Before I start to talk about the International Conference on Food Styling & Photography’s Monday “Master” workshop with Francine Zaslow & Deborah Jones, let me first put this thought in your head. What kind of a saint would you be to let 30 people with cameras in tow crowd around you and watch you work all day? And on top of that, be willing to talk through, step-by-step, what you are doing?
These two women (as well as their fantastic assistants and stylists) are some kind of angels for not only sharing their time and knowledge but doing it in such an elegant, patient and down right entertaining way. The folks that were able to attend this session were incredibly lucky to be hosted by such a wonderful team (and I’m pretty sure everyone felt that way).
Secondly, Francine & Deborah were throwing out so many ideas and tips and tricks during the day that it’s impossible to remember them all. This post will probably be more photos than anything because I had a camera clicking away in my hands “taking notes” rather than pen & paper. The ideas will probably come to me now and then over the next month or so, and I’ll post them as they come. Just realize that any tips listed here are really the tip of the iceberg and that next time, get yourself to the conference so you don’t miss them!
So with that, the day. After a quick bus ride across town to Francine’s studio that is located down by the shipping docks (I’m sure there is some name for this section of Boston, but I’m not that familiar with it). About 30 of us from the conference wandered into the studio really not knowing exactly what to expect. We were a motley crew of photographers, stylists, graphic designers, art directors with quite a lot of “oh, I do this and that and a little something else” thrown in. Photographers, of course, immediately grabbed cameras to capture all the incredible props.
Francine started out with a walk through of some of her work and client requirement docs (after taking a while to figure out how the projector worked… which seemed to be a bit of a running theme throughout the conference… very few of the presenters really knew how to use their computers for things other than Photoshop, but all of them handled it with such humbleness and good spirits it was never really a problem) and then Deborah showed a quick slideshow of behind the scenes of a few of her cookbook shoots, pointing out the great length that she & her assistants go to get the light bounced back on the subject in just the right way (including precariously standing on the railing of a balcony). Then, the day began in earnest. There were two sets, one daylight and the other with strobe. Deborah would be shooting all day on the daylight set (according to her assistant, she shoots about 80% daylight) and Francine was on the strobe set (she shoots almost exclusively strobe). They’d each be shooting to a fictitious client project, a brochure for olive oil, which required 5 photos. There were 3 (I think) stylists helping out and 3 or 4 assistants (sorry… there were so many people running around it was, at times, hard to tell who was an attendee versus an assistant versus a stylist). We were welcome to watch whatever was going on, to ask questions, to take photos, to look through the cameras, and to help out where needed.
Francine was shooting with a Hasselblad back on a very cool Rollei bellows system tethered to FlexColor and her set included 3 strobes. One was positioned behind a diffusing sheet on a wooden frame. The benefit of this setup is that the strobe could be adjusted to achieve just about any effect… moving it closer to the diffusion screen or further away for more intense or diffuse light, or positioning it lower or higher on the frame for more direction or top light. I think it might have been my favorite thing out of the whole experience… I loved the crafty nature of this big wooden structure with all of the high-end tech. Two other lamps placed below the diffusion screen were used to add highlights and fills. I’m quite intrigued by her tiny dedolight spotlight which she used to illuminate the prawns in her first shot… it had the effect of making the food glow, but somehow without looking fake or unnatural. In fact, this is a running theme throughout Francine’s work. She is a master at using strobes look as though she were shooting in the most perfect, beautiful daylight.
Although I think I should have probably spent more time with Francine to learn more about strobes, I did tend to gravitate to Deborah’s set (she was shooting with a Phase One medium format tethered to Capture One) and working with natural light which I love. It was an overcast day in Boston, so Deborah couldn’t show us many of her tricks for dealing with harsh light but she still managed to fill my head with more than I can remember. Mainly she emphasized that it is still important to control the light, even when using daylight. She has all kinds of tricks, which mostly amount to grabbing whatever is close at hand (my kind of shooter!) to use to modify the light. Plastic bags, bottles, small mirrors, black pieces of poster board, plexiglass and perhaps my favorite, post its! A post-it note, which comes with it’s own adhesive, can be stuck just about anywhere to soften or reduce a highlight. And, different colors of post its can make for some interesting effects. Brilliant! As soon as I got home, I ordered some of the little plastic blocks I had seen on her set. These are incredibly handy if you need a little bit of light modification, or you just need something to hold something in place.
