Major Project – Folio
Workshop 4
Studio
Description:
Food photography. I’ll be preparing and photographing
several dishes dip, mains, side and desert as well as preparation images. The
menu items will come from the unillustrated cookbook 4 Ingredients: Over 340 Quick, Easy & Delicious Recipes using 4 or
less Ingredients by Kim McCosker & Rachael Bermingham (2008)
Since this is simple food that is being prepared I’m
planning on following the style I observed used by Alan Benson, http://www.alanbenson.com, when we visited
his studio earlier in the year. He was working on a cookbook being prepared for
OzHarvest, to be released later in the year, with recipes submitted by Chefs
from around Australia using minimal ingredients that have been donated to
OzHarvest. During that visit we had the opportunity to speak with the Food
Stylist, David Morgan www.davidmorganfoodstyling.com,
about his styling for this particular project. Considering the ingredients were
minimal he chose to style the food and place settings in the same way, single
plate in the shot without full place settings or blurred serving dishes in the
background. For some of the images it was only the main ingredient, i.e. a
zucchini that had been thinly sliced lengthwise and laid out on a cutting
board.
[OzHarvest “rescues excess food which would otherwise be
discarded. The excess food is distributed to charities …”
Output:
The food photographs will be colour and consist of four to
six A3 portrait images and four or less preparation/ingredient images. I
envisage that there will be two of 8 to 10 images that will be landscape
suitable for DPS layout.
Samples:
See Alan Benson Photography website www.alanbenson.com. Screen shots samples attached.
See David Morgan’s The Food Dept. website www.davidmorganfoodstyling.com.
Screen shot sample attached.
Costing:
Studio costing free – either using CIT studio or setting up
at home.
Food costs – estimate less than $100
Printing costs if printing 10 A3 images at CITwith prints to
be side by side landscape and allowing 450mm for each print depth to include
cropping space $112.50 [225cm @$0.50 cm].
Foam Core $30.
Time-line:
Week 6 – proposal approved.
Week 6 – decide on recipes, make list of ingredients
required, purchase ingredients.
Week 6 – commence cooking and test shots.
Week 7 continue cooking and test shots and determine set-up
materials needed – plates/tablecloths/etc.
Week 7 – progress check with Brian and show test shots.
Week 7 - 9 – finalise shots, editing and prepare for
printing.
Week 10 – Final printing of this portion of folio.
I found food photography to be one of my most enjoyable sessions. I found the research and the visitation with several photographers engaged in this style of photography to be quite relaxing. It is something I wouldn't mind doing as an adjunct to my regular event/music photography. I think I still have a long way to go before considering myself a food photographer but I'm sure it will be an area I will pursue upon completion of this course.
Below I've included photos of my home studio setup. I have a room with six windows forming a bow that gets the East and North and West sunlight. The eaves are wide enough to block all but the low early morning and late afternoon sun giving me quite a few hours of working indirect and reflective light.
Included are random photos from numerous shoots done in the process of completing the food photography portfolio including set up shots and test shots.
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Studio setup |
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