class aims to help those photographers who have a passion for food learn how to get started in the industry, to understand how the industry has developed, and to see where it is going in the future. To get the most out of this class you need to have a solid understanding of the basic principles of both photography and lighting.

This class isn’t a guide to being a food stylist, which is a highly skilled profession requiring strong culinary and artistic talents. Instead, this class describes the roles of stylists and photographers, and how they work together to produce great food images.

In the first lesson of this 2 week intro class, we will cover the different types of food photography projects that are available to pro shooters, as well as walk you through the workflow of a typical shoot. You’ll learn how to build your portfolio, and get the level of critical feedback needed to ensure your best work is being featured. Be prepared to hear constructive criticism... as this is a pro-level class, we won’t be pulling any punches with our feedback.

Next week’s lesson will move on to cover more business aspects, including releases, license agreements, and how to get started finding work.

Follow-up classes in this series will dive more deeply into specific genres of food photography: editorial, commercial and stock.

As in all the PPSOP classes, you’ll get more from the class if you use the forums and ask questions as you have them. You are also welcome to email us directly, if you prefer to ask your question privately [email protected] or [email protected]

Types of Food Photography

One of the beautiful things about food photography is the myriad of different niches within the category. While the first thought might be a photographer in a restaurant shooting photos of finished plated dishes, the reality is that there is a wide array of food photography that each need different skill sets.

At a high level, there are two distinct camps of assignment food photography: editorial and commercial. Editorial food photography spans the gamut of everything from lifestyle shots in magazines to finished dishes in cookbooks or even photos of farmers in their fields. Editorial photos are about communicating a story.

Commercial food photography, on the other hand, is about sales and marketing of a brand. This includes photos for packaging as well as advertisement. Commercial food photography is almost always produced in a studio, under very controlled (and reproducible) lighting conditions.

Commercial or editorial photography don't necessarily imply a specific look or style, and most photographers do a mix of both.

In addition to assignment shoots, there is a great opportunity for food photographers in stock imagery. Stock food imagery is used both commercially and editorially. Stock agencies such as Getty or StockFood USA both do a great job of working with member photographers to request the images they are looking for. For example, here’s a list from StockFood USA from November 2011:

o Plated pot roast (with the traditional vegetables) o Plated bone-in picnic pork o Molasses cookies o Melt-away cookies o Split chicken breast (cooked) o White empty serving tray (rectangle or square) o Hand dipping bread in oil o Deviled eggs o Still life of foods that follow diet for acid reflux (no citrus or tomato) o Deep dish pizza o Cocktail hotdogs o Couple with holiday cheer vibe at restaurant o Boneless prime rib o Caraway seeds o Crumbled cooked sausage o Food coloring bottles

Working with A Team

Traditionally, a food photography shoot (particular those in the studio or for commercial assignments) are comprised of a full team of stylists and assistants, as well as the client who is typically represented by an art director. Even in smaller food shoots, photographers typically work with a stylist to prepare and plate the food while the photographer focuses on lighting and composition.

More recently, these roles are changing. With the increasing popularity and quality of food blogs, more photographers are doing their own prop and food styling for smaller shoots, often without any assistants. With pressures on budgets due to the economic downturn worldwide, cookbook authors are often being asked to style and shoot their own books. While this may work well for smaller shoots, or shoots without time pressures, larger shoots that require 15 to 20 plated dish shots per day really require a full team.

Although any shoot may vary due to the strengths of the individual members on the team, here are the typical role breakdowns:

Photographer (and photography assistants) Plans for, sets up and manages all and lighting gear May scout the location, if needed May hire and pay stylists Sets the composition, usually in conjunction with the art director Takes the photo Image post processing and delivery Billing, release forms, etc

Food Stylist Grocery shopping and/or receiving product Preparing all food for the set Adjusting any food on set Often is also a prop stylist

Prop Stylist Coordinates & delivers a full selection of props, either from personal collection or shops Designs the set, and places props, backdrops, etc Adjusts props on the set Responsible for returning all props as needed

Art Director Coordinates pre-production meeting with photographers & stylists May scout the location, if needed Communicates any design or layout requirements, and provides sample shots May hire and pay stylists Communicates with the client Approves final shots

A Professional Food Photo Shoot Workflow Because there are so many different types of food photography, there isn’t one way a shoot will run. However, here are some things to think about whether you are shooting in the studio for editorial, commercial use or stock. Location shoots where a restaurant is supplying the plated dishes will leave out some of these steps.