A few other great ideas & reminders from the day:
Level the set! This is particularly important if you are shooting liquids such as cocktails or soups. But it is good practice for anything you shoot and will save you time later. Little pieces of stick-tack work great for making small corrections.
If you can, buy any herbs or greens as plants. They’ll stay fresh longer and often it’s cheaper than buying the little clamshell packages. Plus, they can act as potted plants for a background in a pinch.
For backdrops, be creative! Deborah shot one or two of her shots with a gold bounce (it’s silver on one side, gold on the other) as the backdrop which ended up looking like a wonderfully, light filled, warm wall.
Try Deborah’s 15 minute photography exercise. Take a subject on a set and shoot it, just for practice, for 15 minutes. Then STOP! Now, do something else with the same subject. But shoot it from a new angle, in a new set, on a new plate… do something different. Rinse & repeat. This is a great way to really push yourself to think about your shots creatively and get you out of a rut.
And finally, Deborah shared with us some of her favorite quotes about photography and art, and I’ll close by sharing one of them with you.
“Never try to be an artist. Just do your work and if the work is true, it will become art.” - Duane Michaels, Photographer
Thank you Deborah & Francine for sharing yourselves with us for the day!
Sorry about this folks, but part two of my wrap-up will be postponed a few days due to a hard drive failure. The good news is that everything is backed up. The bad news is that it is slowing everything down for me today.
Use this as a reminder to back up your hard drive if you haven’t in a while! After going about 20 years (yes, can you believe it?) without ever having a hard drive fail on me, all of a sudden I’ve had two blow out on me this year.
If you don’t have drive space to backup, consider using a service like Mozy which gives you unlimited backup for a fixed monthly or yearly rate. It’s up in the cloud, so it even provides greater protection in case the unthinkable happens and something bad happens to your house or office. It can take a while to get your first backup done, but from then on it keeps things in sync and is pretty quick.
Also, while you are at it, check out these other great wrap-ups!
Aran’s photos & take on the conference at Cannelle et Vanille
Stacey Cramp’s wrap-up plus some cool thoughts on trends.
I’m just back in town after the 2009 International Conference on Food Styling & Photography at Boston University, and my head is still so full, I’m not sure exactly how to begin to share a little of the weekend with you all.
First, I’ll start with, if you have any interest in food styling and photography, whether you are professional or not, and you get a chance to attend this conference in the future, go. For a conference of it’s scope, it is incredibly affordable (I’m looking at a 1 day photography workshop later this summer that is $1200! Compared to the entire conference plus two additional workshops for only $950) and there are just no other events that I can think of that you can meet so many talented people in this industry, see their work, pick their brains and share a lobster with. OK. Enough of my cheerleading… now onto what happened this year.
Although turnout was a little lower than the previous conference in 2007, the speakers were fantastic. Photographers included Christopher Hirsheimer, Francine Zaslow, Deborah Jones, Steve Adams, Beatrice Peltre (yea Bea!), Lou Manna, Jim Scherer, Teri Campbell, Mette Nielsen, Pornchai Mittongtare, Greg Bertolini, Stef Culberson, and James Tse. Stylists included Clare Ferguson, Melissa Hamilton, Lisa Golden Schroeder, John Carafoli, Marcela Sorondo, Delores Custer, Francine Malalon-Degni, Peggy Chase Jordao, Lorna Rhodes, Laura Shapiro, Alice Hart and Catrine Kelty. We were given a glimpse inside of Maxine Kaplan’s amazing NYC prop rental house. Harold McGee gave the key note!
