The Food Photography Blog

HDR (High Dynamic Range) images seem to be the photography fad of the month. The internet is saturated with them, most of them truly awful. And that’s because the photographers (mostly amateurs, of course) haven’t thought about the reason they’re using HDR. Mostly they’re the result of inept tone mapping to give a totally unreal effect (unreal as in completely outside reality, not as in ‘cool’). That is, they’re not actually expanding the dynamic range at all; rather they’re creating - no, that’s the wrong word - ending up with images that, in more competent hands, would have a fine-art appeal.

The same can be said of panoramas. Ever since Ken Duncan started his gallery at Avoca on the NSW Central Coast, photographers all around the world have been emulating him by shooting panoramas. At least, they think they’re emulating him; it takes a lot more than a cropped format to make a good photograph, let alone a great one.

Recently I was commissioned by Tamar Valley Resort in northern Tasmania to shoot some panoramas for a new brochure. As winter was coming on, they were anxious to get the images in the can before the bad weather set in. Two weeks later, we finally got a clear day, Tassie weather being its usuall capricious self. And with the fine weather came those beautiful clear blue skies that you get when the weather’s fine in Tassie, the result of the cleanest air on the planet. So in order to hold detail in the deepest shadows as well as the brightest highlights, I decided to shoot for 32 bit HDR files, bracketing 3 stops either side of correct exposure, so bright was the sunshine.

Now, simply to create an image of suitable resolution for an A4 fold-to-DL brochure could have been easily created in a single capture but after 30 years as a professional photographer, I’ve learned to hedge my bets and provide them with images of suitable resolution for pretty much anything they could possibly want. So I decided to use my new Gigapan head to create a multi-exposure panorama. The final resolutions were in the order of 35 megapixels and around 200-300 MB each. And that finished, flattened TIF files!

Each final panorama was made up of a total of 35 captures. The methodology was this:
1. Calculate mean exposure. I did this by spot metering the deepest shadows and brightest highlights in which I wanted to hold detail.
2. Set the camera to this exposure. I also used manual focus. Because the shots were quite distant I could get away with f8 and still get the depth of field I needed. This is my preferred exposure for distance work unless there are compelling reasons to go wider or narrower as it provides the sharpest image with my Nikon lenses.
3. Take a manual white balance, not difficult when you’re outdoors and there aren’t any clouds.
4. Set the Gigapan for the number of exposures. Because these panoramas were long and narrow I could get away with 5 images for each with about a 30% overlap to allow the stitching software to do its stuff.
5. Take the first set of exposures. Once the panorama is captured, the Gigapan automatically returns to its start position so it’s easy to reset the exposure and then repeat the panorama. Do this 5 times in order to capture the exposure range.
6. Back in the production area I created the 5 separate panoramas for each finished image and then did an HDR merge of each. When I put the finished HDR panoramas together I found out that this didn’t work. Somehow I managed to get ever so slight image shift between each of the HDR panoramas, evidently due to the software - probably a floating point calculation error or some such thing.

Now image processes like these take a lot of computing power and therefore a lot of time, so finding out the process didn’t work was a little frustrating. No matter. I switched to creating the HDR merges first and then merging the final HDR images into the panoramas. This worked just fine, while I went and had lunch. Coming back after lunch, I found the first panorama was just as I’d hoped. A little cleaning up with Noiseware (always do these processes after the merges or you risk differences between the merged images), some contrast work and sharpening and the images were ready to go off to the client.

In all I captured some 14 HDR images, 8 of which were stitched panoramas. The client was delighted and had not the faintest clue as to the complexity of the job that delivered such high resolution images with a large range of tones into their hands. Now I’ve just got to hope the printer doesn’t screw up all that work!