Planning Any photo shoot starts with a review of the required shots. On larger-budget assignments, this planning is typically done at a pre-production meeting, where the photographer, stylists, and, if it’s a separate role, the art director will all get together. The meeting may also include the client and designer. On smaller shoots, this meeting could be replaced by a series of emails between the photographer, stylist and client intended to define the shoot requirements, including such things as:

• Where the shoot will take place and who will be involved

• Recipes and/or products to be shot. • Example that depict the lighting and propping styles similar to the required shots.

• Layouts indicating the crop and space needed for overlays, and often illustrations of the composition.

It’s a good idea to have a standard form with all of the questions you need answered from new clients (or before each project). See the sample New Client Checklist document posted in the Q&A forum for the basic questions to think about.

Scheduling The photographer/stylists work to develop a shoot and shopping schedule based on the product requirements. Considerations could include:

• Related recipes or recipes using similar ingredients to be scheduled back to back to minimize costs and time.

• Shorter and simpler recipes to be interspersed between longer lead time recipes to keep the set busy.

• Products with shorter life spans to be scheduled earlier in the day to shoot them at their freshest.

But a good shoot schedule will always allow room for complications along the way.

Once the schedule is understood, the photographer can then begin to plan the lighting for the shoot. This will be done either at a general level—such as, natural, bright daylight-looking, intimate evening setting—or on a more detailed, shot-by-shot basis—for example, sidelight from the right, with a highlight on the product—if specific layouts have already been provided.

Shopping The food stylists and prop stylists (or their assistants) are typically responsible for all the shopping related to a photo shoot, including buying the surfaces, tableware, and ingredients. The stylists must work to a specified budget, and they are often responsible for paying any out-of-pocket expenses, which are reimbursed at the end of the shoot. For large shoots, however, a stylist may request an upfront deposit to cover these expenses.

The food stylist prepares a shopping list of the recipe ingredients or products needed, as well as a list of styling equipment needed for the shoot. The shopping may be done for everything all at once, or it can divided between different shoot days to ensure the freshest looking ingredients. The food stylist must make sure that there is enough product for the shoot to get the best looking hero, as well as allow for any reshoots. This may mean buying three to four times the quantities required by each recipe.

Most food shoots require careful attention to portion size. This is particularly important for any images that are associated with food nutrition data, such as packaging, some advertising, and some recipes. Images should show either a single serving size or the whole recipe or product (or at least imply the whole product) to avoid giving the impression that the consumer may eat more than the nutritional guidelines imply.

Portioning goes beyond the size of the muffin or slice of pie. Stylists also need to be aware of how many chunks of chicken or slices of carrot are floating in the soup or the ratio of fruit to nuts in the trail mix.

Propping The prop selection must contain a variety of sizes, shapes, and variation of to ensure the shoot runs smoothly. Often, props are reviewed several days before a shoot to narrow down specifics and allow time to pick up any additional items. For example, the art director may review 10 different styles of wine glasses, approve two or three of them, and have the prop stylist pick up a full set of each of the styles.

Prepping For the photographer, set up includes making sure that all the photographic and lighting equipment is available and in working order. Batteries are charged, lights are checked, disk space (or, less frequently these days, film) is plentiful and ready to go. For most commercial food pictures, photographers shoot tethered to a computer—both on location and in the studio—so that each shot can be immediately approved or rejected. This is often true of finished-dish editorial photographs, such as for cookbooks or recipe images for magazines.

For the stylists, prep work likely begins early in the day of, or even the day before, the shoot. Ingredients are cleaned, chopped, par-cooked, and stored in a way that allows them to be quickly assembled when needed.

