Author: finb8

Aesthetics – focus, blur, lens flare and boken- series of lights that have been blurred (aperture).

DOF – depth of field

Food photography – Art, which makes us DO things –

• Feel hunger
• Cook
• Buy a cook book
• Buy a product

Formal Elements

• Texture
• Colour
• Composition
• Lines

Lighting – must have:

• Light source
• Fill light

Set up – must have:

• Backdrop
• ‘homemade’ dish
• Props

Why is it important – Food photography is important has it helps with the growth of restaurant’s, fast food places etc. Professional food photography can have a massive impact on branding for a company, which can help increase sales, this style of photography has the ability to make customers want to stop, look and go in and taste what has been promoted through photography.

Tips on Food Photography:

Take control of shadows – Shadows are very important in all photography, as they can enhance a image, adds depth and visual interest. Harsh shadows should be avoided in case they over power an image and take your eye away from the main focus.

Use a natural background –  The background is very important, if the background is too messy or colourful it distracts away from the main focus of the image. Using a fairly plain background is often more effective as it allows the photographer to emphasise the food in the photo, there are three main background that work well, these are, light backgrounds, dark backgrounds or wooden (brown) backgrounds.

Colour – Colours have a big impact on composition and they can effect the overall view of an image. Using opposite colours is positive as it can create an enthusiastic feel to an image and make it more eye catching.

Shoot from the best angle – Shooting from above is often the best choice, especially when the food is placed in the bowl or a plate. Shooting from above has several benefits, it allows detail of the food and the background to be shown and emphasises bold colours and shapes within the image.

Arrange the food neatly – Always arrange the food in a neat and/or unique way to create visual interest and balance. Make sure that no food or sauce was spilled and if so assure that is has been cleared up to give a professional.

For this project we studied magazine covers, by the end of the project we made our own final magazine cover. We achieved this by doing various steps through out the project, this helped us gain knowledge about magazines, what is popular and what type of magazine we would like to accomplish.

Research – during the project i done continuous research throughout. This helped as i was able to understand the value of magazines, what looks are successful and what type of magazines are most common/popular. At the start of the project i started looking at retro fashion but after more research i realised retro fashion is not as widely promoted and fewer members from my age range wear retro fashion as i found out through my questionnaire. After i analysed my questionnaire i decided to base my magazine on street wear fashion as i felt it replicated the target market that i decided on for men’s fashion (16-24). I also researched different high end magazine covers like Vogue and ID magazine so that i was able to see what layouts, colours and texts where the most effective the to the public and to myself. I also studied the four elements of a magazine cover to assure that i was able to include these on my final magazine cover, these included, art (graphics, photos, and illustrations), text, headlines/ titles and subheads, decks, and captions.

Pre production/ planning – For my pre production I first planned for my final magazine cover to be shot outside to increase the aspect of street wear. The further I researched into different magazines and soon was hugely inspired by ID Magazine, this magazine is a high end street wear magazine which made me change my idea to then do my final shot in the studio as I felt ID Magazine represented street wear successfully but using muted colours and harsh artificial lighting in the background and on the model to highlight the main focus instead of other distractions. Throughout the weeks I also done different types of practice photography including, photo therapy, portrait images, emotion with in photography and general fashion images, I feel this helped gain an understanding of what photography would best suit my final cover, it also helped towards my final shot as I was able to practice various angles, lighting, facial expressions and many more other techniques.

How it went – I feel that this project was successful as it helped me gain knowledge in many different aspects of media, the aspects that it helped we with were, portrait photography, different types of photography, layout, how to attract a specific target market and what colours work together to make a successful magazine cover. Portrait photography is the main part of making a magazine so I felt that it had to be mastered, I felt I done this successfully through many mini tasks to build up my experience, I also found that with the knowledge I was given throughout the project helped me complete a high end look for my magazine covers, another main focus is the camera angle as it decides whether the model will look powerful or vulnerable to create a distinguished look on the final magazine cover. I also researched what type of front covers would attract my target audience by looking at other fashion magazines, this helped as I was able to distinguish colours, layouts etc of what my age range are most attracted to, I also feel making a questionnaire strongly changed my views of what was the most attractive. Overall I think this unit was important and helpful to increase my knowledge of media as a whole.

For my magazine i chose fashion, i started looking at urban men’s fashion but soon changed to affordable street wear fashion, i decided to change what type of fashion i was looking at as i felt that street wear fashion was more known and popular to my age range (16-24). Once i changed the type of fashion that i was looking at i researched many magazines, i finally came to a decision to take inspiration from ID Magazine as i feel it replicated the edgy high end look that i envisioned for my final magazine cover.

I decided to base my magazine on affordable fashion as my age range (16-24) will find it more approachable as people of this age are still in education or in further education so are on a lower income. This means that it will be popular to the age range i have chose, another reason for my age range is because my magazine will also be digital which would make it more accessible to my target market. This will also increase my social media marketing as it can be shared worldwide for example.

Nearer to the end of the product we planned to merge our ideas with one other person to create our final magazine cover. Me and my partner looked through each others plans and research of other magazines and we decided to keep the inspiration of ID Magazine but use different types of camera shoots that my  partner had found. This helped give an edgy look without it looking identical to ID Magazine as we are going to use a low angle shot to make the model the main focus.