Fine Dining Food Photography: Photoshoot

Working with food photographer Anna Pustynnikova for this series of food photography classes, Karl and Anna set about creating a sleek and stylish shot of duck leg confit for the next food photography class. Together, the pair demonstrate essential preparation, styling and lighting techniques for eye-catching food photos.

In this chapter Anna details her step-by-step styling, building up to the final mouth-watering shot while Karl gradually builds up the lighting and shows simple techniques to highlight key elements of this delicate dish.

In this photography class we cover the following:

  • Product Photography: Food Photography
  • Photographing food in plan view
  • Food styling for different camera angles
  • Photographing food using multiple studio lights
  • Selecting depth of field for food photography
  • Achieving focussed light with alternative lighting techniques
  • Full frame vs medium format — results comparison

If you enjoyed this food photography course, watch Anna’s live show here.

Comments

  2. Michael Glass

    Karl, thanks for this. Just joined and ready to go through all your tuts.

    Apologies for the wall of text below, a simple writeup would be: Is it ever okay to use different backdrops, plates, flatware, glassware, etc. for food and beverage photography at a restaurant if they don’t actually serve food those items or have those backdrops as surfaces?

    I do some photography (among other things) for the agency I work at. I’ve been photographing a high-end American steakhouse client for the past few years and I’ve got the “look” locked down to everyone’s liking – not too far off from this look, really. However, this being my only restaurant client, I’ve run into a few conundrums.

    The flatware, glassware, and dinnerware are all as plain as you could picture. Nice, but plain. Same goes for the table settings – tablecloth is white, napkins are white, there is one candle on the table in an overly large votive. The biggest problem for me is “selling” a steak on their plates. They are MASSIVE white dinner plates. They easily dwarf the 38 oz. Tomahawk and 40 oz. Porterhouse steaks. I have the hardest time showing the scale of these huge steaks, or any dish for that matter, due to the plates and backgrounds. They just look small and the backgrounds usually end up having to be an interesting crop of the plate in the frame.

    Same goes for the environment. This is a three-story building with dining on two floors and a rooftop bar. The restaurant is only 5 years old, so it’s in good shape, it all just feels so basic and sterile.

    I’ve asked for sides to be placed on plates, and for the kitchen to use smaller plates for photography purposes, but they rarely budge because they don’t want to misrepresent. I’ve also proposed shooting on different backgrounds that have the same vibe of the restaurant, but give viewers a slightly refreshed look. They usually oppose that. My question is – what are my options here? I think I could convince them to make some of these adjustments for the sake of photography and building a scene rather than it being so clearly on location, but I’ve been reluctant to push too hard because I myself am not sure if it’s good practice / commercially ethical to photograph food for a restaurant out of its actual environment.

    Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

    1. Hi, glad you are enjoying the platform. Yes your problem is a common one, the restaurant doesn’t want to misrepresent which is understandable as they can’t have clients complaining that ‘it’s not the same as the photo!’ but on the other hand they won’t consider changing their serving style. The first question would be would they benefit from different plates, cutlery, table dressing etc from a general restaurant aesthetic point of view? Would it make their restaurant look a whole lot better and would it affect the efficiency of their service (waiters, kitchen etc). If you can make a case for change then that’s your first option because as a business if they can see the value in creating a ‘better look’ for customers then of course they would consider it. If that’s definitely not an option then you’ll have to change the shooting style, to go in tighter and cut out the crap that looks big bland white areas, if for example the table cloth is too stark and broad then a carefully placed wine glass, bread basket, salt and pepper etc etc can reduce the blandness. For the food you may have to consider a lower shooting angle and arranging the food slightly differently. A lower angle will of course hide a lot of ‘surface’ problems such as plates, table cloths etc but it will also reveal more background areas of the restaurant which you will then have to consider in your composition. No easy answers I’m afraid.

  5. Absolutely spectacular work. Watching these videos is mesmerizing. Actually going to buy some small mirrors now to give it a shot!

  7. I am glad to sign up again. Give me ideas using speed light and accessories in a small room. I think sign up at least 2 or more months. Signed up another place also to gain additional skills if I every look for work.

  8. What would the difference have been had you used a soft box in back as opposed to diffusing paper?and why did you fill from the top and not the left side?
    Thanks!

    1. Hi Chay, the light I created with the scrim at the back was more centrally strong (less homogenous) than a softbox and that adds a more 3dimensional quality to the light and is also better on gloss surfaces (see gradient lighting theory in portrait section chapters 1-15). The fill from above was the most obvious choice as we were shooting from above so we are looking to control the shadows inside the bowl etc which would not have been possible if we were putting a fill light from the side as that would just add shadow to the opposite side.