For the prop stylist, prepping consists of organizing the dishware and linen options by shot for quick access, and carefully cleaning or pressing each piece. Glassware in particular needs to be smudge-, dust-, and fingerprint-free. For extreme close-ups, prop stylists may even choose to handle the tableware with gloves to avoid marks.

Building the Set Once the lighting is roughly agreed, the prop stylist will begin to build the set, usually in conjunction with the photographer (or assistants), starting with the background and shooting surface. Linens and tableware will be placed, typically without any food, to allow the photographer to set up and refine the lighting. Test shots will be fired to ensure that the props work well together and with the lighting. Placeholder food may be included once the set is close to completion to refine the lighting further. In this case, it is particularly useful to have more than one of each piece of tableware. Then the hero food can be plated without requiring the washing of a dish.

The Hero The hero is the final preparation of the food intended for the finished . The hero appears when the camera position and lighting have been decided. At this point, the food stylist is typically the only person “touching” the set. Only small refinements are made at this point. Cheese may be melted (or refreshed), last-minute herb garnishes added or swapped in, oil brushed on, or glasses of beer topped off to create a foamy head. Then the photograph is quickly taken. Once everyone has approved the shot, a few alternative pictures will be taken—a quick change of , , shooting angle, or even lighting. From the styling side, more sauce may be added, drips exaggerated, props added or removed, or backgrounds changed. Despite careful planning, sometimes the best images come from these less-controlled shots.

Clean-up Most food shoots result in a lot of leftover food—some edible, some not. Unopened packaged food may be donated to food banks, but any opened leftovers should be discarded. Because the goal of a food shoot is the image, not the taste, safe food-handling requirements are usually not followed. So taking food from the set is rarely a good idea. Instead, it is safer to compost any leftovers that have been questionably prepared or stored during the day or days leading up to the shoot.

Equipment Overview

A full frame dSLR is required for most professional jobs. These include the Canon 5D and 1DS models, Nikon D800 and D4 models, ideally with over 15 megapixel resolution. Many food photographers shoot with fitted with digital backs (Phase One, Mamiya, etc) which have a greater dynamic range than most 35mm dSLRs, but most jobs don't require this level of equipment.

Lenses For full frame 35mm cameras, we recommend the following lenses:

100mm 2.8 macro for styled still life shots and ECUs (extreme close ups) 24-70mm 2.8 for location lifestyle and journalistic shots as well as full tabletop still life shots 24-105 4.0 location lifestyle and journalistic shots, styled still life shots 90mm 2.8 tilt/shift ECUs and styled still life shots 45mm 2.8 tilt/shift full tabletop still life shots

Tripod A sturdy is highly recommended for any food photography, but particularly studio shots. Using a tripod allows you to slowly refine your set without worrying about getting the camera back into the same location. Look for tripod legs with an arm that can allows you to shoot in a top-down position, like the Manfrotto 055XPROB or the Gitzo GT2540EX. If you have the room and the budget, a studio stand (like a Foba) makes it even easier to get any angle of shot without worrying about jolting the tripod.

Lighting While much of food photography can be done with natural light, having a good lighting kit is essential for any pro. There are times when you simply can't count on natural light to give you the look you need for your client. At a minimum, you'll need 1 speedlight (I prefer the inexpensive, manual LumoPros), but here are three sample kits that will cover just about any lighting need you have:

Pro Starter On Location Kit 3 x LumoPro LP160 Quad Sync Manual 2 x PocketWizard Plus II Transceiver 3 x LumoPro LP605 7ft. Compact Light Stand 1 x Lumopro LP621 Mini Boom and holder 3 x LumoPro LP633 Umbrella Swivel w/ Flash Shoe Adapter 3 x Westcott 43" Collapsible Umbrella with Removable Cover

Pro Starter Studio Kit 2 x AlienBees™ B800 Flash Unit 2 x Large Foldable (32" x 40") 2 x 13-foot Air-Cushioned Light Stand 1 x G3240 Grid for the FSB3240 Large Softbox 2 x PocketWizard Plus II Transceiver 1 x LumoPro LP160 Quad Sync Manual Flash 1 x LumoPro LP605 7ft. Compact Light Stand 1 x LumoPro LP633 Umbrella Swivel w/ Flash Shoe Adapter 1 x Westcott 43" Collapsible Umbrella with Removable Cover

Adorama lighting kit The links I have listed below will take you to the item page where you can add it to your cart. The number before each link indicates quantity of each item. Use the code at the bottom during checkout for a substantial discount for class members.

