Still life food. what is food photography

Level 5 photography
Still life-Food
What is food photography

Food photography is a still life specialization of commercial photography to produce attractive photographs of food for a variety of uses including magazines, cook books, menus, advertisements and packaging. food photographs tends to be composed in a manner where people sit and look and eat the food, laid out on a table setting and shot from an overhead perspective. Tight close up shots on selective focus on object is the trend right now. Moving in close to the food and focusing on the most important elements while everything else goes slightly out of focus helps to draw viewers eyes to the element you most want them to be impressed by. Usually high angles pointing down towards the food work well or at an eaters point of view or you want to show off more of the surrounding decor and props.

Telephoto lenses are used to zoom in tight and background out of focus. A telephoto lens is designed for taking photographs of subjects as moderate to far distances, they are a long focus lens. They are commonly used when photographing sports events, wildlife and in any other circumstances to get close to the subject.

Short Telephoto Lenses 85mm- 135mm- Ideal for shooting portraits and candid shots, quite close to the subjects or objects but don't want to intrude too much


Medium Telephoto Lenses 135mm- 300mm-  popular with sports and action as can get quite close such as standing on the sidelines and used for fast moving subjects

Super Telephoto Lenses 300mm- used for professional wildlife and nature as well as sports.

A short focal length lens like 50mm to shoot in a crisp images look even in low light. Lenses with focal lengths less than 50mm are referred to as wide angles because have a wider angle of view. Lenses with focal lengths greater than 50mm are known as telephotos.

 

Still life food. Shoot 2

Level 5 photography
Still life-Food 
Shoot 2

Doing this shoot it has helped me to find out what objects work with what and what does not. 

So far I like using the jam on the pancakes and using the heart cutter and using fabrics just like fancy restaurants use when celebrating something special.  I have decided to use natural light on this shoot so that I experiment at home which fruit works and if iced tea works with pancake and if its right to shape the pancake to see if doesn't look tacky. On this shoot I think that using the tinsel makes the whole image tacky and not as serious because I think it makes the image over crowded and off putting on looking at the food and think the colour on the tinsel does not blend.

Still life food. Valentines day breakfast research

Level 5 photography
Still life- Food
Valentines day breakfast research


http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-valentine-s-day-red-pancakes-heart-shape-sour-cream-series-italian-desserts-image35898243



http://www.womensforum.com/heart-shaped-pancakes-for-valentines-day.html


https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/436215913881346168/



https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/253679391486242875/


https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/164240717632872461/


https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/469711436110477369/


https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/399624166905725449/


https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/79235274666309001/



https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/214061788508322198/

I have chosen to do a theme on valentines day because it is nearer to it and thought it will be fun to do and get myself motivated as I can set out a breakfast that most women are after from their man when they wake up in bed or the man has made the women get up to surprise her to the kitchen. By doing valentines it is very colourful and sweet feeling and not too difficult because you can even focus on doing toast and doing a heart cutter inside the toast to hint the viewers that it is valentines season and shouldn't be too much to think to about on the preparation to shoot because you can have in mind what would you want from a man to treat you for breakfast.

Still life food. shoot 1

Level 5 photography
Still life-Food 
Shoot 1

This shoot the class was all put into groups to buy fruit or vegetables and split the two studio room for people to do studio and other half of room is to shoot in natural light. My group was to buy apples but few of us wanted to do mushrooms, I wanted to do mushrooms because in markets you can choose your own mushrooms and I have chose not the best looking ones as I like the look where the mushrooms skin is being torn and like the tones made inside the mushroom. To make this shoot not as dull I used the brown paper bags where the mushrooms were packaged in so that I can put in some colour to the image, there was apples I could work with mushrooms but I think it would look odd, using the brown paper bag it had creases in and can form some shadow on it when the light shines on the mushrooms. I have used a light reflector to balance the natural light onto my objects  and have used a tripod attached to the camera so that the images won't be blurred due to shaky hands.

Still life food. Brief

Level 5 photography
Still life-Food
Brief

This assignment is designed to introduce me to a range of still life photography techniques and to provide a contextual framework around the subject in order for me to communicate my ideas and express myself in the genre.