Hello to whatever readers of this blog are left after an extended period without a post. We upped and left Queensland at the end of September 2010 and moved into our new home, a converted church hall and unconverted (as yet) church. Extensive renovations are under way; after 5 months we’re still working on the kitchen design, although we have purchased the appliances. For the range we went with Falcon, the gas/electric combination manufactured by Arga of the UK. Our new fridge and dishwasher are by Liebherr and the rest of the kitchen will be pretty much commercial - vinyl floors and stainless steel benches. Outside we’re in the process of constructing a 6m x 6m hardwood structure complete with kitchen sink and toilet which will house a barbecue, pizza oven and refrigerator.

Naturally there hasn’t been a lot of opportunity to work due to the upheaval so we were please to pick up a couple of projects. The first, a web site for Exquisite Flavours of Hobart is under way. The second was a photography and video shoot for Kabuki Restaurant and Accommodation located on Tassie’s east coast south of Swansea. A stunningly beautiful location houses a fabulous Japanese restaurant and a number of delightful cottages. Over 2 days we produced 9 food images and 34 minutes of video footage for the Kabuki web site.

Here are a couple of the final images. The first is Kabuki’s signature dish, a Japanese style seafood platter which includes sushi, sashimi, tempura, abalone as well as more traditional seafood platter offerings.

Part of the deal with Kabuki was that they had to put us up and feed us for the two days of the shoot so we managed to sample pretty much the entire menu, including this delicious offering. Chef Mitsuko (Michi) Nakanichi selects only the freshest seafood available in Tassie, as well as flying some in from Japan to ensure the quality remains the highest possible. Yet at $69 for two the price is very reasonable when you compare it against the price of similar seafood platter type offerings from other restaurants.

The second dish we photographed was ‘Michi’s Magic Bento’ which was essentially a tasting plate of many of the restaurant’s dishes. Michi adds Australian ingredients to his dishes, such as his Wallaby Yakiniku - thinly sliced wallaby pan fried with seasonal vegetables in a sauce made from sake, fresh ginger and garlic. I had this a couple of times while we were there as it really was so mouthwateringly delicious. This dish has now become the header image for this blog.

The dish was photographed on black plexiglass we took along for the purpose. We always carry black and white plexiglass as well as neutral polycarbonate when we go on location. These complement our paper rolls and portable background system. All our gear packs into our 6×4 trailer fitted with a security cage and waterproof cover. The trailer is lined with 2 inch polyester foam and the most delicate equipment - lights, cameras, etc - are securely packed into Pelican cases.

The restaurant is situated right on the edge of Oyster Bay and has stunning views as can be seen from the next image, shot to show a range of side dishes and other smaller menu offerings (right).

For the shot of the sushi platter we moved the camera position to almost directly overhead. The main light, a small Westcott softbox with double diffusion was moved to highlight the texture of the rice and prevent it burning out against the white plate. All in all this was a very enjoyable shoot for several reasons. Not only was the food top quality and well presented (although Michi did get a bit edgy with us after we’d take his carefully plated dish apart and rebuild it to our satisfaction. When he saw the images, though, he understood the necessity for plating and finishing in camera and that even with the best chefs preparing the food, you cannot simply take a dish, plonk it in front of the camera and shoot it if you want professional quality food images. When you’re shooting for restaurants this is often hard to convey to chefs. Luckily both the owners, Michi and Terry, were the most delightful clients we’ve ever had and gave us free rein to present their food and location in the best possible way. Thank you, guys!

Shortly after the images were finalised and sent to Kabuki’s web developer, the Japanese earthquake and Tsunami happened. We pray for Michi and his family that they were spared the devastation and are safe and well.

If there’s one thing that the current recession has really affected, it’s the quality of advertising not only by the major brands but more by the smaller advertisers. More and more it can be seen that, rather than spend the money to have professional, creative and quality images shot for their advertising, they are making do with poor quality images that they’ve either shot themselves with their digital camera or had done by a local wedding/portrait photographer or by an employee, relative or friend who is ’studying photography’ or is a ‘photography enthusiast.’

