These days, many clients want a lot of bang for their buck. That is, they often want multiple looks in multiple locations – for multiple purposes. So how can you pull this off without going crazy?
In this bootcamp, we look at what happens when cafe owners want social media profile pics, a cover shoot for a chocolate aficionado magazine, lifestyle product shots, lifestyle talent shots, shots of the cafe in action, shots of the chefs, and food shots. All done in half a day! Gina and Valerie discuss how to plan for this shoot, what gear you’d need to bring, how to structure the day and much more.
#ginachallenge #pressure
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Show notes
Listener question
From Andrew Deagle (Queensland):
“Hi Gina I’m wanting to try taking some images like this one but not sure how I should go about it.”
Shout outs to awesome members of our community
Bootcamp: Entrepreneurs’ shoot
Johnny and Jane run a business that specialises in organic chocolate and coffee products.
They also have a cafe/homewares store.
They need:
- social media profile pics
- cover shoot for chocolate aficionado magazine
- lifestyle product shots
- lifestyle talent shots
- shots of the cafe in action
- shots of the chefs
- food shots
- packaged shots from the cafe
They are really busy and have only allowed half a day for the shoot.
Just to make things interesting: Jane is a plus size 5’ tall and Johnny is lanky and 6’6. The inner city office is only lit by flouro lights and has large tilt slab concrete walls
It’s raining on and off and overcast
Planning
- cover and social media pics
- lifestyle cafe shots
- chefs
- food, product, interiors and details
Gear
- tripod
- zoom lens 24-105
- fast lens for low light
- white card/small make up mirrors for food shots
- reflector
- fill flash + soft box
- light stand
- blue tack
- small wooden blocks
Tips for plus size models
- shoot full length to elongate the body
- crop into arms length ways to give the illusion of narrower arms
- wear block colours
- long necklaces elongate the body
- contrapposto pose
- don’t crop mid body because this makes plus size look square and blocky
- pose in s shape
Tips for interior shots
- watch your verticals
- use a tripod
- shoot square into a room
- use daylight
- turn on lamps and downlights to add “life” to the room
- shooting on narrow aperture will create starbursts in lights
- people walking through shots at slow shutter speed also adds life to the image
Tips for food shots + products
- give chefs plenty of time to create meals to be photographed
- use flat soft daylight
- large windows
- plan ahead with chefs
- pre test/light with dummy set up
- keep propping simple
- great food photography is all about the planning
- select meals that are colourful avoid beige/brown food
- mirrors and white card are great for fill light
- use a tripod
Product shots need to be sharp vs food can look arty (shallow depth of field)
vs lifestyle product.
General Tips
- get lots of detail images
- shoot candid + set ups
- shoot after hours when cafe isn’t busy
