Food Photography: Part Nine- Planning a Photo Shoot.

Before we begin to photo shoot, planning is quite important. One needs to know what you plan to do. The best place to get ideas and inspiration is to study the good pictures and try to understand what make it stand out. Pinterest has some beautiful pictures where one can be inspired. You could deconstruct the picture to help you understand the decisions the photographer had made while creating the photo.

let us study this picture for example : photo credit: Lara Ferroni

Points to be noted while reading a photograph

What is appealing about the photograph?

Who is the main character?

What do you think the story is?

Can you identify the direction of light?

What props do you see in the photo?

What can you tell about the harmony and the balance of the photo?

How is the space used?

Can you identify the camera angle and where was the camera in relation to food?

How is the background?

What can you say bout the location of the food photos?

Knowing and understanding all the details then you can plan your own photo shoot.

To prepare for photo shoot, start by creating a list of shots that includes all the possible combinations of camera angle, depth of field, prop arrangement, food styling, framing and everything else that you would like to capture during the shoot. Write down the list of all possible shots that you would like to capture. Will you like an overhead shot? What about silverware, one without any napkin? Another from different angle? List all of these down. Also make a list of what you do NOT want to use.

This will help you not only when you are ready to shoot but also save time in looking for things the last minute.

Next step is to sketch your shots.  Sketch all the possible ways you would like to photograph the subject. Creating a sketch helps you visualize the frame before you start creating a photo. The process of sketching begins with identifying the main subject, then secondary or supporting characters like props, lights, angle and other things that are essential to the story.

Then you are ready to shoot.

On the days, when you are not prepared and you wish to click pictures instantly, you may click a bad picture then go to photo editing app to do the post processing of a photograph.

If you wish to add copy then you have to create positive and negative space. Positive is  space occupied by food and other things and negative is the blank space around the subject where you can add copy script.

Would like to Thank Neel for his guidance in understanding Food Photography.