Frankly, as soon as I saw that Christopher Hirsheimer was talking, I knew I’d be attending. It was quite a way for me to kick off the conference too, as the first talk I attended was with Christopher & stylist Melissa Hamilton. There seems to be an unwritten rule in my world that if I pick up a book and instantly fall in love with the photos, 9 times out of 10 they will be Christopher’s. In addition to loving her work, I love her story. She started as a caterer for Metropolitan Home, and was asked to fill in for the food stylist one day. That led to a full time food styling gig, even though she really didn’t know a thing about food styling. She just made the food look the way she wanted it to look… messy crumbs and all… which led to a whole new way of styling food for editorial publications. Step forward a few years, and she stepped into food photography in a similar way as she became the primary photographer for the newly formed Saveur. Melissa’s story has a similar windy path… a love of food led her into the restaurant business (Hamilton’s Grill Room) with her family doing thing much differently than other restaurants in the area, with amazing success. A chance opportunity with a friend led her to her first food styling job, and an entirely new and beautiful career working with publications like Martha Stewart Living and Cooks Illustrated before eventually working with Christopher.
[Photos by Christopher Hirsheimer]
The two of them together now run a studio in New Jersey, and have begun publishing their own cookbook series (in addition to other cookbook and commercial work) called
Canal House Cooking. This talk, like many over the conference, was more about inspiration than technical how-tos and as such, it’s hard to communicate the sparks it started in my own head, which certainly would be different for each attendee. But their key message was to take chances, follow your passion, and don’t worry so much about the rules. On a food shoot, plans tend to go out the window when you are really paying attention to the food and what it is asking for. Christopher said, “Each shoot has a language of it’s own” and when you can listen to that, you will be successful. I could have sat and listened to Christopher & Melissa talk, and look at their gorgeous images all day… but all too soon it was time for the next talk.
I’m going to go quickly over a few of the next talks, or I’d be writing for days, and you’d get bored. In the next talk, Pushing the Limits between Advertising & Editorial Photography, we learned how the advertorial, or shooting an ad like it was part of the magazine complete with a bit of branded content, was born and successful. Advertisers are definitely watching what happens in the more loose world of editorial and bringing those ideas onto their work, and presenters Mel Mooney (who works for Saveur) and John Carafoli see the trend continuing. Next up was Clare Ferguson & Marcela Sorondo talking about trends in styling outside of the US, including some of their own work over the years. Like in the US, trends are going toward the natural and “unstyled style” of food that looks doable rather than perfect. Clare touched on a few other trends that I’ve seen here as well… empty dishes (or half empty) communicate life going on in the image, that the food was so good it didn’t even last long enough for the photo, that most food photos are now more budget conscious than five years ago (as the downturned economy continues to play a role), and homage to regional traditions and culture but with a younger more fashionable twist. Clare is someone you could spend days and days listening to and never get bored… you just might want a little break because your stomach will probably be cramping up from laughing so much. Buy her books, they are lovely.
The next talk is critical for those in the commercial styling industry: sustainable styling. If you are a home blogger or work for small or medium sized business the ideas probably apply less or maybe not at all. But on large commercial shoots, the amount of waste that can be generated is huge. Boxes and boxes of product are shipped all over the country, mostly to be thrown away. Many stylists these days donate their unused product to shelters which is a great benefit to everyone. However, it’s still better not to truck all that product around in the first place. Just a few ideas from presenters Mette Nielsen and Stef Culberson include talking with clients about using less product in the first place, getting the product locally if possible, using seasonal garnishes and composting leftovers of opened products. Other ideas include buying & growing your own potted herbs instead of those in the little plastic clam shells which will usually be cheaper and give you better photos. Stef has started offering a
Green Styled Food Seminar for stylists and photographers on her farm in Wisconsin and includes how to more sustainably source your ingredients and shooting with available light. The next one is in early July.
