Workshop: Food photography on location
- elle walker
- Feb 7, 2019
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 29, 2019
The client
After last week's food photography practice in the studio comes the real thing: photography on location. My interest in food photography has been steadily growing over the past few months and after what I feel was a successful session in the studio, I was more than ready to work for a real, live client.
Until the day before the shoot I had no idea who the client was. As usual, this caused me a little, well, not panic, but concern. I had questions. Many, many questions. Who is the client? What is it they’re looking for? Do they have specific ideas they want realised or are they giving us/me free creative reign? How long will we have there? What timescales do we have for post-production and delivery of the photographs to the client? I’d also add that the question as to whether there would be food and drink to taste passed my mind but that sounds unprofessional and I’m nothing if not professional. (Alright, yes I did wonder. It would be a shame to waste perfectly crafted food and cocktails). The only thing to do, then, would be to research all three clients.
Whilst all three looked equally interesting, I opted for the cocktail and tapas bar which is independently owned by a local businessman. The space has a large window in the front which is great for flooding the bar with natural light and the interior is exposed brick, wood panels and the darker rear of the bar is lit by vintage-style filament bulbs, casting a warm glow.
We were originally scheduled to be at the bar at 10 am but this was pushed back until
11 am, which gave me another precious hour to drink coffee and do more research.
The tools
Canon EOS 70D
MacBook
Canon 18-135 mm f/3.5 – f/5.6 lens
Softbox
Reflectors
Diffuser
Torch
V-flats (black and white)
Mirror
The plan
It was only once inside the bar that further planning could take place. The bar owner, Dan and his general manager Milan, who also happened to be the head barman, still had jobs to do, so it was crucial we didn’t get in their way. The bar is longer than it is wide and the space between tables and the bar was very narrow, so setting up large lights may have created a challenge.
Another challenge was that two of us were sharing a camera. I have a Nikon D3200 and a Fujifilm X-T20 but shooting tethered wasn’t an option: the Nikon D3200 didn’t have the correct ports to which the tethering cable could be connected and we did not have a cable at all for the X-T20, so I had to rely on using someone else’s camera. This wasn’t a problem per se, as whilst one person was shooting, the other was acting as stylist and assistant, but I did feel somewhat hampered because of the limited amount of time I had access to the camera. I had planned to shoot a number of drinks lined up on the bar with Milan in the background, shooting at a 120° angle to the mirrored bar to avoid reflections, but there was no time to set that up.
I also wanted to try shooting from the back of the bar using continuous light, however, neither of my two companions, both shooting with their own cameras, were interested in this idea, which meant I was limited to shooting in only two positions for the duration of my time there.
I’m very interested in the current trend of dark food photography, which links directly to my love of low-key lighting. Dark photography works particularly well with cocktails as the dark background symbolises night-time revelry. After the successful studio food shoot (with the gin) I was keen to try something similar. Inspiration can be seen here https://www.pinterest.co.uk/michwalk/dark-food-photography/
I referred to The Bite Shot https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsM3clfP0vfMFlnf2tde41A on YouTube for additional inspiration and practical tips as to how to proceed.
The risks
A rough floor plan can be seen below (not to scale)
A. These are standard dining tables but positioned very close together. The laptop was placed on the slim console next to the tables, with the extension cable being run across the floor and into one of the cupboards underneath. As this was my three month old MacBook (someone referred to it as my second child, which is a fair assessment, I feel) I was terrified that something awful would happen to it, so I watched it like I would a new born baby. Two tripods were being used and were positioned across A, B and C at any given time.
B. The tables on this side of the room were high, with the stools being placed underneath the tables so as to be out of the way.
C. Lights, equipment and personal effects were placed on top of and next to the table, causing a potential trip hazard
D. (not pictured) The space was being cleaned whilst we were there, so the freshly mopped floor was an additional hazard.
E. (also not pictured) Staff were starting to arrive for work, so the combination of cables, bags, tripods and three students blocking every which way could have also caused one or more pieces of equipment to be knocked over
The contact sheets
So, bearing in mind that my actual shooting time was limited, here are my contact sheets.
The images
One of the challenges that presented itself was how to overcome the rich browny-red colour scheme. The wood interior and the charcuterie board provided and almost overpowering richness. In order to combat this, I made use of the Temperature slider in Lightroom, to create a cooler temperature in the scene. The HSL slider was used to bring added intensity to the green cocktail and the food.
The table, wooden board and the meat are analogous colours: though it can sometime present harmony, the colours here were somewhat overwhelming. Use of a triadic colour here, like yellow, would have broken up the scene which would have been much easier on the eye. The ISO was boosted from 100 to 200 as the natural light was becoming unreliable: it was changing from incredibly bright and sunny to overcast from minute to minute. Immediately prior to this shot being taken it was very dark but the instant the shutter was fired, the sun came out. Shooting the charcuterie board in front of a huge window provided great light but also a lot of heavy shadows, so I decided to make a feature out of them.
I really like the dark background and the shadows here and it's in keeping with the dark food photography ethos; whilst the shadows aren't as dramatic as the photo immediately preceding this one, they still add a little flair to the image. It was proving problematic shooting the glass and avoiding reflections, hence the fast shutter speed. The contrast slider was the biggest adjustment made to the image.
Final thoughts and studio v location
One of the challenges was the waiting time for the prepared food and drink to be available for photographing. By the time the first of the two dishes were available, the camera was in use and when the second dish was ready, the second group had arrived on site, meaning that I had just a few minutes to shoot one drink and one of the plates of food. I was so keen to photograph something and very aware of the limited time available, that I resorted to using tap water as a substitution for a cocktail (see Unicorn Tears above).
A further issue was the constantly changing light. Shooting in front of a large window to take advantage of the natural light presents its own concerns, mainly how to react when the light changes: is the proposed shot still viable when there are strong shadows? If the day suddenly becomes very cloudy, will the shot still have sufficient light? If not, have enough shots been planned even whilst making allowances for the shots that will no longer work? All of these concerns had to be taken into consideration on the shoot.
This was a great experience, to shoot on location in a live working environment and gives an indication of some of the real issues that can occur and what steps can be taken to overcome them.
Going forward, regardless of the technical/practical limitations of my cameras, I will always bring one of them with me. Even without the ability to shoot tethered, shooting something is better than shooting nothing and there is still the possibility of creating a great image.
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