Hanging Food
Hanging Food
Food is pretty incredible. Not just because it fuels us but how it looks. Recently I photographed an avocado. The purpose of the photo was the demonstrate rim lighting. The avocado was against a black background, and the texture stood out much more than if it was shot in an environment. It looked more like an alien egg than a fruit.
That got me thinking about foods and how I could explore their looks. As I thought, I knew I wanted the food to be the hero so no propping or environment. I didn’t want to do a lot of retouching; I wanted them to be themselves. And while I do examine the food, I didn’t want them to be perfect like we normally shoot in food photography— think regular people, not supermodels.
I decided to shoot them in front of a white background. The white would help the colors stand out. I decided to suspend them in the air, but I didn’t want them to be magically floating. They needed to look natural. I settled on hanging them from a piece of twine. Next was the lighting. Again I didn’t want any elaborate lighting set up, just a simple sidelight to help the texture stand out.
I’m really happy with how these images are coming out. It’s fun to go to the farmer’s markets to search for something that strikes my interest and shoots them later that same day.
Comments are closed.