At that point, we were all pretty cooked for the day. But, I was lucky enough to have been able to meet Aran of Cannelle et Vanille and we went for dinner together and talked about blogging, photography, kids and life. Aran’s work is truly stunning, and I’m sure you are already reading her blog… but if not, do start! Her pastries are exquisite and she has an amazing eye for both styling & photography, not unlike one of my other favorite people, Beatrice Peltre. Which leads me to the next morning…
The first talk on Sunday was about business, and featured panelists who looked at the industry from different perspectives. First was Eugene Mopsik from ASMP. If you are a professional photographer (or on your way to becoming one) and shoot for the media, this is a good organization to join. Eugene shared many thoughts on how the downturned ecomony and greater emphasis on web advertising may impact photographers in the future. The biggest issue he sees has to do with copyright laws, and like the last conference, he reminded us all that if your images aren’t registered and they are used without permission there is no financial recourse you can take. Register your images! The ASMP site has very good information on how to do this along with other very useful info like a licensing guide, release forms, and terms & conditions forms. Ilise Benun was up next to talk about how to market yourself (get a LinkedIn account and use it for research, make personal connections, follow up!). Tim Foley of Full Contact advertising studio gave this piece of advise for photographers and stylists: understand what the client is looking for. If you are asked to give a bid on a job, make sure you communicate that you get the vision of the client and not just your own vision.
[Photos by Beatrice Peltre]
Finally, my good friend Beatrice Peltre talked about entering the industry from the blogger’s point of view and what it takes to run a successful food blog these days. Bea’s advice is simple but invaluable:
be honest and authentic. If you can tell your story in an interesting way and become a part of the community, people will notice. And of course, we got to see lots of Bea’s beautiful work (including some from her book which will be out next year!)
The rest of the sessions were more on the inspirational side, looking at photo after photo of beautiful food, props and locations while the stylists and photographers echoed much of the previous sentiment… listen to the client, but don’t be afraid to take chances. Shoot what you need, but then take the time to try alternative shots. Work deliberately and thoughtfully on your shots to really capture the essence of the form, color and textures. I truly enjoyed each of the presentations, but I’d have to say my favorite of the day was by Pornchai Mittongtare.
[Photos by Pornchai Mittongtare]
Pornchai is from Thailand, but has been in the US shooting food for many years. He started as a product photographer, but after sending his work to Bon Appetit, he moved into shooting food and has been with it ever since. His work is lovely in general, but I particularly his photos from a trip back to Thailand where he shot many of the fruits that are local to the area. This work isn’t on his portfolio unfortunately, as I’d really love to share it with you.
It was an amazing two days, but the best was still to come.
On Monday, I attended the optional hands-on workshop at Francine Zaslow’s studio with Francine & Deborah Jones. As great as the rest of the weekend was, if I had only been able to attend this class, it would have made the whole trip worthwhile. There is so much to share from this day though, it really deserves a post (or 50) of it’s own. So, I’ll continue with that tomorrow.
Well, either people just don’t like pasta as much as Nutella, or last month’s challenge to remake Chris Chen’s table top shot was quite intimidating to many of you. That’s ok. It was a tricky challenge… I’m really impressed with the photos that were submitted. There were some lovely variations and some beautiful photos.
This month, we’ll go a bit more macro again, with one of my shots. This is a variation of a shot that I took for a client for a cookbook proposal. In some ways it may seem less intimidating because it’s a much tighter shot… you’ll have to work with ice cream which can be quite a trial of it’s own right.
Although she didn’t choose this particular variation, and it’s really far from a perfect shot, it was probably one of my favorite from the whole shoot and it would be a good fit for my stock library. I just loved playing around with the ice cream in the emptied out lemon peel, and letting it start to slowly drip down.
Don’t feel like you need to stick with the lemon peel for your remake, but there should be some combination of fruit & ice cream (and ideally, as in this shot, the fruit will communicate the flavor of the ice cream as well).
If you are new to the monthly photo challenges, head over to the Flickr group for the rules and to introduce yourself.
This challenge will run through the end of June.
This summer, I have decided to offer 2 one-month long, part-time, unpaid internships for those in the Seattle area. Interning with me is super casual, and you’ll get lots of hands on with all aspects of styling and shooting food for cookbooks, websites and magazines. The weekly schedule will be very flexible, but expect to be in the studio about 2 days a week.
Your day may consist of prepping food, going to the farmer’s market or grocery store, helping with light modification or cleaning up dishes… or it might be getting to use the studio (and all its dishes, cameras, lenses, etc.) for your own projects… or it might include a portfolio review of your current work, working as a hand model and then eating lots of donuts.
