Food & Product Photography

• THE KEY TOPICS OF PRODUCT & FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE
• INTRODUCTION TO FOOD AND PRODUCT
  As various other genres of photography, food and product photography have also evolved with time. There are various types of food and product photography and all of them require a different kind of preparation, execution, and post-production. The idea is to first understand where food and product photography stand against various other types of photography.
• Idea creation and pitch making
  If there is any specific kind of product or food, for example, a jewelry collection or any location-based cuisine; how to shoot them in a connecting series and what elements to keep in common while shooting them plays an important role. Coming up with ideas to shoot them and pitching them to the clients is equally important as any other stage of the photographic process
• Jewelry Shooting
  Shooting jewelry is as tricky as it can be. Whether you are shooting jewelry for cataloging or you are creating an ad campaign, shooting jewelry can be a tedious job. The size of the product, the quality of the jewelry, its textures and elements, all of it plays a crucial role. Shooting jewelry is a task in itself.
• BASICS LIGHTING IN FOOD AND PRODUCT
  There are various categories in this type of photography itself, understanding what light is good and what light isn’t used at all while shooting these items or commodities is equally important. There are basic lighting styles to shoot them for online selling and there are more complex lighting styles to shoot them for magazines or advertising.
• Catalog photography
  Catalog photography is done to show a series of a product on any platform, be it for selling it on E-commerce or for presenting them to clients for any organization or any magazine. For food photography, the same could be done for online food delivery applications or menu designing. These are shot against a simple plain background and not much of propping is required for catalog shooting.
• Conceptual shooting
  Banner shooting and campaign shooting go hand in hand. Both of such shooting techniques require pre-planning, propping, background selection, lighting styles to be decided beforehand. A mood board can also be made to make the workflow easier and more efficient. Conceptual shooting also lets the photographer have a decent degree of creativity & liberty and hence it can be much more rewarding in terms of final output and could be mutually beneficial for both the client and the photographer.
• Requirement and equipment
  
  Shooting these products requires pre-planning, execution, and post-production. There are props required, backgrounds and a lot of miscellaneous items to shoot both food and product differently. These requirements and equipment are also the very product or food item based.
• E-commerce shootng using a lIGHT cube
  This is the most common and widespread used technique to shoot products for an e-commerce platform. A light cube box comes in various sizes, depending upon the product one can choose from many sizes available. A light cube box diffuses the light and makes it uniform from all sides to prevent uneven highlights and reflections. It also helps to remove any shadows that are falling on the product due to uneven light conditions or shape of the product.
• Product/food styling
  What should be the style of photography, lighting style and how to shoot, additional elements to include, locations to choose, background, propping, etc. are all included in styling. For example, if one is trying to shoot a cuisine, what all elements are to be included, how the plating would be done, what additional elements could be used, the cutlery to be chosen, what should be the side props and so many other things come into picture. Procuring everything before a shoot is as important as shooting it and styling lays the foundation of how a shoot would proceed further on.
• Preparing a look book
  Look books are designed to show how a collection of products or food items for any campaign comes together. Making a look book is an interesting way to showcase a collection of items being photographed. A look-book can be project-based and could also represent the entire product line for specific companies. Right from elements to include, fonts to choose, picture size and resolution everything comes into the picture.
• Banner shooting
  The banner shooting of products or food is usually done when they are to be printed on the boards or are going to be used for advertising them on magazines or any online website or web promotion. These shots are usually conceptual, they require some pre-planning depending upon the type of product or category they belong to. Gathering of props and selecting backgrounds, creating a mood board and various other things comes in to picture for such kind of photography.
• Retouching
  Shooting just photographs of food and products may not be as appealing as it can be. Processing them takes these photographs a notch up. Various techniques are required even in food and product photography to make these pictures look better. In this, we study and practice various software and tools required to make these photographs look better and remove any error in the pictures that are made during shooting.

• Requirement & Equipment

Shooting food & products require pre-planning, execution, and post-production. There are props required, backgrounds and a lot of miscellaneous items to shoot both food and product differently. These requirements and equipment are also the very product or food item based.

In this course, however, all you would require is a camera, a lens, a tripod and preferably a flash. Other miscellaneous items and props are available at the college for the students to learn and practice.

• Preparing a look book

Look books are designed to show how a collection of products or food items for any ad campaign, book designing, etc. Making a look book is an interesting way to showcase a collection of whatever is being photographed.

A look-book can be project-based and could also represent the entire product line for specific companies. Right from elements to include, fonts to choose, picture size and resolution everything comes into the picture.

• Catalog Photography

Catalog photography is done to show a series of a product on any platform, it could be for selling them on E-commerce, for different clients or any magazine.

In the case of food photography, the same could be done for food delivery apps or menu designing. These are shot against a simple background and styling or propping isn’t required for any catalog shooting.

• Banner Shooting

Banner shooting and campaign shooting go hand in hand. Both of such shooting techniques require pre-planning, propping, background selection, lighting styles to be decided.

A mood board can also be made to make the workflow easier and more efficient. The conceptual shooting also lets the photographer have a decent degree of creative liberty and hence it can be much more rewarding in terms of final output and could be mutually beneficial for both the client and the photographer.

• E commerce shooting using a light cube

This is the most common and widespread used technique to shoot products for an e-commerce platform. A light cube box comes in various sizes depending upon the product one can choose from many sizes available.

A light cube box diffuses the light and makes it uniform from all sides to prevent uneven highlights and reflections. It also helps to remove any shadows that are falling on the product due to uneven light conditions or shape of the product.

• Jewellery Shooting

Shooting jewelry is as tricky as it can be. Whether you are shooting jewelry for cataloging or you are creating an ad campaign, shooting jewelry can be a tricky job.

The size of the product, the quality of the jewelry, its textures and the elements, all of it plays a crucial role. Shooting jewelry is a task in itself

• Styling & Propping

Styling and propping are a method to palace elements that complement the food or product but at the same time doesn’t take away the attention from the main subject in the photograph.

It requires a study of various elements and colors to be used and the procurement of right props that goes well with the subject you are shooting. It may seem dicey at times but you could hire a stylist if the project requires.

• Shooting Food

Food photography is shooting photographs of food and beverage items for any client. The client could be a restaurant, a resort or any online food selling platform. There are various ways of shooting any food item, forex. you may shoot photos with plain background for any online selling platforms or you could be shooting high-end photographs with a lot of elements according to the demand of the project.

Shooting food is tricky as there are various types of food items that look very different, you have to bring out the texture of the food and so much more.

• Shooting Beverage

Beverages come in different packaging. The usage of these beverages depends from industry to industry.

For example, there are alcoholic beverages that require stylized shooting, similarly, there are juice bottles, milk or any type of consumable liquid.

The shooting techniques required for a beverage is very difficult since the shape of the bottles vary and so does the highlights and shadows in the edges and curves of various products.

• Shooting metal & glass

Different products have different packaging, they are usually made up of different elements, and are usually shot using different lighting setup and different techniques.

The metallic product reflects a lot of light whereas glass products are highly reflective therefore it is required to place the lighting right and use the right techniques.