HN Photography log

Movement:

Miniature Landscape:

Perspective Warp:

I have chosen to print with deadly digital as to make use of their student discount on 5 A3 prints at the moment. This was quite a lifesaver as I am already over budget when it comes to this project. I will be printing on lustre paper as to get a nice shine to the print- I did initially want to print matte but after doing tests I really like the texture on the image.

To prepare for printing I corrected the colour balance of the batch of 5 as to ensure they didn't all print with extremely different casts. I did this very simply in camera raw, as I knew especially the JJs shot was a little more blue cast than others. I did this by simply selecting the whitest thing in the frame with the white balance dropper, and again for each individual image.

The dark and moody style of food photography has been adopted by many photographers in the industry. In particular, those who work with more luxury or hipster esque branding are likely to have some high contrast and moody portfolios. The aesthetic can also be known as chiaroscuro.

I was inspired by this genre of photography especially in my Tesco and M&S shoots, as I had been advised to research the genre a little more during my planning period of the project. This stylisation often centres around shadows and grating contrast, which is something I was really trying for during the Marks and Spencers shoot as the produce was all almost monochrome. In particular, Lenkas lens was helpful to look at throughout shooting. 

Beata Lubas is a food photographer who dabbles a little in this style.

While I prefer a busier composition, I can appreciate the use of light she uses a lot here. The deep blue sort of background is very commonly used in this sort of photography, too, it giving just the right amount of texture whilst not taking away from the subject matter. The deep shadows created by close side lighting and flagging on the opposite side is something I continued to recreate all through my project, although not quite as dark as this series of images. You can see this setup in many of my shoots behind the scenes.

Lisa Tutman-Oglesbys blog post about dark food photography was a massively helpful read. Although I didn't stick exactly to dark food photography for the entire project, as I was more experimental with colour as I went along- reading her blog inspires me to attempt a full project in that style. I can really appreciate someone uploading their process and trial and error with a certain style, and find it very helpful when learning for myself. While her photographs overall are not especially to my taste, I loved being able to find her blog and follow along to her attempts into the style of photography until it was to standard. Reading through it helped me coordinate my lighting better in studio, and too with styling the images with my wooden boards and plates.

Over the course of shooting, I of course ended up with some favourites from the project. After any post-production work needed, these became absolutes for both my overall 10 images as well as the 5 due for printing A3. I was able to do small test prints in order to have the images physically in front of me to choose from, as well as get some second opinions from classmates.

 I believe these are my three best images from the project:

While these are my best, I think I am personally more inclined to the busier framing anyways. As such, my favourites are those with such aesthetics. I want to balance out the number of supermarkets and bakeries present in my 5 prints, too, as to stick to my concept as much as possible. With this in mind, I want my other two prints to be one from either. I also want them to be simpler compositionally than my first three picks.

While I already pride myself a little on my understanding of colour, this article did inspire a lot of thought behind the project as well. I knew from initially planning the project that I wanted to use each brands colour, which is already picked for easy advertisement within the industry. However, in cases where the family owned bakers didn't have something like that, or even the likes of M&S who have a very monochromatic and sleek aesthetic to the shop, it was harder to bring in pops of colour. Reading up on colour theory and practices within food photography in particular, I was able to assemble colourful compositions that all worked well together. In fact, I think the most colourfully planned images from the project are the most successful.

I find the book ‘Conor Choices’ by Stephen Quiller massively helpful when it comes to understanding the fundamentals of colour and palette. I often keep it on hand for ideas in complementary colours, and although it's primarily looking at paint, it is still useful for me to take note of. A basic understanding of colour has been one of the biggest helps throughout the project- and Quillers example of palette is something I related to a lot:

Throughout the project I used many different sources for tips and tricks when it came to food photography. Previous to the project, I knew there was many tricks behind food photography that made advertisements look the way that they did. I didn't want to go down the route of completely faking every shot, as I felt that took away from the authenticity of my concept.

A YouTube channel in particular that helped a lot throughout shooting was ‘We Eat Together’. Lots of my ideas surrounding composition and possible composites came from the channels instruction. In particular, he helped in my understanding of a “hero” food within the subject. The idea is to have one piece of subject matter be the sort of main event within the composition- wether it be the largest thing or most intriguing. The remaining set should be added to complement this food item. There are many examples where I’ve used this compositional trick throughout my project:

Final Image:

I found it a little harder during this shoot to really get the frame correct, as I knew from my plan I’d most likely be shooting close in with the 85mm. I noticed nearly straight away that the cupcakes I’d gotten were the wrong choice. Originally they were carrot cake, and so had little carrots frosting on top with a warmer icing. This tone really clashes with the darker brownies and deep reds from the fruits, so I quickly opted for scraping off that icing and recreating it with the shaving foam I have been using as cream.

I feel this worked fairly well overall, though the design wasn’t as pretty as the carrots. Once it all matched in frame, it was easier to coordinate a close-up shot. I do in some ways regret not getting two of the same brownie, too, but on the other hand I’ not sure if that would have made everything a little too similar.

Example of contact sheets:

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get an awful lot of food items from Mimis Bakehouse again due to the short notice of picking them up. I wasn’t able to speak with the owners about an advertising opportunity on the day and so I did have to pay for the produce- which would be alright if I wasn’t already a bit over budget with the project. I only bought a few things, with the intention of photographing quite close in and using some form of fruit as space filler during the shoot.

Final Image:

This has been one of my favourite shoots of the project overall. I really enjoyed putting this composition together, and I had a clear idea of a photograph in my head when I picked produce up from the bakers that I feel I have executed well. As described in my plan, I wanted to use the sandwich as the hero and garnish the other food items in a way that tied it all in with the sandwich. I feel this has worked very well, and the pallet is very much to my liking.

Throughout the shoot I used a flag on the left hand side in order to deepen the shadows on both the sandwich and the brownie, which I feel has worked well in terms of giving the image a darker aesthetic. I wasn’t sure if the brownie would end up linking well with the others produce, but I think the garnish alongside the brown of the other boards has helped tie it in.

Example of contact sheets: