It sounds an obvious question, but what is food photography? Well it’s simply catching the glory of food in its many forms in a photograph. It’s particularly important with food photography to reflect the colour of the food and leave the viewer almost tasting the food on their tongue and certainly wishing the food was right in front of them now for them to eat!

Food Photography Subjects

Food (and drink) can be photographed in various forms. It all depends on the individual requirement; most typically food is photographed in three forms (as a product, as raw ingredients and as a recipe):

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  You can almost taste the freshness of this fish recipe in this photograph

  Products – Manufacturers often take photographs of food related products. These will typically be for the purpose of advertising and promoting the product or maybe for packaging. Think of any food and drink related product and it will have a range of photography to support it

•  Raw ingredients – Often food is best photographed in its raw form. This brings out the colour of food (e.g. the redness of chillies, the luscious greens of leafy salad vegetables and well the orange of an orange! Meats, fruit, vegetables, nuts, pulses, etc. are all ideal candidates for food photography
•  Recipes – Often used in cookbooks recipes are a much photographed food related topic. The art of taking a recipe photograph is to make it so appealing that the reader will want to make the recipe. There is also significant demand online for recipe photographs on food blogs and food related websites

Applications of Food Photography

The whole purpose of food photography is to exaggerate the appeal/attractiveness of food in the photograph. This is often achieved by a photographer (like ourselves) working with a food stylist. Although exaggeration is controversial with some, it’s obviously the role of all involved to maximise the appeal of the food for a variety of commercial purposes, these include:

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  Our very own food products encapsulated in a photograph!

  Advertising – Food can be photographed for a variety of advertising purposes, including billboards, leaflets, magazines/newspapers, etc.

•  Cookbooks – No good cookbook is complete without food photographs. The quality of the photos is important to entice the reader to a) Want to buy the book and B) To want to make the recipes
•  Magazines/Newspapers – Food is regularly included in magazines/newspapers and the quality of the food photography is particularly important to maintain the quality of the publication, this is particularly the case with glossy style magazines
•  Packaging – Food photography is often required as packaging, e.g. to promote the product within
•  Restaurant Menus – To help sell products and to help the customer make decisions a number of items on the menu are photographed and included within the menu itself. It’s important these are appealing to entice the customer to want to order
•  Website images / ECommerce – Photos for websites are a growing area of demand. Ecommerce stores need images to attach to products, often these are required in a variety of sizes and formats to suit various needs of the website

Working with Caroline Trotter Photography

  Click on the Pink Lady Food Photography Icon to find out what is going on during the International Food Photography and Film Week 

We’d love to work with you here at Caroline Trotter Photography on your next food photography assignment. Please visit our main food photography page with more details of our services. As examples of our work, all photos included on this page are from our own work!

Also visit our dedicated food photography site at http://foodphotographyscotland.co.uk/ for a fantastic selection of food only related photographs and more details about our service.

Contact us to discuss your food photography requirements either by mobile on 07933 510243, at the studio on 01333 360219 or by e-mail at caroline@carolinetrotter.co.uk.