  9. What are you using as the black surface? it’s not looking reflective which is what I am looking for.

  10. Karl and Anna Thanks So much for the tutorial ,..I like the effort that you do to use different lights set up , using mirrors and simple tricks to improve the ambiance and mood of the composition, because usually beginners as me work with natural light and reflectors because is affordable, however is clear for me that artificial light is necessary to move to the next step as light and composition are the main components for a successful job and beautiful photo.

    I would like to know why technically speaking in this case you didn’t choose soft box or octobox ? instead you use backlight and screen.

    settings to shoot were f11/f16 to have more DOF and the focus was in the gratin,… you use top view angle to shoot, maybe with this angle the focus point was not so relevant because everything is in the same plane ,..but how can we know where to put the focus point to get a clear image of all the elements presents in the composition if for example we shoot in 45 degree angle or the elements are positioned in different planes ? what kind of focus do you use ? single focus point?

    I have issues with that when every element have a different depth or is in a different plane I focus one thing but the other look blur,..is necessary shoot several pictures with different focus and after combined then or how to have all the scene focus ???

    thanks in advance for your time to answer me.

    1. Hi Maria, I’m glad you are enjoying the course and thank you for your feedback. When you watch some of the other food courses with Anna then you will see we shoot some of these at a 45 degree angle and some have shallower depth of field but you will notice we will always place the focus on the hero of the shot. You will also see us change DOF until we are happy with the shot. Again when you see the ‘Berries’ shoot it will become clear to you what happens when I change from the Octabox to scrim lighting. Thanks Karl.

  12. They did not have the Canon 5ds at the time you shot this video? That would have been a better comparison. But less brownie points for the Hassy. Overall great lesson.

    1. Hi Emmad, to do any job properly you need some of the necessary tools. We only use a couple of studio lights and in many of these food tutorials only one light and a 35mm camera so I don’t see how it could be made more economical if you want to do a proper job?

      1. Thank you for your reply .. and, i mean is it important to own Hasselblad which it cost 45000 $ to do food photography.

        1. Hi Emmad, no not really unless you are at the top of your game, as you saw in these tutorials we captured great shots on a 35mm camera.

        2. I’d prefer to use a Hasselblad as the tonal range is better and for me it’s easier to work with but no it’s not really important for food photography

  14. I thoroughly enjoyed this session. I never knew how much goes into this type of photography from the prep to the shoot. I’m glad you showed the differences between the hasselblad and the canon. You can really appreciate the quality of hasselblad with the comparison. The use of those things and the card to control the light pockets was very impressive.

  15. That was a great tutorial, thank you both! It was very informative and sometimes funny 🙂 (but sometimes even terrifying when you Karl were balancing on your ladder)
    Please answer some questions:
    1. Is that picture from Canon or Hasselblad?
    2. Did you have to clean that smudge on the plate seen on 21.33 ? If yes- on post or during preparation?
    3. I liked the effect of scrim and watching preparation stage I’ve noticed that baking paper looks like that scrim. So if I have no scrim do you think I can use baking paper instead? Will the effect be similar or at least close to it? (I mean white parchment paper)

    1. Hi Anna,
      1. I did on both, I think the final one on my Hasselblad is the one on my website.
      2. We must of cleaned it as I don’t remember having to retouch one?
      3. Tracing paper will work, baking paper will probably give a false colour and I think it is too patchy.

  16. Thank you Karl!
    Which Scrimms are you using and which thickness most of them have for this kind of diffuse light.

    All the best Michael

  17. Which dimensions usually have the backgrounds and surfaces (pink, black and grey) that you use like table?

    Thank you Karl.

  18. Hi Karl,
    3 Make-up Mirrors 15x are fine?
    Maybe you told that in the video but I have some problem with English…
    Thank you in advance!

  19. But would editing the Canon photo through sharpness and tone curve bring it closer to the Hasselblad.
    Another great learning video. Thank you Karl.

    1. Hi Anne, yes it would but of course the better the original image to begin with then the more efficient you can be. Many pro’s shoot with 35mm such as Canon and Nikon too and as you will see in the other food tutorials we used the Canon, but medium format will of course be an improvement just in the same way back in the days of film we used medium format film cameras for the same reasons.

  20. These live shows are more educational even than regular courses for me, i can see the trial and errors about shaping the light. It would be amazing to see some about other products!
    Thanks again Karl !

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