Many people assume that food photographers spend most of their time in a cosy studio where they’re able to control light and a whole manner of other variables. Not me!
Most of my working time is spent out on location – in kitchens, restaurants, on the seashore and in muddy fields.
Of course it makes for an interesting day but it also presents a load of challenges – once the client has booked me, we have to work with available light, people and produce. If it’s snowing hard and the client wants an outdoor shot of their newly created chocolate pudding, I have to go with the flow (I always keep a shovel and a spare pair of gloves in the car!).
Working in professional kitchens is often a particular challenge. Most are hidden away in the bowels of the building with no natural light but plenty of steam and hot surfaces (not great for expensive digital cameras or fingers).
On my first couple of kitchen shoots I struggled to get the lighting right. Fluorescent strip lights, and even worse, food warming lamps, can play havoc with the sensor and the results often came out with a nasty looking grey/blue cast.
However, with time I learned to trust my Nikon’s auto white balance feature and to use the low light conditions to my advantage. Blurred shots of chefs in action generally look great and converting the images to black and white gets around many of the colour cast problems.
As for the food the kitchens produce, I’ve given up trying to shoot it in situ. I always insist on taking it into the restaurant (or, in the case of a very posh London hotel into a private suite). Of course this means that my working hours are limited, particularly in winter – I never use flash – but I can at least shoot the kitchen images when the outside light is poor.
And if ever a client does want something more dramatic, a bit stylised, I’ll work with the food in my home studio. But even here, some lateral thinking is often required. For these sushi images I needed a really reflective, high gloss surface.
After a while, I managed to source some acrylic sheets (otherwise known as Perspex) which did a fine job. Light is the single biggest variable and it’s the one thing I have practically no control over. On a recent shoot for a producer of high-end frozen ready-meals the art director wanted shots of their products in a low winter sunlight.
So then it was just a question of waiting for the sun to appear from behind the clouds (and coordinating with the chef, food stylist etc.). Whilst we waited we were able to shoot all the other products in a more traditional way using diffused light.
On a restaurant shoot on Valentine’s Day, the chef/owner wanted me to take some images of his latest fine dining creations. Of course I was happy to oblige but on Valentine’s Day? Anyway, I set up all my kit on a small table adjacent to the only decent window in the restaurant.