btec photography food photography te

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FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY RIC HARD BURN

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Page 1: Btec photography   food photography te

FOOD P

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RI C

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Page 2: Btec photography   food photography te

FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

Food photography is a type of still life commercial photography.

This type of photography is used to produce attractive & appealing looking food. The photographs would then be used in products such as cookbooks & menus. Food photography can also be found in places, such as a restaurant.

There are many people involved when producing food photography & a lot of tricks and techniques that will be explored in the next few slides.

Page 3: Btec photography   food photography te

FOOD PHOTOGRAPHYLighting techniques:

Food photography has to have very special lighting used, or else the photograph will look unappetizing.

There are two main ways a photographer can do to make sure the food they are photographing looks as good as possible.

1. Natural lighting: this is the main way a food photographer will light their photographs up. The natural light gives of a soft & gradual light which cannot be replicated in a studio easily. The natural light also casts nice shadowing effects on the food. The photographer should have his/her back towards the light, so the light is hitting the food. An overcast day is most desirable when it comes to food photography. Equipment like light reflectors & soft boxes can also help to disperse more light, depending on what the client/photographer is wanting. This can also help with shadows.

2. Studio lighting: Sometimes natural lighting just isn't available & a studio environment will be needed to produce the photographs of the food. Soft boxes & light reflectors will have to be used to diffuse the light, this will give you a similar (but arguably not the same) effect as natural light.

Natural lighting is desired overall by food photographers.

Page 4: Btec photography   food photography te

FOOD PHOTOGRAPHYCompositional Techniques:

There are two main angles used to compose a photograph of food. The first being an overhead aerial image of the food. This will allow the consumer to see everything that is on offer in he meal. The other main angle used is at an angle from the side of the dish. This will add dimension to food & also allows a background of foreground to be seen (although a shallow depth of field is usually used, which means that all the focus will be on the food, which is a nice technique to use).

The positioning of the food is very important. The food has to look full-bodied without it looking like it is big & bulky, which can be very difficult to do. There are a few things you can do to make food look full-bodied. One of these is to use hidden objects underneath the food to raise it up & make it look fuller. Layering is also a good technique to use. The positioning also depends on the lighting & the angle you are taking the photograph at. The food should be placed towards the camera and the light if you are taking the photograph from an angle.

Shapes in food generally make the food look more appetising, as it is easier on the eye. You should try and make sure most of the food is a specific shape or stereotypical/desired shape of the food. These shapes will the work well together in the photograph.

Page 5: Btec photography   food photography te

FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

The use of colour:

The use of colour is very important when is comes to food photography. The colour can either make or break whether he food looks appetizing or not. Either complimentary or contrasting colours will be used, Depending on what the client/photographer wants.

The colour of the food isn't the only thing that is important. The colours that surround the food e.g. in the background & foreground are very important when it comes to making the whole image work.

Deep & rich colours usually work the best, whilst pale colours like light green are very hard to make look appetizing.

Colour can be changed and accentuated by the white balance, lighting & can be changed altogether during post-production.

Page 6: Btec photography   food photography te

FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

Manipulation:

There are many different things you can do to food photography during post-production. All of these features can be found on Photoshop, which is the industry standard photo manipulation software.

You can alter the contrast & brightness of a photograph, which can make the image look more eye catching. Altering this is a very basic way to improve an image. Other basic things you could do include altering the saturation & colour balance to a point which you desire. You need to be careful with these techniques as if overdone, the photograph can come out looking worse & over edited.

The clone stamp can also be used to remove or go over aspects of the image you do not like, e.g. a spec of juice that should not be seen on the plate. The spot-healing tool can also do this (even though the tools name is spot-healing).

You may feel like a certain part of the food needs to be moved. This can be done by using the rotoscoping tool, which allows you to select a certain part of an image and move it. This can also allow you to add to the image something if you need to.

Burning & dodging can also be used to change small aspects of an image. Burning darkens & dodging brightens.