1 x http://www.adorama.com/FPSBPZ4056.html?KBID=67270 1 x http://www.adorama.com/FPSBPZ2436.html?KBID=67270 1 x http://www.adorama.com/FPECGPZ2436.html?KBID=67270 2 x http://www.adorama.com/FP1220A.html?KBID=67270 2 x http://www.adorama.com/FP2SR.html?KBID=67270 1 x http://www.adorama.com/LTSP10ACP2.html?KBID=67270 1 x http://www.adorama.com/LTSP85.html?KBID=67270 2 x http://www.adorama.com/PWP3T2.html?KBID=67270 1 x http://www.adorama.com/PWMP3.html?KBID=67270 Discount code at checkout: S1241466

A wide selection of bounces is also recommended. These can be manufactured silver, gold or white panels or even something as simple as foam core board or styrofoam.

Grey Card While less important for editorial shoots, when shooting for commercial shoot getting correct colors is critical. Get a high quality grey card (like X Rite’s) to calibrate your camera’s custom white balance.

Stands & Grips Having at least 1 C-Stand to use for backdrop support or holding bounces is highly recommended. It’s also a good idea to have a wide selection of A-style clamps in varying sizes to hold reflectors or gobos.

Lighting for Food

By now, you should already have a good sense of how to light for food. But, we do want to have a quick review.

The first thing to remember is don’t light food like you would a car, creating spectral highlights all over the place. Food is organic, and for most shots, is best lit with a single light source. Overly lit food will likely look plastic, and while there have been trends in the past that featured very complex lighting, today’s looks are more natural.

For editorial studio images, diffused natural light or a single strobe with a large softbox or umbrella will give you the best results. Alternatively, you can bounce a strobe off of a white wall, or a large foam core wall or corner. The goal is to create soft light, and control where it falls on your subject. When used properly, you shouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a naturally lit shot and one with a strobe!

Look at the following two images. The light source in the first image is a large West facing window on an overcast day which produces soft, even lighting. The lower part of the window is shaded to give a high light source which is needed because the subject is in a bowl. The second image has a very large softbox fitted to a strobe which also produces soft even lighting. It's also placed up high to give the same angle as the window light. Notice the position of the light source in relation to the subject. Most food looks best with the light coming from a bit behind the subject, from somewhere between 10:00 or 2:00. This position lets a little light wrap around the subject, while still highlighting the transparency in the food with a bit of rim light. If needed, a reflector (white or gold are best) can be used to bounce a bit of light back onto the front of the subject, but be careful not to remove all shadows, or the food will start to look unnatural and flat.

Both of these setups will produce light that is so similar, it would be difficult for most people to tell it apart which is what we are after. The following two images are the end result of using these lighting setups. Can you tell which was shot with natural light and which was with the strobe/softbox?

For commercial work, controlled lighting is even more critical. Always consider that you may need to shoot similar (if not identical) shots in the future with new products in the same setting. Because of this, natural light is not recommended as you can’t guarantee that you’ll have the same weather on future shoots. For a natural look on commercial shoots, a single light like shown above would be used as you can produce the same look anywhere and anytime.

Some commercial shoots require a bit more complex lighting. For example, for product that needs to appear on white, it’s best to light the background separately from the main product. With a white sweep or backdrop, place a light on either side of the background, pointing towards the backdrop, away from the subject. Then, light the subject as normal. The background lights should create an even white background for the shot. We will cover more advanced lighting setups such as this in an upcoming two week class. If you are interested in taking the lighting segment, be sure you have all the equipment necessary before the class starts. If you need help with selecting equipment, just let us know and we can help make sure you will have everything needed.

