I enjoy shoots like this, because it allows me to focus more on the food styling and presentation, rather than the background and props surrounding the main dish or focus of the photo.

Cheeseburger Bobby’s is an Atlanta-based burger chain, that creates gourmet hamburgers and hot dogs, which customers can then customize at the “Build Your Own Burger Bar” – topping their sandwiches with a wide choice of condiments. The founders, Richard and Bob Stoll, are two of the coolest guys that I’ve met in the food biz and were wonderful clients to work with – gave direction during the shoot, but not too much that it was overwhelming – loved it.

And I will say, being able to set up camera & laptop and shoot tethered for this job was amazing. It certainly helped in this case, because we were looking for that perfect burger shot, with the  bun, burger, cheese and condiments looking nice and perky. Being able to examine each shot on a computer, rather than on a small camera screen was priceless.

Megan is a former triathlon coach who followed her passion for teaching and became a full time yoga instructor. Now, she teaches yoga classes in her home studio as well as in many local venues, including martial arts schools. Best thing about her business (aside from Megan’s positive and bubbly personality) is that she will bring yoga to you. “Creating your own happy place” wherever you may be.

This was such a fun shoot, I always enjoy shooting dancers, martial artists and yogis because of the beautiful forms and lines that you get to capture in the images. But I may be biased because of a long dance history *ahem*

Here are Jennifer and Tony, the owners of the restaurant – both foodies, savvy business people and all-around great couple.

And here is the Sprig group (minus the bar team): Nick (general manager), Britt (executive chef), Tony (owner), Jennifer (owner) and Robert (sous chef).

We spent most of the time going through a few exercises in Photoshop – I believe the best way to learn is to just do what you want to learn, and then practice, practice, practice. So, we cropped, rotated, changed colors of bags and created a simple web banner.

I’m not sure what I was explaining here, but “the claw” made an appearance.

(Thanks Rayann of She Learns for the photo!)

From what I heard, people loved the class and got a lot out of it (whew! I was a tad nervous beforehand.) and it looks like we might be putting together another Photoshop class, as well as an Illustrator class in the next couple months. So, yay! Stay tuned.

Here are a few photos from a recent photo shoot for Madras Chettinaad’s new menu items:

Tandoori Chicken

Onion Spinach Pakora

Vegetable Biriyani

My favorite part of catalog shooting is the creative, conception phase when the client, art director and photographer sit down and decide on the look and direction of the catalog. To shoot a successful catalog, a few things need to be kept in mind:

- Brand image
- Consistency
- Clarity
- Grouping of products

Note: Of course, with smaller businesses. Many times the client and art director are the same person. And luckily for me, I’m usually both the photographer and the art director.

Brand Image
The brand of your company is reflected through your products and thus, should be further shown throughout the catalog.

For example, this company creates pet travel accessories. The brand of the company is colorful and whimsical, but the products are intended for use outdoors and on the move with your dog or cat. So, we decided to shoot the products in a natural, outdoors setting. Thus showing how relaxing and fun it is to use these products.

Consistency
When a customer flips through a catalog, whether print or on the web, they expect consistency. It’s difficult to look through a catalog if “something creative” is done with each item, making it difficult to compare items.

It’s also important to stick with one photographer, or one photography style, when shooting a catalog. Since the nature of catalogs is repetitive, a slight difference in images is very apparent.

Here are a few photos that I shot for a luggage catalog, as you can see, the styling and lighting are consistent throughout.

Clarity
Clarity carries a lot of different meanings when it comes to catalog photography.

1. Clarity in what is being sold. The most obvious, but I have browsed many websites where I could not figure out what was the actual product.
2. Clarity in the photography. I’m guessing that a great photo of a mediocre product will sell better than a bad photo of a great product.
3. Clarity in the size of the product. Sometimes, it’s necessary to include a prop in a photograph to help show the size of a product that the customer is not familiar with. (As shown below with the eating utensil and the homemade dog treats)

Grouping of Products
When planning out a catalog, you should have a shot list written out with all of the photos that you want to make sure to capture during the shoot. Which brings about the issue of organization of products.

It’s a good idea to group products by type or even by what people should be purchasing together. By showing a photo of all of these grouped products together, it helps to give the customer an idea of what they should be buying.

These were by Moo – my absolute favorite business card vendor. Not only because the card stock quality and printing are great, but Moo cards are perfect for photographers. Or those who can’t pick just one back for cards.

For more on our visit to Ciao Bocca and further descriptions on what food we enjoyed, visit my blog post at Dash of East.

My job as the photographer, is to take photos of a restaurant’s food so that when people look at the photos on the website and marketing materials, they get hungry and want to buy the food.

Each restaurant has its own story to tell through the food it serves, through the ingredients, the preparation and the presentation. But the overall process of shooting the food at each restaurant is in essence the same each time.

The difference is the storytelling through each photo.

Branding
My job starts before I even walk into the restaurant with my camera. I study the restaurant’s website, menu and other marketing materials to get a good sense of their brand and their story. This is important to do so that the images for each restaurant shoot reflects the individual business, from the color scheme to the way the food is presented to the way the table is lit.

Without keeping brand image in mind and only focusing on shooting a pretty plate of food, the photos for a farm to table restaurant could look very similar to those from an authentic Indian restaurant.

Lighting
I always use natural light when shooting food. Yes, artificial light can be used to shoot food. But setting up lighting equipment on location at a restaurant is usually not convenient to do. There’s usually not enough space and you don’t want to have an intense lighting set up when there are customers present at the restaurant.

When I walk into the location, I will look for a window where there is nicely diffused light (side light, or back light), with no direct sunlight beaming in. Below, you can see the difference in the two types of lighting.

If there are no windows with good lighting in the restaurant, I will set up outdoors in the shade to shoot. Overhead/ambient lighting in most restaurants create great mood and eating atmosphere, but aren’t the best for food photography. Natural light helps food look the most appetizing.

Props & Backgrounds
For the most part, I will use what is available in the restaurant. The tables in the restaurant are the same tables that the customers will see the food on, so those are the ones that I photograph on.

On client request, I will bring wood panels to photograph on:

Wood panels make great backgrounds for food photography because they are easy to transport and you can so easy change the look of a photograph without having to change out an entire table. Plus, two sides of the panel means two different colors & looks in one board.

The only other items that I always bring to every shoot are my foam core boards: one white and one black. One for bouncing light back onto the food, one for absorbing light.

Styling
When working with restaurants, I tend to do very little styling work. This is because the way a restaurant presents their dishes is part of their brand and there is no need for me to change it. The only thing I may do would be something small (tweak a piece of lettuce or move some herbs around) so that the food photographs better and cleaner.

Doing shoots with restaurant is such fun. It’s different very time because the style of each chef is different and it’s up to the photographer to portray that through an image.

Remember last time when we shot Sprig’s winter menu? I said that the worst part about doing these restaurant shoots is smelling the food and my tummy rumbling while getting the perfect shot?

Well, this time, I brought the husband (aka the assistant) along to help shoot and eat some of this delicious food. I think that’s his favorite part of my job.

Fried Oysters

Shaved Fennel & Orange Salad

Crispy Sorghum Glazed Eden Farms Pork Belly

The food tastes just as amazing, if not more so, than the photos suggest. Don’t believe me? Head on over to Sprig Restaurant and try out the new items for yourself.