What they don’t seem to realise, however, is the damage poor quality images do to their brand and the ongoing perception their potential customers develop about their business as a result of this temporary saving. Nowhere is this truer than in the food and hospitality industry. Let’s look at a couple of examples. These are sections (with the relevant details omitted to protect the guilty) of advertisements in a glossy magazine. One is for a restaurant and the other for a cooking school.

Now you’d think that for both of them, the crucial message they’d want to communicate was the superior quality of their food. But the images they portray in their ads communication quite the opposite. Let’s take a look at the restaurant ad first. I’ve cropped it down to just the main image because I’m not critiquing the ad as a whole (that’s another matter entirely) but the quality of the image itself.

The first thing that srikes me is that we have fresh seafood left out in the hot sun (and the Queensland sun is very hot). The dish has been placed on a dirty piece of jetty without any covering like a cloth. More importantly, the dish shows a complete lack of styling. I can imagine the scenario when this was taken. First, the chef (or more likely, a sous-chef) prepared the dish just as they would for service. Indeed, they may well have spent even less time on plating it up than they would during service. What they don’t realise, of course, is that whereas a served dish has 3 dimensionality, smell, anticipation as well as a visual presence, a photograph is purely 2 dimensional without any of those assisting aspects. The result, of course, is that we are subconciously much more critical of a food photograph than we would be if the dish itself was placed in front of us (photographs rarely make us salivate, for a start. A dish of food placed in front of us always does!)

Once the chef had prepared the dish, the owner or a waiter/ress carried it out and they placed it on top of a jetty pier (I know this because I know the restaurant). The somebody took a digital pic of it. Because they weren’t a professional food photographer (and by the looks of it, not a photographer at all) they didn’t diffuse the image. The didn’t reduce the contrast ratio of exposed daylight by fill light or reflection. The result is that the highlights are burnt out to pure white and don’t display any texture at all. Now, what’s the main product? Lobster (more accurately, cray). And what colour is the flesh of this product? That’s right, white. And it’s burnt out in the image so there’s no texture to it at all!

Now in truth, this is a fine dining restaurant. It’s in a great location (Noosa locals will know who it is), has white linen covered tables and the food is excellent. But what image of the business does this ad convey? If I didn’t know the restaurant and only had this ad to go on, I’d assume that it was more of a takeaway fish and chippie than a fine seafood restaurant. There’s also a subconcious doubt raised by the seafood being placed in a dirty location and being left out in the hot sun. And the complete lack of food styling makes the whole dish look thrown together and done without care. Now, I know that this isn’t the case as this is one of my favourite restaurants and I’ve eaten there on a number of occasions. But if I were a visitor to Noosa, I wouldn’t seek this restaurant out if I was looking for a fine dining experience. And if I turned up expecting a fish and chip cheapie, I’d be disappointed and somewhat angered by the crisp linen tablecloths and not inexpensive menu. So far from reinforcing a brand value of quality and excellence the advertising has cheapened the brand and introduced a dichotomy between expectation and reality that can only harm the restaurant’s positioning.

Now let’s look at the second ad, one for a cooking school. Maybe it’s me, but I’d have thought that the product for the cooking school is pretty much the same as for a restaurant; that is, the finished food dish. For a school it’s a little more complicated. The food needs to be at the right level of presentation although personally a dish of tortellini doesn’t really make me want to reach for the phone to book. But then, being a Balmain Boy, I’m used to attending workshops by the likes of Chris Manfield, David Thompson, Luke Mangan and others. But I would have thought that anyone wanting to go to cooking classes would already be capable of doing a simply pasta dish. But maybe I’m wrong.

Even if that is the right level of product, I’d still have thought they’d want to make it look as delectable as possible. After all, no-one wants to cook unappetising food, do they? And they certainly don’t want to go to school to learn how to do it - they want to learn how to cook delicious, beautiful-to-look-at-and-to-taste food. So why not show what you offer in all its glory? A large, beautifully styled and presented (although not too complex) dish that would be aspirational to the sort of keen cook that comprises their customers and that says, ‘Just see what you can do when you’ve been to one of our classes!’ would achieve far more in lifting the brand value of this cooking school.

