After rifling through the photo credits from last week’s edition of Feast, I decided to reach out to as many of the photographers as I could, to see what advice they may be able to offer.
Eventually, I emailed Yuki Surigawa, Ola O Smidt, Louise Hagger and Toby Glanville.
Thus far, I have only heard back from Toby Glanville.
His suggestions, while brief, are very useful to me, especially about researching food photographers I like, and broadening that further to encompass still life paintings (this could also include still life photographers, too).
Keeping it simple also is useful to know, as I was beginning to wonder about lighting equipment. From the images that I had looked at before, there didn’t appear to be much artificial lighting at all. I could book out one lighting kit just in case, but I will see if I can blag my way into getting the side of the studio with the windows.
No other photographer thus far has responded to my emails to them, however, I was able to contact a now third-year student who shot food last year, and I was able to get some pointers from him, too.
This student made and bought all of the food himself, and used the food stylist to make it look nice in print. This saved him having to fork out for a home economist. Plus, it saves them from having to buy the food, too.
They tend to use a lot of props, which they may already have, or which they may need to buy. If that is the case, then they should be paid accordingly.
Aligning with my research thus far, the images he shot were predominantly with natural light; or an equivalent of it (in his case, a deep octolight and a poly board or a fill light to soften the shadows).
As well as this, this student also passed on the name of the food stylist he used – Claire Martial. I have now emailed her, but as far as I am aware, she is currently in France.
TO DO NEXT
- Analyse images of food photography, and what inspires food photographers (use of props, layouts, stylist)
Ryan Trower 