While I’d love to make this a paying position, at this point, having an assistant isn’t a necessity for me. But I do like the idea of helping others out there who are getting started. This is a great opportunity if you are just thinking about getting into the food photography or styling business and aren’t sure if it is for you or if you are a currently enrolled photography student that is specializing in food photography.
If you are interested, send mail to lara @ laraferroni.com with a bit about you, what you are looking for in an internship, and a link to your work.
Update: Thanks everyone for your responses! I know it’s only been a few days since I posted this, but I’m afraid at this point, I have enough candidates. If things go well this summer, I’ll look into continuing the program into the year.
A great linen can really make a photo. But if you shopped for high quality tablecloths and runners frequently like I do, you’ll probably find yourself with sticker shock more often than you’d like. Some of the big name stores like Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn have pretty good sales, but I still find myself wincing if I have to pay more than $20 for a tablecloth and even on sale their good stuff may run more. Yes, I am that cheap.
Luckily, for photography, perfectly hemmed corners are rarely necessary. I invest in a few high-end cocktail and full sized napkins if I need to show a seam… the rest of the time, I simply use roughly cut fabric in 1 or 2 yard sizes. Sometimes I even like to show the frayed edges in my shots (but not often or it strikes me as a bit too contrived). Quilting quarters also make fantastic faux napkins.
Dishtowels are also a bargain and make great faux tablecloths, placemats or runners. In some cases, you can get away with dishtowels as napkins if they are strategically placed partly out of the frame. In general though, if you are buying fabric to use as a napkin in your shot, smaller is usually better… a full sized napkin is often too big or too thick for photos.
If you are looking for some fun places for fabric, here are a couple I’ve recently discovered:
Pink Chalk Fabrics carries gorgeous designer printed fabric in really fun colors as well as some great solid linen and Kona cotton.
Whipstitch Fabrics on Etsy has beautiful natural fiber fabric. I’m in love with Ikoi from Moda in Lime with it’s beautiful Japanese calligraphy and it’s only $8 per yard (plus shipping).
Oilcloth addict has some really bright oil cloths perfect for summer, and maybe even cooler, chalk cloth which would be great for pot lucks… you can just write on the cloth to say what is what!
In Seattle, I like stopping in to Stitches to browse their selection. They always seem to have something new.
Several weeks ago, Annabelle Breakey, one of my favorite photographers, tweeted:
I’m a photographer and the market place is really crazy-
how best to share work and inspire?? go forward? thoughts anyone?
How could I resist? I asked if she’d consider a virtual interview to share here. Wonderfully, she said yes! First, you should pop over and check out her beautiful work… especially how she plays with light. It’s magical. She definitely inspires me!
All the photos below are Annabelle’s (used with permission) Hope you enjoy the interview:
[photo by Annabelle Breakey]
SLW: On your portfolio, I loved this quote “I like pretty light on pretty stuff.” What makes pretty light in your eyes? Where do you lie on natural versus studio lighting?
AB: I get more comments on that statement, and it seems like such an obvious thing to say. For me, with photography, making images is really the study of the quality of light, color, mood, emotion, and texture on people, places and things. Why not have the subjects be pretty or made pretty by how I photograph a subject? Shaping light and all of its complexities: color balance, contrast, direction, or volume on a subject is all done to make a statement or to create feeling. This study has been a life long passion for me.
As for natural vs. studio… it doesn’t matter. I think sodium vapor street lights make beautiful images. Just look at what Todd Hido does at night in suburban landscapes. He truly makes the ordinary extraordinary.
[photo by Annabelle Breakey]
SLW: What are your 5 best tips for making a successful shot?
AB:
1) Have a plan
2) Have the best help possible if you don’t have a plan
3) Know your tools
4) Have the best help possible if you don’t know your tools
5) Sounds silly but, bring joy to the set
[photo by Annabelle Breakey]
SLW: What camera equipment do you usually shoot with? Are you all digital now? Any gear that you couldn’t live without?
AB: I have been fully digital since 1995. I bought my first computer in 1992 and have been using Photoshop ever since. My preference is a 4×5 with a PhaseOne digital back for still life. Also, I use a Canon 5D for people, lifestyle. I don’t think I can live with out my loupe, level, a jillion cf cards, batteries, an almost grey card, copious amounts of hard drive space and all those extra cords.