Building a Portfolio

Your food photography portfolio should show your range, but focus on the area of food photography you prefer. The images should feel cohesive, and demonstrate your style. But most importantly, they should all be great photos. It’s better to have fewer photos that are all exceptional than many photos that are simply average.

Portfolio images don’t have to be from professional shoots; often, portfolio shots are a combination of shots from pro shoots mixed in with shots developed specifically for your portfolio. Be careful not to imply your shots are from a pro shoot if they aren’t though... for example, don’t prominently feature a Coke label as though you were hired by Coke if you weren’t.

Also, while which food you shoot isn’t all that important, be sure to have a variety of shoots, rather than posting 10 different angles of the same subject.

It’s important that any photos that appear in your portfolio look completely professional... if you don’t style, find a stylist to work with. Many new stylists would be happy to join you in a shoot, splitting the cost of the supplies, to develop photos for both of your portfolios. Some restaurants may also let you shoot on location in exchange for the photos.

If you can’t find a stylist or restaurant, then it’s ok to use pre-made food... just make sure it is handled carefully so it looks beautiful on the set.

If you do have past work in the form of tear sheets, make a separate Tear sheet category in your portfolio to show the images in their final layouts.

Once you’ve selected your portfolio photos, it’s time to get them online. There are several sites designed for photographers that can handle all of the technical details for you, or you can build your own site.

For a standard hosted portfolio, here are some suggestions:

Livebooks (http://www.livebooks.com/) is the most popular site for professional photographers. It’s also the one of the most expensive. The sites are clean, and work well on almost all platforms, including mobile devices.

These sites offer clean looking templates at reasonable prices:

Pro Photo Blogs (http://www.prophotoblogs.com/) Square Space (http://squarespace.com/) ClickBooq (http://clickbooq.com/) FolioSnap (http://www.foliosnap.com/) Big Black Bag (http://www.bigblackbag.com/) Wix (http://www.wix.com/)

If you are comfortable setting up your own site, there are several good portfolio style themes for Wordpress:

Photocrati (http://www.photocrati.com/) DK for Photography (http://themeforest.net/item/dk-for-photography-creative-portfolio/631383?ref=themespotters) Footage (http://themeforest.net/item/footage-a-photo-video-production- theme/759170?ref=lvraa&ref=lvraa&clickthrough_id=59158968&redirect_back=true)

The design of your portfolio should be clean, and not get in the way of your photos. There should always be a very obvious Portfolio link. You want to get your viewers to your photos with as few of clicks as possible, so while some categorization is fine, don’t create sub-categories within categories.

In addition to your photos, your portfolio should contain: - Your contact information, email, phone & location - A personal statement about your style and why clients should hire you. - A list of clients, if you have more than 10 (leave this off if you don’t). - Links to tweet about or Pin(terest) your work

If you have a blog, you may not think you need a portfolio (or vice versa). However, it’s a good idea to keep these as separate pages (although linked). Your portfolio should be streamlined with quick access to your best photos; your blog is the place to talk about the behind the scenes or to show outtake photos that aren’t quite portfolio worthy.

Assignment

This week’s assignment is in two parts:

Part 1: Critique of Your Best Work

Pick 2 of what you feel are your strongest images to send in for critique. These shots can be from this week, or from past shoots. With each image, identify the type of food photography (editorial/commercial, studio/location, etc) and note if you worked with a stylist or styled the image yourself. Also, describe how this image fits into your professional goals.

If you’d also like a critique of your current portfolio, post a link in the Q&A.

Part 2: Recreate the Lighting & Styling:

Pick a photo from a publication or website that features the type of work you want to do. If you are having trouble picking, then try to recreate this image:

Spend time deconstructing the image to determine the lighting and styling techniques used. Then, recreate your own version of the shot, using the same lighting and styling techniques. The image doesn’t have to match 100%, but should be recognizable as an homage to the original image. If you need help with determining the lighting, please ask early in the week so there is plenty of time for us to help you. Be sure you identify the type of food photography, and link to the original photo if at all possible.