Advice from Food Photographers

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.

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TO DO NEXT

• Analyse images of food photography, and what inspires food photographers (use of props, layouts, stylist)

Research 2 – Food Photography

THEME

I was initially unsure of the theme I wanted to follow for this supplement, though after realising that I am shooting for just one segment/story within this fictional magazine, I can already narrow down my options, while also being able to shoot a variety of images for it. I was thinking about shooting something Christmassy, and it was mentioned in passing about shooting a peice on Festive Food for One.

I reckin this theme could work very well because of the time of year, with the deadline falling close to Christmas itself. And with over 1 million elderly people spending Christmas alone last year, it seems like an increasingly relevant subject.

 

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Further from my inital research, and after speaking with a lecturer, I now know I need to look for and delegate the right home economist (to provide the food) and food stylist (to style and lay-out the food).

A quick search lead me to find two agenceis which specialise in food photographers; HERS and RARE.

Both of these seem like very professional looking agencies, and judging by the clients a lot of the stylists have styled for (including Burger King, KFC and Robinsons), probably very pricy.

Further from this, I was advised that the best place to look for home economists is catering colleges, and another quick search lead me to find absolutely loads.

I plan on contacting South Thames College, West London College, Lambeth College, and Westminster Kingsway College. If none of these are available then I have plenty of alternatives within the city to choose from should I need to.

BUDGETING

It only came to mind today that I would have to pay my home economist and/or food stylist, so I will need to plan a budget and decide to cover. Again, I have a lot of options here, but I am open to negotiations depending on what the colleges and stylists demand. I wish to spend no more than £75 ideally (to cover materials), but I understand that I will likely have to pay for transport, though I will likely pay a flat rate of transport up to £10.

If it proves too much to have both a home economist and a food stylist, I will likely end up using my studio manager/assistant to play that role as well, but that is a decision for a later date.

Final Decision: Food Photography

I have been thinking more about the shoot I would like to carry out for the Saturday Supplement. I had it narrowed down to either the Profile Portrait supplement or the Food supplement.

I have decided to challenge myself this time, and shoot food for the first time (it looks as though Feast Magazine is about to become my bible for the next few weeks.)

As I have already mentioned, the images in Feast Magazine are shot almost entirely by commissioned photographers, with just one being credited to a stock agency. 

From Issue 38 (October 6, 2018), eight photographers were credited, with two names (Louise Hagger and Yuki Siguara) being credited twice, alongside their various food stylists and photographic assistants.

Initial research lead me to YouTube, and a short BTS video uploaded by The Guardian from 2013. The photographer here is Yuki Sugiara, so it appears The Guardian have been a regular client for her for quite some time.

Though this video focuses more on the cooking and the recipes and ingredience themselves, there are brief glimpses of the workflow and setup being used here.

 

The shoot set up seems to be very assistance-light – in this case, the photographer and the food stylist are featured most predominantly – with the assistant appearing very brifly . In terms of equipment set-up, there is a camera tethered to a laptop, placed over the food with a tripod.

The final result, as with the majority of all of the images shot for Feast, was shot from a top-down perspective. There are only a few exceptions where this isn’t the case, often occuring with beverages and some cakes with layers which wouldn’t be visible if shot from a top down perspective.

In terms of the equipment I have currently, I can’t see shooting from the top-down being much of an issue, and I can add in some variety by shoowing image from a side or slightly elevated position.

In terms of lighting, it didn’t look as though there were any lights used at all, as the studio space used was naturally very well lit anyway. White boards seemed to be used to bounce the natural light back onto the food, which gave this cover very natural and subtle shadows. A lot of light seems to be coming through that jar of honey too, with the warmer colour appearing to the right, suggesting the light source is to the left.

I need too shoot nine images (four 1×1 smaller images, three portaits and two landscape images) for this supplement, so I need to come up with a theme that will cover all of these spaces; however I am still unsure if I want to focus on one particular food (as if it were a celebration of one thing), one particular season, or fill it with a variety which has no flow, yet is all still related.

As it is the most well known supplement for food, and the only one which I am aware of which focusses soley on food, I will shoot this body of work as if it were for Feast Magazine.

From here I need to:

• Research and reach our food photographers (Yuki Siguara or Louise Hagger).
• Research and find agencies and food stylists
• Research and contact catering colleges to find a home economist.
• Decide on the theme of food I wish to shoot.

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I found some old images I shot during college of ‘food photography’ and it’s needless to say that I am going to have to do a lot better than this now…

Four Options

As I type this, I already have several ideas in mind for the profile portrait option; however I will explore the other options available to me as well.

