The 3 Steps to Shooting Glorious Pub Food Photography
Tasting food is a full sensory experience – it’s not just our taste buds that get excited at new flavours, it’s our eyes too. That’s why getting food photography ‘right’ is so important.
Science has long shown a strong connection between food and emotion. As a commercial photographer, I’m here to harness the power of photography in evoking emotion in us all – creating that desire to experience… taste… and ultimately buy.
Photographing a Bistro Pub in Hasketon
Some time ago I was invited to the Turks Head in Hasketon – a pub that I had previously photographed following its refurbishment with previous owners. Showcasing it as a community, family and pet-friendly pub, which happens to serve exceptional food (and gin!), was the order of the day, as was positioning it as a warm and welcoming place to be.
This was achieved through a series of daytime and nighttime shoots – which involved a continuous game of ‘cat & mouse’ with the English weather in order to get the perfect shot!
The resulting photos were used extensively to help promote the business, and as the Turks Head won ‘Suffolk Pub of the Year’ two years running, I’d love to think that my imagery played a part in this!
Sealing the deal with food photography
I was there to take capture the food menu and take photographs of the very indulgent Brunch menu.
In preparation for the shoot, Chef and I discussed the list of dishes I was there to capture. A hugely important part of the discussion was the timings for each dish.
When it comes to food photography, like most things, timing is (almost) everything! It’s essential that the food is still hot when it is photographed. One of the reasons is food changes colour, texture and shape when it is goes cold or is cold. Oil gives off an amazing reflection on camera – but when cold, food simply will look flat and unappetising.
This meant that I had to be ready to go as soon as the food came out.
To help with this, a lot of thought was given firstly to aspects such as the table settings and cutlery, as well as the desired positioning of each dish and the variety of images needed for each one.
Setting the scene
The context in which food is displayed is hugely important. Tried and tested tips for designing the perfect food photo shoot include:
- Minimise the clutter – there’s no need to include a full table setting
- Keep non-food elements simple – consider one or two extra elements such as a glass, fork or napkin
- Choose complementary colours for table decorations – a simple flower in a vase or jar will usually suffice
- Place bowls and plates on a serving dish – this helps to frame the plate of food
- Consider the way food is set out on the plate itself – ensure food is ‘balanced’ in terms of colour, shapes, etc
- Guide your viewers’ eye into the shot – use leading lines and the rule of thirds… more on the rule of thirds in a later blog!
- Keep it clean – mop up any spills and crumbs
No matter how skilful the photographer or how good the equipment, badly presented food can quickly put people off.
Bringing food to life
I’ve talked extensively on this site regarding the importance of telling a story with photography. When it comes to food photography, this is absolutely true.
Injecting ‘movement’ into still imagery is something that works very well in this context, as is enabling the viewer to imagine themselves in the scene. One shot that I have received numerous compliments on is the mouth-watering ‘pancake syrup shot’ below:
Can’t you just picture yourself pouring over this gorgeous maple syrup, salivating at the thought of experiencing every mouthful? This was such a simple yet effective shot – I Simply asked someone to pour and I shot the image.
Food photography – collaboration is key
As such a hands-on activity, photographing food is not something that can be done alone. As well as the aforementioned help with syrup-pouring, it was essential for the client to understand how all of the elements needed to come together in order to achieve the desired image.
This is just one of the reasons I will always plan ahead and discuss desired outcomes in advance, without simply turning up camera-in-hand.
Utilising the seating area enabled me to showcase not only the food, but the eating environment as a whole.
I was therefore able to suggest a variety of shots taken in different positions for each dish. This is not easy when working fast and alone (I’m discounting Biscuit’s ‘help’!) so having somebody else on hand to help reassemble and position plates for each shot was invaluable.
The staff worked quickly behind me, clearing one dish as I finished the various shots required. They brought me out the next dish and kept me abreast of timings from Chef. I have to say it really did work seamlessly.
At the time The Turks Head went on to feature as a double page spread in a local magazine Suffolk Magazine using a range of my images. Simply proud to have been able to support this Award Winning Pub.
