Confessions of a Photographer: Module ARD502 - The Message

Instructions for brief -

Choose either food or fashion and produce images for each of the catagories in one section. Collate an image bank for this type of work, and show design process.

For a food magazine
i) Fantastic Fruit
ii) Vegetable Visions
iii) Pass the Pasta
iv) Vine and Dine

For a fashion magazine
i) Earth Clours
ii) Jewellery Rules
iii) Make up Matters
iv) Dressed to Thrill

It took me very little time to decide on going down the route of producing the images for a food magazine. My main reason for this is that I hadn't done any studio work with food stuff, and I suspected it would offer me some new challenges and also the opportunity to learn some new skills.

It was left up to us to 'interpret' the catagories, so with each 'title' I started by jotting down different idea's for what type of magazine feature the photographs could be used to illustrate - A recipe feature? A restaurant review? A seasonal feature? I came up with several idea's for each catagory, then started thinking about how best to illustrate the 'feature'.

I found that I produced an awful lot of work for this brief, so this will be a two part blog, as the brief instructed that we must document everything including initial research, experimentation, planning, ect. The requirement of producing a 'bank' of images for each catagory also makes for a 'large' blog.

I tackled 'Fantastic Fruit' first.

Fantastic Fruit.

I played around with several idea's for this one - I looked at creating a 'still life' for a feature extolling the nutritional virtues of fruit; I looked at a feature using fruit to make beauty products, such as face masks; I looked at a seasonal themed feature, using fruit as an edible 'decoration' for say Halloween or Christmas, and at the idea of a recipe feature, using fruit as the basis for several desserts. In the end, it was the last idea I went with. I did some research, looking at images in magazines and on the internet, and thought about what the photographs had to do within the article/feature - they had to look appealling and tempting, make a consumer want to buy the magazine and try out the recipes. I noted that close up shots worked really well, and that sauces and glazes, as well as 'accessories' such as crockery/serving dishes, could be used to add to the 'appeal' .

I like to cook, and it occurred to me that the desserts that I would make would depend on who/what they were for - the desserts I would make for a family dinner would not necessarily be the ones I would make for a childrens party, or a dinner party, or as part of a buffet, for example. I decided that if I had to create a 'bank' of photographs for an article, then it would work better if I decided in advance what the dessert was being made for - and I decided to used desserts that would appeal and work well at say, a dinner party. So, in the photographs, I wanted the food to be appealling in a quite sophisticated , 'grown up' way. I thought about using low key lighting to create an intimate feel, but being as the desserts were all fruit based, and I wanted also to have the 'fresh' colours stand out, I decided to go with high key lighting, in the studio, and try for an almost minimilistic approach, where cutlery/crockery ect didn't form a major part of the composition. Although I intended to present the photographs in a way that would show how they could be used in a finished page in an article, I decided I would try and let the photographs convey what sort of 'event' the dishes were aimed at, and avoid mentioning it in any accompanying text.

I started the session by trying out the idea of using actual fruit to create text -

And then moved on the photographing the actual deserts I'd made

Fruit Flan - this was the only dessert that I used a table cloth with - and I preferred the images without it!

Banana Raft - as the shoot of this dessert progressed . . . .

. . . The banana skin started to discolour.

So there was a considerable ammount of work done afterwards, in photoshop, to correct this.

I added more fruit as the session went on, and preferred the shots where there was a lot of fruit, and also, that were close ups - on this picture, I liked the drop of cream, oozing over the side, its the kind of detail that makes you lick your lips!

Strawberry Pavlova - biggest problem here was stopping the meringue 'disappearing' into the white background.

Again, I liked the close up shots.

Afterwards, again there was time spent in photoshop, 'cleaning up' the image - a 'blob' of cream where it shouldn't be, or a slight discolouration on one of the pieces of fruit really distracted from the image, so I scrutinised each photograph and corrected that sort of thing where necessary.

I also photographed a very simple dessert, strawberries on a chocolate covered wafer.

Although I liked the close up shots, I didn't think this 'concoction' worked as well asthe majority of the other desserts I used.

This was the only 'Hot' dessert that I photographed . . .

However, obviously, I was photographing it in the studio - cold ! And somehow, it looked 'cold' and therefore 'wrong' on the first few images I took.

I got round this by having a friend crouch under the table, out of view of the camera, with a steam iron - she blasted up bursts of steam as I photographed, and it was amazing the difference this made -

- although very subtle in most of the images, it did convey that sense of heat.

The next dessert produced my favourite images - I was going to turn it into a sort of trifle, in the studio, but once I started taking photographs, I loved the images I was getting - so, to turn what was basically a 'fruit jelly' into something a little more sophisticated, I simply called it a red wine and fruit jelly.

I photographed the dessert from a wide variety of angles and I was really pleased with the results - I loved the 'sheen' from the jelly, and using a macro lens for a lot of the shots, I really liked the way the jelly surround seemed to enhance the detailed texture of the strawberries and grapes. Again, sessions in photoshop followed, to make sure that any little blemish on the fruit was corrected.

I then decided to group several of the images into a mocked up magazine page, adding text, to see if they would work successfully in the format they were intended for.

I asked Stewart to look at these and advise, and he suggested that the text colour was too dark, and also, I should try panal hanging the images - where the distances/spaces between individual images is equal - he said this is more commonly used in this sort of work, as its more pleasing to the eye - so back into photoshop, and these were the final set of images I came up with .

The next unit I tackled was -

Vegetable Visions

Again, I played around with a selection of idea's for what sort of feature it could be - I considered a feature on 'Harvest festivals', on 'exotic vegeatables', on frozen vegetables and finally settled on a 'seasonal piece' based around Halloween.

The obvious choice of vegeatble is the pumpkin, so then I thought about another recipe article, maybe on making pumpkin soup or pie - but then I started thinking about maybe coming up with something that would be a sort of 'title' page for perhaps a 'pull out' feature, so that I wouldn't be tied down to a specific type of article - just call it a 'special Halloween feature', and allow me a little more 'imaginative' freedom about the photographs I took.

So, I started by looking up pumkin carving, and after buying a few pumpkins, I downloaded several tenplates/stencils from the internet .

Then I came across a stencil for the face of the character, Jack Skellington, from the film 'Nightmare Before Christmas'

And this then started me onto another idea - and I looked up images of both that character, and the cartoon character of Jack Pumkinhead

.

And I started to think about a 'photoshoot' involving a similar type of character.

So, over one weekend, I assembled chicken wire, an old suit and boots, a carved pumkin, into a 'character' and made a 'set' on the patio, using the chimnea and a selction of candles and lanterns - got some strange looks from the neighbours, but had a great deal of fun taking these pictures . . .

Later I played around with some of the pictures in photoshop, using the posterising filter

I actually liked this effect, but wasn't sure how well it would work in a food magazine feature.

I also took several photographs of some of the other pumpkins that I carved.

I then decided to explore these ideas further, in the studio - armed with 1 carved pumpkin, one 'whole' pumkin and some Halloween 'accessories, plus a small bale of hay, I set up low key lighting and started to play around with the 'ingedients'.

Not being able to use actual candles to light the pumpkins in the studio, because of good old 'elf and safety, I used small flat LED lights that I'd bought for the purpose.

Using one of the lights in the studio to create a 'moon' behind the pumkins, I played with using a 'halloween' themed lace table cloth to create 'eerie' shapes on the 'moon' lighting.