[photo by Annabelle Breakey]
SLW: Speaking of magazines, your work for Sunset Magazine (one of my favorites) is always stunning. The avocado piece from one of the recent issues really blew me away. Tell me a bit about working with them.
AB: I love Sunset Magazine. They have a really wonderful approach to working with talent. My studio, location and style of work has really clicked with them lately. However, the magazine is constantly evolving. The creative department is always trying new things and pushing the quality of all the sections: more interesting homes, more clever gardens, and super tasty and different recipes. They are one of my biggest inspirations that me push me to test, test, test which keeps me on my toes. They are so connected with what is happening with photography, even if I am on some creative tangent, they always are patient and look at the crazy testing I’ve done lately and give healthy feedback. This is why I am so inspired by the team there. Oh! and the food in the Avocado Story was gorgeously styled by Karen Shinto. She rocks.
[photo by Annabelle Breakey]
SLW: You get to work with some amazing food and prop stylists. Who are some of your favorites to work with? Do you ever do you own food or prop styling?
AB: I work with the most amazing and talented people out there. I have a very long list of people- too long for this article. Go to my site http://www.annabellebreakey.com/ and look at the info on each image. It’s all there. Prop my own shots?! Why? When it can be SO much better with a pro. I only do my own propping if I’m really in the mood or there is zero budget. On more simple and conceptual shots, I often do the props, as it is usually a journey of discovering light. For food and commercial projects, I prefer to have a team, make creative decisions and then we all come together to make images. I prefer to spend my time studying photography, light and the concepts behind images. Let the styling pros do their thing! I have So much respect for them, and their craft.
SLW: How about other photographers? Who really inspires you?
AB: This list gets longer and longer every day. Even if I started to name names, I would feel terrible because I couldn’t include all of them. I just have to start with my peers just in SF. There is so much amazing talent in my own back yard. Then it explodes, globally - Just look at who PDN reports on. I never cease to be inspired. I look at all aspects of photography in all genres. I take it all in and mush it around. This can be a problem.
[photo by Annabelle Breakey]
SLW: Do you read any food blogs? If so, what are some of your favorites?
AB: Fabulous food blogs? There are too many to count! I like yours, of course. Ok- for a ‘today’ scenario… There are a few food blogs that are on my google home page in betwixt the news and photo blogs… right now… (I am already feeling guilty about those not listed… and I admit, I am following a fair number of interesting folks on twitter… fyi: photo_ab):
http://blog.gorgeousgrub.com/
http://www.breakawaycook.com/blog/
http://www.tylerflorence.com/blog/
http://cherryonacake.blogspot.com
SLW: How about cooking? Do you cook at home? What are your favorite things to make?
AB:Cook? Why cook!?! I have the most amazing stylists in the world cooking in my kitchen and leaving left-overs. If I’m going to make anything, it’s either a latte or homemade chicken stock for the stylists – just because I really like roast chicken. I also make ice - or rather - my freezer does.
Thanks Annabelle for sharing little about yourself with us!
One of my favorite magazines to flip through for the photography is Gourmet Traveller. The stylists and photographers have an amazing way of elevating even the simplest dishes to art. I loved this shot by Chris Chen and styled by Lynsey Fryers.
I love the dark, warm tones of the wood, with the soft light. I also love the slightly messy look, with the one plate just barely nudging its way into frame. To get a great shot, you’ll really need to pay attention to the composition.
For this photo remake, feel free to make the recipe… it sounds amazing. Or, just use any simple pasta in sauce.
If you are new to the monthly photo challenges, head over to the Flickr group for the rules and to introduce yourself.
This challenge will run through the end of May.
[the photo above is by Chris Chen, and styled by Lynsey Fryers]
I’ve been playing around with Twitter for the past few weeks, and just realized that it would be a great addition to Still Life With. I always find myself coming across cool new photographers or just inspirational photos that aren’t quite enough to blog about, but are well worth sharing.
If you are curious, and want to send your own inspirations along, join Still Life With on Twitter!
