Guestblog Morgana Creely

Today Morgana Creely is taking over my blog to entertain you guys with his guestblog, not for the faint of hearted….. just kidding…. well actually not 🙂 so enjoy.

Sometimes it all too easy to get so focused on our own style of photography that we don’t stop to think how other styles and techniques could really help. My passion is creating images that tell stories.  To help me achieve some of the images I want to create, I have turned to a very different genre:  Food Photography Food photography is something that we see every day but probably don’t think a lot about. Yet it definitely has a skill set all of its own. Any shot that includes food is essentially food photography, even if the intent is completely different.

In the shot above, I wanted to balance the lighting, composition and the styling. I didn’t want the additional “protein” to be obvious immediately; and if the food didn’t look realistic [and hopefully appealing] then the shot won’t work. I sourced the food container from a friendly local restaurant. The white backdrop is a piece of art board, and the fingers saved from Halloween [when all sorts of delightful things are available]. The food came from the local fish and chip shop a couple of doors down from the studio.

The set-up of this shot is very important. The clean white background is often used in food photography as it allows the food to stand out. The lighting needed to be bright and even without blowing out the food container. The angle of the food is also important, allowing all the elements including the soda to be in the frame.

Lighting: One medium square soft box on a studio strobe, and a reflector to bounce back the light.

The second shot needed to be a simple, clean shot.  The bread [fresh from a local bakery] was sliced evenly by hand, and two tiny holes dug into the bread to allow the legs to be inserted. This is a lot harder than it sounds, and we had a second loaf as back-up just in case. Fortunately we didn’t need it. I draped a white table cloth over a small table in my kitchen, setting up the bread on a large wooden bread-board, to give contrast and texture.

Again the lighting is one medium square soft box on a studio strobe and a reflector to produce even, wrap-around lighting.

In this last shot I wanted to capture the “looking down from above” angle that is so popular in food photography. Food is often photographed against white crockery, and I chose this large square serving plate for its dimension and shape. The wooden stand underneath [which came with the plate] makes a nice frame.

Once again I used the same lighting as the two shots above: one medium square soft box on a studio strobe and a reflector.

Whilst these images are definitely not your average food photography, learning some general food styling and lighting definitely helped.
Bon Appetit! 🙂