I realise that both these establishments, and many more like them, are facing tough times at the moment. Visitor numbers are down and in the midst of this global financial crisis businesses of all sizes are looking to cut costs. Frankly, our business is no different. However, when you’re looking to cut costs you really do need to look at what you’re cutting and anticipate the effect it would have on your brand. Remember, the recession won’t last forever. But the damage you do to your brand now (and every business has a brand even if they’re unaware of it. And no, it’s not your logo!) will continue to impact on your business for a long time after the recession is over.

Recessions come and go; I’ve been through half a dozen of them over the years, and this one too will come to an end. The best way you  position your business right now to take advantage of the upturn when it comes (and it will) is to ensure the brand values you present in your marketing communications are truly those you will want to go forward with when the good times roll again.

For an example of branding through excellent imagery, view our photography on the cicada group web site.

While we’re primarily known as food and studio still life photographers, we do often get called in for beauty and fashion shoots. Last week we did a beauty shoot in our Noosa studio - 2 girls and 1 guy for a Noosa hair salon, Tachi. The shotes were for entries into a national hair design competition and it got me thinking about the similarities - and the differences - between lighting for beauty and light for food images.

The first similarity is the need for accurate colour. As the hair competition was sponsored by a manufacturer of hair colour products, accurate colour reproduction was essential, just as it always is in shooting food. It’s because we have to reproduce colour accurately when shootinmg food that we use digital strobes that we’ve tested for accurate colour temperatur shot after shot and at varying speeds over their 7-stop range. We use Korean made Hyundae strobes because of their unvarying accuracy.

The second similarity is lighting for form, getting that essential transition from diffused highlight to detailed shadow that conveys depth when a 3D subject is reduced to a two dimensional image.

The major difference is in texture. In beauty photography the essential need is to smooth out the skin texture, reducing or eliminating any blemishes while still maintaining the structure and porousness of the skin and the tactility of the hair. For this purpose I used a 120cm x 80cm double-diffused softbox. I placed a large silver diffuser on top of my studio posing table, angled slight up towards the face area to kick light up into the under-chin area and placed white rolling flats on either side of the models.

The male model was themed as Sweeney Todd so I made small changes to the lighting to increase the contrast on his face slightly more and to pick up the texture of his skin.

When lighting food, however, I frequently want to emphasise its texture more while at the same time controlling the contrast ratio of the image. For this reason I will usually still us a large soft light source but will position it at an angle from the side or rear. I’ll fill the shadows with a low power soft light over the camera lens axis but frequently I will add a harder light source, usually a small Westcott Master’s Brush softobox (designed for portrait photography) to rake the surface of the food and bring the texture out. However, it’s important that the lights are balanced so that to the eye there is only one apparent main light source.

I hope this explains my approach to lighting, whether it’s attractive models or delicious food. Each assignment presents its own unique challenges and formula-lighting just doesn’t cut it. The aim always, though, is to maintain accurate colour and descriptive texture while keeping the images contrast ration within the dynamic range of the output device, whether it’s on a web site or the much more restrictive colour CMYK colour space of offset printing.

What an interesting week. First off we travelled down to Logan to photograph some 70 products for a wholesale baker’s web site. Although they actually sell raw pastry and pastry shells, they wanted to feature yummy looking baked products on their site. Sell the sizzle, not the steak according to the old marketing cliche.

After a hard day’s work we returned to our motel and had a great dinner at Michael’s modern Asian restaurant. Next day we drove down to the Gold Coast to photograph a new product for an old client - Keith’s Foods. The new product was a battered saveloy.

Now these sort of products are not that easy to shoot. It’s not that the lighting is difficult, but that you have to cook and cut open a large number of products to find one that looks great on the outside and on the inside.

 One thing for sure, the life of a food photographer is never boring. You never quite know what’s around the corner. We returned to the studio just before the long weekend to find an enquiry for a recipe book waiting for us. And an exciting one at that. More later….

