What is photography? How is it used?
Photographs are remarkable. Through photography people preserve history, photographs are used to recall important events. Photographs evoke the essence of places or things that people would like to venture in or should never forget. With photographs, one can transcend someone virtually to where the photograph was taken even without them physically being there (Flusser,2013). Moreover, photography has become a career to many people who are doing digital photography for economic purposes. Photographic essence is not defined by the use of powerful, expensive equipment. It is a skill and thought put in the photography that matters the equipment only ensures that the quality of ideas is actualized. Photography is an art of producing images of objects, these images should be able to “speak”. Images from a good photography do not require captions because they should be able to generate live reactions from audiences (Chakrabarti & Perera, 2013).
What is needed for good photography?
There are influencing factors in that affect the outcome of photography resolution, exposure and focus. Resolution is the detail level of the image, exposure is the brightness level determined by the amount of light passing through the lens (Zakia,2013). Focus is the sharpness level of the image. One needs very good cameras and lenses. There are several camera accessories that one needs such as ring flashes, tripod and memory card. However, overall skills of the photographer determine the outcome of photography (Meretsky et.al,2010).
Food and Photography
The photo presentation is about the creative process using photography linked to food class, the idea was from the Food Coordinator. The most inspirational thing about a great food photo is its ability to move emotionally and affect anyone who looks at, if by looking the photo people want to eat the photo literally then the photography is great. However, one should stick to the technical aspects to alleviate the effects(Martin et.al, 2009). The food photo presentation involves images with different colors and shapes the photographs have been taken in order of a certain rhyme.
The presentation should contain images that illustrate the process of how certain foods are prepared. When pursuing food photography there are various factors to consider and those to avoid. For example, one might decide to use flowers and herbs of their photography, there are appropriate ways to use flowers in photography but most experts advise against it(Noronha et.al, 2011). There are laws that should be followed if one feels compelled to use flowers or herbs, the first one is only use herbs if they have been used in the recipe.
There are several guidelines on how one can style, plate and present their food in photography (Borst, Boyd& Kwant, 2009). :
- Avoid using a big plate to hold a little amount of food.
- Keep the food as simple as you can. Use normal food with very little or no weird and visible additives.
- Trying to capture many elements in a single photograph makes it seem squeezed. Instead fewer elements which will illustrate volumes
- If using vegetables as part of photography use blanched vegetables. These are vegetables that have been briefly boiled then plunged into ice to make them bright and tender.
- Do not put many sauces. Sauces are usually colored and may at times make the food be perceived as unreal. Just use one sauce to compliment the food.
- Make sure that one is up-to-date with the current food stacking trends
However, if one is using raw food in their photography, it is important to let the positive elements come out .For example, if one is photographing a piece tuna, the aim is to have the audience thinking about its juiciness and attractive color.
Some of the technicalities involved in food photography are (Martin et.al, 2014):
- Avoid using camera-mounted flashes because they result in harsh lighting that creates deep unflattering shadows instead of exposing natural shadows
- Ensure that when going for photography one has a stand that ensures that the images are blurry-free. Taking a photograph needs a still ground and a stand provides this.
- Choose the props carefully, props may include tablecloth, plate and cutlery
- Ensure establishing the best angles before taking the photographs for example tier cakes should be taken lower angles
- If the composition is not working, do not force it. Forcing a composition may make it appear unreal and made up.
- If the food comprises of herbs, make sure it does sit for too long as they often wither
- Honor accidents if one picks cuts out a piece of cake, and it spills crumbs it might not be what was expected, but one can use this as a different focal point
Funding and conclusion
The school’s bursary will fund photography the project. The funds will be used to hire cameras and lighting equipment that will be used for photography. The funds will also be used to cater for the food that will be used in the photography and to hire any professionals that the photography presentation might demand(Daston,2007). In conclusion, photography is an element in a presentation that assists audience in understanding the relevance of the topic. Food photography is a cunning concept, which aims to convince the viewers mind to make food seem appetizing. However, the subject of food photography is not a very trendy business. In addition, a mistake many novice food photographers make is taking shots that look down on a plate from a straight line over the food(Paulsen ,Paulsen & Paulsen,2005). In most instances, it seems like the right thing to do but it does not work in most circumstances.
References
Borst, K. J., Boyd, J., & Kwant, M. (2009). U.S. Patent Application 12/578,526.
Chakrabarti, R., & Perera, C. M. (2013). “Click first, care second” photography.Med J Aust2012, 196, 430-431.
Daston, L. & Galison .P (2007). Objectivity. Zone Books
Flusser, V. (2013). Towards a philosophy of photography. Reaktion Books.
Martin, C. K., Nicklas, T., Gunturk, B., Correa, J. B., Allen, H. R., & Champagne, C. (2014). Measuring food intake with digital photography. Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, 27(s1), 72-81.
Martin, C. K., Han, H., Coulon, S. M., Allen, H. R., Champagne, C. M., & Anton, S. D. (2009). A novel method to remotely measure food intake of free-living individuals in real time: the remote food photography method. British Journal of Nutrition, 101(03), 446-456.
Meretsky, V. J., Brack, V., Carter, T. C., Clawson, R., Currie, R. R., Hemberger, T. A., & Good, D. H. (2010). Digital photography improves consistency and accuracy of bat counts in hibernacula. The Journal of Wildlife Management,74(1), 166-173.
Noronha, J., Hysen, E., Zhang, H., & Gajos, K. Z. (2011, October). Platemate: crowdsourcing nutritional analysis from food photographs. In Proceedings of the 24th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology (pp. 1-12). ACM.
Paulsen, C., Paulsen, E., & Paulsen, R. (2005). U.S. Patent Application 11/176,692.
Zakia, R. D. (2013). Perception and Imaging: Photography--a Way of Seeing. Taylor & Francis.