I will explore food photography, found objects, nature morte, product photography and digital collage in a series of five two week mini assignments. These will be supported by lectures, technical demonstrations and group critiques. A brief will be written by for me for my final outcome and will help me towards my final year pathway and future career path.

Each mini assignment will take the form of a lecture or seminar to broaden my knowledge and critical understanding of the genre, a technical demonstration to broaden my skill base and some studio time to make pictures. At the end of each task I will need to provide a print A3 or 12x16 for a group critique, which will provide a forum for feedback on my work.

This will be my final outcome and must describe what I want to produce, what I want to communicate and which theories and concepts I am applying to achieve this. Before production of final work begins, my ILA must be agreed with my tutor.

Level 5 photography
Portraits
Colour printing




When starting to use the Devere I had to make sure the filters are switched on and then set 0 Cyan, 50 Magenta and 50 yellow. The set up is very similar to black and white printing only there is a filter to adjust and there is a red beam in room so you can people in the room and don't have to count your steps to go to your booth to continue working on machine and make sure curtain is closed so that other booths dont catch light or people walking in dark to print out machine because then it will be over exposed and paper will turn black.

After looking at my prints I check if there in contrast if not I change the filters accordingly to the colour correction chart table.

Level 5 photography
Portraits
Evaluation

This project I feel has been quite a success as i have produced my black and white prints and handed in on time even though i thought that printing 20x24 was going to be daunting because the size of the paper is bigger but when i pushed myself in doing it, using test strips to sort out the timing of light needed it ended very well and not much time needed as I thought but mainly this worked quick because I have done film in first year and most of the class are willing to help if needed. When I have been given the portraiture brief I thought I would enjoy it but when doing this in film it took away the fun as it is very timed consuming and it easily disappointing and takes away the motivation in finishing this project as all you feel is ' I bet this doesn't work and have to retake and retake till the film not under or over exposed, aaaaah am going to fail'. I prefer digital by far as you can see what you have taken and can retake the shot straight away what I have planned to do but with film I had only bought a few and wanted to collect as much strangers as I could because you do not know what the emotion they will pull and to be honest I do not like much mystery when taking film because it makes you over think and worry too much and hard to get you to actually develop the films in case get disappointed and through the rest of the day I am in a bad mood and not wanting to try again till am desperate in need in negatives to print.  For finals to black and white prints I liked the idea of shooting outside against urban backdrops for example brick walls, if I was going back to this project I would go shooting with someone I know has full confidence in shooting with a 5x4 field camera but then I should of just gone shooting by myself and figured it out but no I didn't because I don't believe in myself enough that I will be ok doing things myself and face the mistakes on my own.

However using the hasselblad was much more enjoyable as I have done it in first year but in digital hard back, using film instead was scary because I didn't want it to be disappointed loads like field camera but actually colour film wasn't disappointing they all came out great apart from sunlight beams going over the face and using a metz flash attached to the hasselblad I felt like I was learning more about settings on camera's to understand apertures and speed and the flash has made my images better as the subject was standing out more than the background as the subject was getting more light.

My main problems to this project is that the colour paper was running out very quickly as everyone has not done colour printing before and when the university gone to order more paper the company was out of stock so we were all told we have to hand in the colour prints at the same time or before the still life project which is a big concern as it will be a big struggle in completing both projects in time but not going to be too much stress well I think so because other people in the course are waiting for paper. Personal struggle I had is going to strangers to ask permission to take their photo's as I thought me having a social anxiety it has really daunted me but luckily in my first shoot I was working with Jess Walker to shoot with field camera and had Rachel with me too and was her first time and she is just as shy as me in asking so we pretty much got Jess asking for us but when we go one film left we pushed to ask ourselves.

How I got my ideas for colour shooting is by being influenced by Alec Soth as his work is mainly about how to take images to identify a person and documenting them as a character different to his other subjects to give each person a uniqueness. When doing my second shoot in colour films  I have linked it with Alec Soth in a way he creates his grey or white backdrops and making my subjects to pull serious faces and just being themselves so that you can read from their posture and facial expression on what the personality is.