Learn to create a simple and powerful ‘food story’

What is a food art story?

A food art story is a group of images created around a central theme, with a consistent idea and palette running through the collection. The images could follow a narrative, for example, capturing the process of making a particular recipe from the raw ingredients to the final plated dish, or be more conceptual with ideas linked through colour and an overall creative idea, as in Spaghetti.

The idea with this story was for me to take a small group of ingredients – fresh spaghetti, meatballs and tomato sauce – and create images that presented them individually and together in new, unexpected and creative ways. I love presenting food artfully, using colour, light and my camera to bring the ideas to life.

The process

I like to let a spark of an idea develop in my mind, but I always start to gather mood references of other images that inspire me and keep a folder on my Instagram and on my laptop. This could be a piece of art (British artist Bridget Riley was a big inspiration for Spaghetti), another food photograph that I loved from a composition or lighting point of view, a recipe idea or even simply a colour combination. As I gather references and think about the bigger story, I sketch out ideas and come up with concepts and even titles that could inspire the wider piece.

Each project is often based on wanting to push my creativity and experiment with new equipment. Before starting work on Spaghetti, I had recently bought a new continuous light (Godox UL150), which was far more powerful than anything I had previously, and I was excited to play with more harsh light effects and dramatic shadows.

Often my stories have distinct colour palettes that really allow them to hang together and stand out. I was drawn to the pale but warm yellow of the pasta and the rich, deep red of the meatballs and sauce, so I built on that by sourcing a photo backdrop that would let me bring this to life. As I began looking at bold and graphic ideas, I added a black tiled backdrop to my palette to add even more contrast and interest.

Once I have the concept, palette and ideas together, I use my sketches to work on a shot list and think about a good running order for bringing everything to life as I shoot. For example, with Spaghetti, I created all the art-inspired concepts with the spaghetti strands together before moving on to the ones that combined the meatballs, sauce and pasta together. That way I could be as productive as possible and avoid making too much food as I went.

For me, a strong story is not just about a consistent palette and captivating ideas, but also in how all the images are edited. Determining a clear style for how the final images will look is so important – not only align them to my own personal style but also for them to align together as a consistent body of work. My style is graphic, bold and colourful and I pay attention to accentuating texture and colour in my editing in Adobe Lightroom. For Spaghetti, this meant boosting the reds, ensuring the spaghetti strands looked slick and the sauce unctuous and delicious. The whole concept is meant to be impactful and attention grabbing, and the editing had to reflect that. If the final edits were more muted and softer, the images wouldn’t have the same overall effect.

The photoshoot

The whole Spaghetti story was captured using the following equipment:

• Nikon Zfc
• NIKKOR Z DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 VR
• Godox UL150 continuous light
• 150 x 200mm diffuser
• White & black fill cards
  
  

Sourcing light

Getting to grips with my new light was a key focus of this project, in particular experimenting with hard light and graphic shadows. I used a large diffuser together with my light, playing with bringing the light closer and further away from the surface of the diffuser and tracking how the shadows looked. The closer the light to the diffuser, the more pronounced and graphic the shadows were. For a couple of the images in the story, for example ‘Gonna Getcha’, which presents a fun piece of shadow play of a menacing fork about to strike its unassuming meatball prey, I used my light ‘bare bulb’ without the use of any light diffusion.

It is important to get the balance right between lighting effects, idea and composition. In contrast to the above image, where the shadows are integral to the idea and the composition, some of the more conceptual flat lays, such as my pasta maze concept ‘Find Your Way to Me’ and my woven basket concept ‘Put All Your Pasta in One Basket’, needed a softer light to not overshadow (quite literally) the idea.

Spaghetti was also lit entirely with a single light set-up and the most important thing was ensuring I was shaping the light throughout the shoot to give me the desired effects – not only through the diffuser but through blocking and filling the light. In most of the darker scenes shot on the black tile background, I would use card uprights to block the light and create more dramatic shadows that captured the more cinematic ideas such as ‘5-Second Rule’ and ‘Greedy with a Chance of Meatballs’. You will see in these images the intentional dark and light shadows and leading lines that help to guide the viewer’s eye and make for a more striking image.

The gear 

The whole photoshoot was captured with one of my favourite zoom lenses, the NIKKOR Z DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 VR, as it was a great, affordable starter lens for me and such a work horse in allowing me to capture a variety of image styles. As 50mm is its minimum focal length, ensuring you have a good distance between your camera and your subject is key, which is why I’d often end up with my tripod on my tabletop!

Camera settings

I kept my aperture to f/11 and f/16 for my flat lays, so everything was in focus. For the straight-on shots where the food stands out from the background and creates some bokeh effect, I would use a wider aperture, such as ranging from f/5.6 to f/8.

As I was photographing static subjects with a tripod and continuous light rather than flash, I kept my ISO low (between 100-200) and my shutter speed between 1/8 and 1/30 sec.

For a few images, such as ‘Finger Food’ and ‘Me, Myself and I’, where I was in the image myself and having to work quickly to style the pasta in my hand and in my mouth, I changed my settings to allow for inevitable bits of subtle movement – 1/250 secs and 640 ISO and 1/125 sec and 640 ISO, respectfully. I also placed my camera on a 10-second timer to allow me to get into position! This did take a good few tries each time to get the shot in focus! But this was part of the fun and the overall process of playing and experimenting.

A challenge for you

Creating a story with food is a great project that will get you thinking about many aspects of photography: composition, lighting, colour, styling, editing and more. Why not give it a try and think about a subject, recipe, colour palette or concept that could inspire a distinct series of images?

Start by looking at different food ingredients, get out of your comfort zone and head to an exhibition or visit a new place or market that could spark an idea. Start to gather image references of things that you’ve seen or picked up. How do they connect? Note down ideas and maybe even sketch some out to help build your shot list.

How many ways can you capture one subject? Is there a narrative running through the images or are they connected through colour and lighting?

Could you come up with at least six ways of capturing one subject as a story?

Some top tips 

1. Take your time to research and come up with ideas.
2. No idea is a bad idea. Jot them all down as they evolve.
3. Think carefully about what the common thread will be in your story and let that guide you through your ideation process, the photoshoot and your edits.
4. Think about the mood you want to create from the outset and let this guide and centre how you will light and edit your images to convey your intentions.
5. Don’t get hung up about equipment and not having ‘all the gear’. Spaghetti was captured using a Nikon Zfc and a (great!) kit zoom lens. Maximise what you have and stretch what you can do with your equipment. Sometimes limitations can make you think even more creatively.
6. Use a tripod to help with clearly focused, crisp images.
7. Use a zoom lens to experiment with different focal lengths.
8. Make a shot list but use this as a guide while you experiment and play. Sometimes, the best image comes from a new angle you only see once the food is on set – or once you’re packing away one shot ready for the next!
9. Ensure you pay close attention to how you shape your light and your image editing after the shoot, ensuring all the images in your story feel as if they are part of one cohesive body of work.
10. Have fun!