I don’t know if anyone else has noticed the latest food styling trend that’s been creeping in to the upmarket food magazines lately. I refer to it as “styling that looks like a stylist hasn’t been anywhere near it.” My wife and stylist, Clare, is more succinct. She calls it “splodge styling.”

To put it simply, it’s styling a shot to look like it’s been cooked by Mum and snapped by Dad with his digital point-and-shoot while she’s in the act of serving. The fact that Mum couldn’t cook baked beans without ruining them and all Dad knows about photography is what he’s gleaned from late-night sojourns on porn sites doesn’t matter. The point is to give the impression that the average punter could easily cook, plate and present a dish just as easily as a fully qualifed chef. It’s all part of the dumbing down of our society. People feel they have a right to be able to do something simply because they want to, whether they have any training and experience or not. It’s their right to be able to do it.

So the professionals pander to that perception by producing images that are “splodge on a plate.” If you’re lucky; often the splodge is on the background, again conveying the impression that the dish has been prepared by your average punter.

So it was with great pleasure that, browsing the food magazines in my local newsagency this morning, my eye landed on the latest (June/July 2010) edition of Donna Hay magazine. Recognised for her beautiful food styling - Delores Custer refers to her as one of the most influential stylists in the world - surely Donna Hay isn’t likely to have succumbed to the latest no-styling fad.

And I wasn’t disappointed. The cover shot was a superb image of pasta with pancetta and porcini crumbs. The pasta was beautifully presented, curled, layered with not an end in sight, let alone pointing at the camera. The pancetta and porcini pieces were placed with great care and the parmigiano had obviously not simply been shaken over the top. The dish was presented on a gorgeous blue antique-patterned plate. I sighted with relief and opened the magazine.

Inside the food shots were mostly presented in the by now traditional style of white on white with the front of the dish in focus and the back out of focus to varying degrees. We’ve seen so much of this during the noughties; I’ve been responsible for much of it myself.

But then, as I turned the pages, I came across several images which were presented in the current “splodge” styling. Pieces were cut out of food with crumbs scattered on table top or in the pan or burnt pieces adhered to the inside of a baking dish. Dirty knives were laid across food while milk or cream was artistically splattered on the background.

Then I realised something else; there was a clear difference in some of these images. While some were, clearly, “splodge on a plate” others drew me in to the image, making me want to taste the food that was on that page. And I realised something else - while this type of styling looks deceptively easy; to do it well is really very difficult. And while there are currently very few who do it well, that number can only increase as more stylists embrace the “deliberately unstyled style” as I know refer to it.

Recently completed a shoot at a new Noosa restaurant, the South Pacific Bar & Bistro on Weyba Road, Noosaville. South Pacific style food, including Tahitian Salad, Penang Seafood Curry, Banana Leaf Chicken, and Coconut Prawns. In one morning we prepped and shot four dishes plus a final shot which included all four - and they were preparing for lunch service the whole time. A very difficult shoot - restaurant shoots usually are for a variety of reasons - but I think we pulled it off ok. Now we just have to design their menus, stationery and web site

I just tried some of the Crystal Bay farmed prawns from Proserpine in north Queensland. They are just beautiful; delicate, sweet and tender without any of the toughness or sourness deep sea prawns can sometimes have. So I picked up a brochure and Oh My Goodness it is just so bad. The photography is just apalling, with inconsistent product colours (everything from bright orange to almost colourless), spelling and punctuation errors (the dreaded misused apostrophe!), a couple of really naff recipes and the printing is underinked.

When will food companies realise that the image of their product is indelibly interwoven with the image presented by their marketing collateral? In this case, the story told by the brochure is that the quality of the product is inconsistent; that attention isn’t paid to detail and that the cultivation and packaging is likely to be sloppy.

Now I’m sure this probably isn’t true, but there’s nothing in their communications to tell me that’s the case. Come on guys! Hire specialists to create your marketing materials. You may have to pay more, but at least you’ll be reinforcing the quality of your product rather than undermining it.