I explored:

• The Telegraph Magazine
• The Times Magazine
• The Guardian Weekend
• The Guardian Feast

Profile Portrait

A profile portrait is a series of images which often accompanies a form of interview, usually with an actor, celebrity, or sportsperson, for example.

I found three stand-out Profile Portrait sections in both the Telegraph and Times Magazine.

TELEGRAPH MAGAZINE – Michael Caine

This seemed fairly disjointed, as after the introductory DPS, each pahge was separated by an advert. The majority of the images used here were stock, from Alamy and Getty; supplemented with three original portraits being shot by Jack Davidson. The stock images are all still frames from Caine’s various movies, which show him throughout his life and help to give a wider range of images, from his more reckless youth, right up until his more serious adulthood/old-age.

This reminded me almost of a photostory, with the stock imagery including a variety of close-ups and mid-length portraits, as well as wider action shots.

TELEGRAPH MAGAZINE – Edward Watson

Probably the best of the three – these images of ballet dancer Edward Watson follow a uniform style, and mostly show him in action – with one striking establising portrait (lit with a ring flash to the left of his face). I particularly like how each image is shot against the same backdrop, with the single light appearing to be in the same location. It likely shows that the photographer (Rick Guest) likely had little time with Watson.

TIMES MAGAZINE – BTS

As a profile portrait comes, this one of the K-Pop band BTS seemed to be lacking in imagery. Of the six images used in this segment, only one was shot by a credited photographer (the establishing and cover image, shot by Brian Guido.) This segment mostly consists of behind the scenes imagery of the band looking more relaxed, to help make them appear more down to earth (for example, the image on the third page, with the band member eating a bunch of fried chicken on the floor.)

Food – Guardian Feast

Feast magazine seemed to be a hotbed for original photography, as it is much more difficult to have stock images of each new recipe for every new edition each week. These images are evenly lit, and all shot from above to show the detail of the dish. I have never shot any food photography before, so this could be an interesting avenue to explore potentially.

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As well as the profile portrait and food options, I can also shoot fashion or product photography too.

I have almost no interest in fashion photography, nor product photography, despite food photography essentially baing a form of product photography; so I will probably leave these out of the picture.

I haven’t had any ideas about food photography as of yet, however with the profile portrait, after being introduced to the agency called Ugly, which represents ‘normal’ people (despire their ‘bodies’ section). Some of the people represented by this agency seem like pretty interesting characters to photograph.

I hate studio lighting. I’ve known that since the Mono project since year one; however since I’ll be having an assistant with me put me in a better mood, and I think I’d like to challenge myself with studio lighting some more. This time though, less with the face, and more with the entire body. The ‘bodies’ section of Ugle contains some very well built individuals, whose bodies will provide a definite challenge with lighting.

That being said, I have never shot food before, so that would be a welcome challenge in itself, however I will be pushed for time when it comes to carrying out test shoots due to being unavailable at weekends.

The Saturday Supplement

A supplement in print publishing is a smaller, weekly or monthly accompaniment to the main publication; usually being slid into the final print product, or as a standalone spin-off issue – an example of this being the Guardian Food magazine.

They are often less time sensitive, and cover less urgent topics away from more current affairs; though continues to follow the parent publication’s views on things.

They exist with most major daily publications, such as the Telegraph, Guardian, and the Times; and cover a wide range of material, such as education, food, and lifetyle.

For photographers, supplements provide a great platform for exposure, as well as quick, regular, and challenging work due to a quick turnaround.

I purchased the Saturday edition of these three newspapers, and the immediate thing I noticed was the amount of ‘supplement; that comes with the original publication was much larger than the actual publication itself; and, like my initial brief research suggested, cover a wide range of topics (though much larger than I expected, it seemed.)

 

All of these, just from three newspapers.

As well as general travel supplements, there are individual, albeit short in length, broadsheet sized inserts for specific destinations (in this case, Australia and Italy). Also included is a broadsheet spread on property and money.

Also included with these publications are entirely seperate magazines, like the lauded Guardian Feast magazine, the Times Magazine, Telegraph Magazine and the Guardian Review.

Before I took this image, I removed the advertising sleeves from some of the packs. The Times, being a more middle market newspaper, seemed to have a much greater number of advert inserts; while the actual magazine itself has even more full page ads. After comparing these to other magazines from broadsheets, I realise that the target market of the paper doesn’t affect the amount of ads, nor the products advertised

Almost all aspects are covered, and this gives me plenty of material to analyse, too.