February 2024, Great Food Photographers

Keeping you informed about happenings at Deliberate Light: photos to browse or buy, photography instruction (see also Digital Photo Academy), and services. Also, my thoughts on a photography subject: this month, Great Food Photographers. To get these newsletters by email a month before they are posted here, go to the DeliberateLight.com website and click on Newsletter Signup.

NEWS

Upcoming Workshops. I am scheduled to teach the following workshops next month.

March 2, location: Free Library of Philadelphia and Basilica of Sts. Peter & Paul.
Though the Free Library was established in 1891, it did not find its present home on Vine Street until this grand Beaux Arts building was completed in 1927. Across Logan Square is the magnificent Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter & Paul. The great thing about buildings is that they don’t move, providing you with the opportunity to study a scene, walk around it and find the best angles and light-fall for an image. Outside on the square are street photo opportunities along with some wonderful views of the Center City skyline.

<![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Mastering Your Camera Controls (1.5 hours) – DSLR/Mirrorless/Compact cameras (smartphone tutorial available separately)

<![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>Composition in the Field (3 hours) – walking tour around the venue with instruction and hands-on practice composing photos (bring any camera)

The next group classes I teach in Philadelphia will be April 6th.

New Photo. Narcissus. According to Ovid, when the hunter, Narcissus, fell in love with his own reflection and realized he would never be loved back, his hot passion melted him into this white and gold flower. As one does. I do not think of these gentle soft flowers as molten passion, but I am very grateful when they help relieve the gloom of winter by ushering in early spring. (Rose Valley, PA, 2023)

For a more detailed, enlarged view and to get it printed, see it on my website.

VIEWS

This latest in my ongoing series devoted to examining great photographers is a couple who take fantastic food photos.

Pictures of food are among the most common subjects on social media and are ones that I skip past quickly. There are very few people whose lunches I have any interest in knowing about, so if the picture is not photographically interesting (few are) to set it apart from the hordes of others like it, I am gone.

So, let’s take a look at two photographers whose photos are marvelous in different ways and try to learn from them. The first is Mowie Kay, a commercial photographer in the UK. His photos succeed very well in grabbing your attention, by the use of several compositional elements. First, of course, the food itself is attractive, but he enhances that by little visual stories, such as you see here.

The little story? I implicitly imagine I am at a home-cooked dinner with others in an attractively rustic setting. Why do I imagine that? Pasta on a heavy plate, the second plate in the background, simple glass of water, the small dish of basil leaves sneaking in next to the plate, and the rough table. The hand personalizes the image, it does not detract.

That story is enhanced by the use of depth-of-field (portrait mode on cellphones) to blur the background, thereby drawing your attention to the delicious looking pasta in front of you. The use of a light background wall and table contrasting with the darker plate and food also draws your attention to the main dish. The tone of the complementary colors within the scene.

An important, though subtle, element here is the use of diffuse side-lighting to create soft shadows that give the photo extra dimensionality. How do you get that light without special lights and studios? During daylight hours, be at a table next to a window that is either north facing or has good shade to diffuse the incoming light (restaurant seating alert: if you have a choice sit near a window). By being beside such a window, the light will naturally fall softly across the scene, gradually fading from light to dark just as you want it to. After dark, try moving a candle or a lamp to the side of the table to give that gradual light fall, or failing that, maybe ask your dinner partner to hold the flashlight on their cell phone to the side of the scene, maybe covering it in a thin cloth to diffuse that harsh LED.

The next photographer, Julia Sent, is a fabulous still life photographer whose food photos are works of art. These photos require staging, lighting and probably a certain amount of photo editing, and so may not be practical for everyday food photos. But they are well worth studying and just appreciating. Note here the beautiful use of curving lines with the rope-tied green beans, as well as the light fall and contrasts and the textures and forms of the cup and wooden tray, plus the delightful little fillip of the butterfly. These all combine to give an impression of graceful simplicity lit as if by a Dutch master, with a fleeting story that you can imagine to go with it.

I do not imagine that you will often have the time or patience for the kind of staging used by professionals, but if you keep some of these elements in mind when you take your next food photo, it should pay off. Look for light and color contrasts, along with blurring to draw the eye to the food and do not avoid including personal elements like hands or artful clutter like sprinkled condiments. Pay attention to light and make sure it is soft and falls off to make intriguing shadows. And, if you have the time, try to imagine a little story behind the photo and arrange accordingly.

I have made myself hungry now. Happy photo hunting.

Carl Finkbeiner

Mobile: 610-551-3349 website instagram facebook linkedin digitalphotoacademy