food Archives - Lightworks Commercial Photography

restaurant food photography for British Airways/ Oct 2018

Featuring in British Airways High Life magazine worldwide this month are some photographs taken for a ski food feature. My job was to take some representative images of food high up in the Alps at Ristorante L’Ortiche in the ski resort of Sauze d’Oulx, Italy.

Taking photographs in a hot and busy working kitchen (with a number of chefs and other staff) is a challenge in itself – especially when you have seconds to take the photograph before the dish is whisked away to diners in the main restaurant. This is where experience really comes to the fore. Finding a place to shoot, setting-up everything beforehand, take multiple test shots to ensure the lighting is just right, sort out colour-balance, adjust black and white reflectors, diffusers etc etc. So that when the dishes are ready you’re able to shoot the food quickly.

These shots were taken with one speedlight bounced of a white reflector panel, one additional diffuser on the flash head and black panel. All shots were taken with the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, between f5.6-f7.1 and all were handheld using Phottix Odin wireless TTL flash triggers (much more reliable – and cheaper – than Pocket Wizards in my experience). Obviously, given the time and space to do it, it would have been preferable to shoot with controlled lighting in a studio. When you don’t have that option, you have to make the best of it.

The feature is in the October edition of British Airways High Life Magazine

Ristorante L’Ortiche’s website can be found here

Food and restaurant photography

One of the keys to photographing food for restaurants is preparation. In both cases some food was prepared specifically for photographing while other dishes were on their way to the customer/s. This meant time, preparation and test shots had to be made well beforehand to ensure that the dishes to be eaten were shot quickly. As most photographers know, preparation in all areas is everything!

The other essential is taming the light. All shots here were shot with speedlights – no studio flash. On its own, flash is a very blunt instrument, so light modification is essential.

The two shots above were shot using daylight and flash. Using a softbox, reflectors and added diffusion the light balance and quality of light was achieved, giving a naturalistic impression. The two below, where there was no natural daylight, took quite a long time to achieve. Ultimately, using reflectors, two strobe units, diffusers and softboxes, the intended light quality was reached – balanced but subtle – again giving an impression of natural diffused light.

Food photography for restaurants is a specialised discipline and one where experience at commercial still life photography comes in very useful. For more information on photographing food for your restaurant get in touch using the contact form. Shoots are undertaken in the Devon, the South west of England and throughout the UK and abroad. These images were shot for two restaurants in Italy.