Food Photographer Tips

7 years ago, I wrote an article for Oreilly.com on food photography. I was just starting out in the trade, and the article basically chronicled my first tender step into the intimidating world of food photography. I would be doing many things differently these days (since I’m older, wiser and equipped with much, much better gear), and writing a much different article, but I suppose it was interesting at the time.

For some reason, I seem to be still getting email feedback from the article. Even today. Mostly, these emails are from students or amateurs, wanting to know more details on food photography. One such email hit my inbox yesterday, and I thought I’d share it here – together with my answers.

“I loved your photographs and all the categories.  I would love to photograph food for restaurants, and you gave some good information. I have a Canon Rebel XT with a 50 mm lens 1:8 and a 75-300mm lens 4-5.6 and a 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 lens. Could I make good food photos with  what I have? When I get confident enough, what should I go and tell the restaurants? Just that I want to take photos of their food, and what could I do with that? Make up a menu with the photos on there or what? Please give me some input on this. I
loved how you explained the food process for photos. What do you charge for doing this?   

Thanks, Ann      

PS: I’m looking to do something with my camera to make some money. Do I need a portfolio of food to take and let them see?”

Dear Ann,

Thanks for writing. I indeed have a few tips for you.

1. Before you do anything else – take a few business classes. You cannot (and should not) operate in the photography world without knowing the basics of working for yourself.

2. Read up on the laws of photography. Even handing over one single image to a client without knowing your rights and responsibilities regarding copyright will make your life harder than it needs to be. A good resource is the book “The Law (in Plain English) for Photographers”.

3. Food photography is a highly specialized field. Your Rebel XT will not cut it in regards to quality. Do yourself a favor and invest into a pro camera, a good tripod, lights and buy a good 100mm macro lens. If you’re not buying “L”-series lenses, you’re wasting your money.

4. Read up on food photography blogs. Study the technique of the masters. Learn from them.

5. Create a portfolio by shooting in your own kitchen, or team up with a friend who likes to cook. You need a smokin’ portfolio these days to be even considered by anyone (even your friendly neighborhood restaurant).

6. Have a firm price list in place before you approach any client. Don’t ever work for free. Trades for food are sometimes ok when you start out, but don’t make it a habit. After a few jobs, make sure you appropriately charge for your services (rates vary from area to area – check with your local photographer’s association or peers), and don’t ever undercut your competition.

Why not? A few important reasons:

a) If you charge less than the going rate, yes, a few people will hire you – but you will be known as the “cheap photographer” in your community. No higher-end establishment will hire you because of your reputation (because “cheap” equals also “bad quality” in many people’s mind), and you will have very effectively prevented yourself from making any more money. Your “career” will likely come to a grinding halt.

b) Consider that you’ll be taking work away from established working pros. They have families to feed. Please respect your peers by charging an equal fee and letting the clients decide who they want to hire. Decisions are often made on personality, so if you’re pleasant in your presentation and easy to work with, you have a good chance at the gig.

c) If you work for free or little money, your clients will get used to that real quick. It’s impossible to charge later for something you’ve already delivered for free before. Plus, it sets the tone that if you’re willing to give it away for free, it can’t possibly be valuable.

d) Due to the weak economy, many clients are on super-tight budgets. What they often don’t realize (generally until later) is that if they don’t pay appropriate fees for their photography (ie. hire an untrained amateur), they will end up with sub-standard quality images that can actually hurt their marketing instead of help it. Why? Because it takes *experience* to take all of the factors that goes into making a successful image into consideration.

Professionals take time to plan their shoots, interview their clients thoroughly to find out what type of look most compliments their brand, research their foods, gather appropriate props, consider lighting and general surroundings. They possess special food photography tricks, and have particular gear that can take an image from ordinary to extra-ordinary.

So if you approach a client not knowing what you’re actually doing, you may end up producing at best  mediocre images for them. This does not help their marketing, and definitely does not help them generate more business. Nor does it help *you*. Because if your name is attached to bad imagery, it will haunt you forever (Google does not forget nor forgive!).

Yes, we all have to start somewhere. I did! No one is born with perfect photography technique. But please do yourself a favor and do your research, learn a little about the subject, the industry and business before you take the plunge. You’ll be happy later you did.
Hope this helps!
Good luck.”

I suppose my overall point is: would you offer yourself up as a plumber if you only knew that pipes and wrenches are somehow involved in the job? Not likely. The same goes for photography.

Just because there is no State-issued “Certificate of Experience” or a particular type of schooling required for you to be able to take a photograph (something a few clients have mentioned to me as finding “odd”), that doesn’t mean you should offer to sell and make money from the simple fact that you have a camera and are able to push the shutter button.

Ok, ok… I’ll get off my soap box now.