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Andy’s Food Photography Tips
My name is Andy Aguirre and I am based in Chicago.
I am currently the creative director for Influx Marketing, a boutique marketing agency that specializes in hospitality marketing and commercial photography in Chicago and Miami. I specialize in Food, Beverage, and Product photography. The majority of my clients are small to medium sized restaurants and businesses that really need support with finding a direction for their food photography, social media presence, and brand identity.
I got my start with creating content as a freelance graphic designer. As a designer, I would get frustrated with the images that would come across my desk from clients on projects, so I decided to pick up a camera for myself and start learning how to create the images I wanted to see in my work. Since I was self-taught, it took years of hard work, constant practice, and dedication before I began producing the work I wanted to see. I tested the waters with photography by shooting creative portraits for music artists and bands in the local Chicago music scene before discovering my love for Food, Beverage, and Product photography. My goal for every shoot is to 1) always aim to learn something new and 2) try a new technique or creative focus. This practice keeps me humble.
For the majority of my professional photography career, I have been shooting with a Nikon D800 and my Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 DI VC lens. I have kept this lens fixed on my camera for all my food photography work with my restaurant clients for the last few years. I fell in love with this lens when I rented one early on in my photo career and had to buy one as soon as I could afford it. The wait was worth it! I love the image it produces, and the price point is friendly for the majority of photographers who take their craft seriously. The lens is now a staple of my photography set-up. It is sharp, renders a beautiful image, and always wows me no matter what I am shooting!
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The majority of the food photography I do every day is on site at the restaurant locations during open hours and is fast paced. I am currently a one-man team on my shoots and take pride in being able to walk into a local restaurant and quickly set up, create a library of beautiful content for my clients, and get out of their way so they can continue running their operations. It gives me joy to be able to help them tell their stories, help them connect with new customers, and build brand awareness through my images.
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Click image to view larger
I love that the Tamron 24-70mm lens gives me everything I need to work quickly on a shoot. I can get a wide shot of a restaurant interior and then go in for a closeup of a dish as it hits my table. It keeps my clients happy and continues to deliver for me, no matter the project.
Below I have put together some tips to share and keep in mind when photographing food this holiday season.
TIP 1. Define the Hero of your image.
In food photography it is especially easy to lose sight of what the main subject is, due to size of a dish compared to the tabletop surface and objects surrounding it, it can be easy to quickly clutter the frame with too many distractions or to shoot too wide, leaving the viewer’s eye bouncing around the frame searching for the main subject. Don’t be afraid to fill the frame with that hero dish or ingredient and get in close.
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Click image to view larger
TIP 2. Don’t just take a shot, Tell a Story
In my food work, I mostly shoot on location at the restaurant establishments, working directly with the chef or a restaurant manager on the shoot. It is important to work fast because it is usually a run n’ gun situation and more often than not during normal business hours. It is still important to find creative ways to elevate the frame and tie in the personality of the brand.
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When arriving for a shoot I often like to have a quick chat with the business owner or chef on what inspires their menu and also take visual cues from the decor of the restaurant and their branding. I like to bring elements from the restaurant decor into the frame whenever possible so that I am creating images that are on brand and paint the story of the restaurant experience.
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TIP 3. Show Dimension with Lighting
When it comes to lighting food photography, I am usually lighting from the side or back of the scene to give the food a sense of depth and show off the texture and details of a dish. The main goal in food photography is to provoke a craving or appetite and I find that using contrasty rim lighting seems to achieve that best for me in most cases. I hardly ever use front lighting on food as it tends to look flat, two dimensional, and unappealing.
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TIP 4. Select the Correct Depth of Field
There is no default depth of field that works for all food photography. It is important to be mindful of how the aperture you select plays a role in the final Image. Every dish and scene require a different approach that will be dictated by the story you are trying to tell. In my photos I like to make sure my hero dish is tack sharp and is in focus so the viewer's eye knows where to go and then slowly fade the background supporting elements and any props into a soft blur. But the specific F-stop changes from dish to dish depending on the height and depth of the hero dish.
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