Blog Post 08/03/2014

As a well established London food photographer  Graham Precey is  a food photographer who has photographed most types of product. Recently he has shot burgers for the McDonalds summer menu to web recipes for Marks and Spencer to recipes for Budgens. The range  of work is enormous. But I think its fair to say that working with a talented food stylist helps a great deal. Preparing the food is very much taken for granted but Graham always believes the stylist does most of the work. Or perhaps he is just being modest!. The most important traits for a good home economist are attention to detail, and technical ability. Able to work as a team and being good with clients is also important.

London food photography is blessed with many top prop houses. At Grahams studio many clients are impressed with his enormous selection of props and backgrounds. His wife Jackie is constantly sourcing new props and backgrounds and although he still hires props from the prop houses less and less props are now hired as Graham and Jackie grow their excellent prop collection.

Needless to say at precey.com, there is an excellent kitchen, situated in the main studio. With two ovens, a microwave, 4 fridges, two of them large as well as two chest freezers. Being able to kep the food fresh is very important.

Without exception, all Grahams visitors are enormously impressed by the studio itself. For many, the best they have ever visited. Beautifully designed with a very high ceiling , gives a relaxing and airy feel.

Graham is also able to supply off street parking for his clients and visitors. Something very important nowadays as many clients travel by car. Turnham Green and Acton Central are at both very close walking distance.

Often, when an advertising or packaging agency or other client requests food photography, they have a very specific print or large format application in mind. Increasingly, however, they will also request food photography for the web, and in today’s online landscape, social media affords abundant opportunity for content to be widely viewed, ‘liked’ and shared. But how exactly can you take better food photography for social media to the end of increased business?

One all-important step is simply realising the importance of the most professional food photography for your establishment’s social media page. Our world is one in which people frequently post out-of-focus, poorly lit and badly framed photos of their food on Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest.

However, this should not give a restaurant or similar establishment an excuse to compromise on its own professionalism – especially when so many more people may see the social media page than the print advertisements for which the finest food photography is typically requested.

There are some basic approaches that can be taken to improve the quality of one’s personal food photography, such as investing in a reasonably affordable point and shoot camera with a macro setting, as well as shooting from a minimum of eighteen inches away at the highest resolution.

The best food photography often has a clean background to ensure a colour contrast between it and the food, while certain food should be shot with a particular white balance. Meat looks more appetising, for example, when it is shot in warmer tones than fluorescent lights, with their blue-ish tinge, typically allow.

Natural lighting also ought to be used whenever possible, so shooting near a window is frequently a good idea. Using a tripod removes the need to manually hold the camera still for long periods of time, where there are all kinds of other angles, details and props that can be used for more effective food photography for a social media page.

However, this is where you may also consider the services of a seasoned, professional food photographer – one who has all of the necessary equipment, such as Sinar and Canon digital cameras as part of the most functional photography studio, as well as Elinchrom flash and all of the props and backgrounds that one could require for imaginative and engaging photography. Such a photographer should also have a freezer and refrigerated storage within a fully working kitchen, where food can be prepared for perfection ahead of being photographed.

This is not a level of professionalism that can be easily achieved by the well-meaning restaurant owner with a smartphone camera. For the very best food photography that gets results on social media, it really is best to seek out a professional who has the finest track record in this very field, with a long list of prestigious clients to their name.

There are many ways of increase your company’s exposure on social media – and the right food photography can be absolutely central to achieving this.

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Food photography is unquestionably one of the unsung arts. For all of its traditions in the still life paintings of many centuries ago, continuing into the early photographic age in the 19th century and more recently the worlds of Instagram and smartphone cameras, food photography is rarely explicitly recognised.

Perhaps the most seasoned and capable London food photographer  is a victim of his or her own success in presenting food in an attractive way that places the focus firmly on it, rather than on any photographic or preparatory tricks or techniques. Much of the success of a good food photographer is in simply having the right equipment and preparing well. For example, a working kitchen in close proximity to the studio is a must, with a range of props and backgrounds and the latest cameras also making a big difference.

However, various styling techniques have also had a big part to play in making food photography so engaging down the years, whether it is witnessed on an advertising billboard, online, in a catalogue, on packaging or as part of an editorial feature. The food photographer may use dry ice or  a combination of chemicals that give off smoke to create the illusion of steam, while certain liquids – such as water or diluted glycerine – may also be sprayed on the food to keep it fresh in appearance.

Cooked meats and poultry may have their brownness enhanced by a range of browning agents, while there’s also the age-old problem of cereal too quickly becoming soggy in milk, which can be solved by switching from milk to heavy cream. A food photographer may also ensure the freshness and crispness of salad greens by misting them with cold water before composition, and herbs and spices may also be sprinkled over a wet salad to give it the appearance of dressing, given that actual salad dressing can make the food difficult to style.

Other foods that can lose their visual appeal quickly, and hence pose a particular challenge to the food photographer, include hamburgers – given the tendency of the buns to easily dent – and sandwiches. The assembly of a burger for photography may therefore involve toothpicks being used to hold the ingredients in place, as well as folded paper to position the burger into place.

These techniques as used by a food photographer can complement such methods for drinks photography as applying matt lacquer to create the effect of condensation on the outside of a glass, as well as the use of artificial ice cubes rather than real ones, which would – of course – melt. Such approaches are all to the end of the excellent overall result that creates desire in the consumer, as is the aim and routine achievement of any highly rated food photographer – like Graham Precey of www.precey.com.

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If you’re in food and drink marketing, you’re selling the sizzle. Your customers aren’t buying 10 beef burgers – they’re purchasing ten juicy, beefy, meaty mouth filling morsels of bovine succulence. Customers want to know it’ll be delicious. And people eat with their eyes, which makes food photography one of the most powerful techniques for getting attention.

A picture says a thousand words. So ask yourself what your current food photography is saying about your products. Is it capturing the glint on a glass of Glenlivet, or the fizz on the first Gin and Tonic of the afternoon? If it’s not, your drink sales might be flat.

Sell them the slurp. Get the photographer to take a crisp, close up of the glass that’ll be just a few inches from their customer’s face, and the brown peaks on the pie that they’ll be breaking a spoon into. If you wouldn’t eat in the dark, make sure the lighting is just right. Every advert you show the customer is a window into a dinner party held by your company. It needs the right ambience, and the food’s got to look fabulous like a host inviting the morsels into their mouths.

In marketing speak, this all part of the ritual of product use. If you can capture the moment on film when someone who is standing a foot away from a buffet says to themselves ‘ooh that looks tasty’, then people will live that feeling vicariously though the food photography. It’s a lot to accomplish on the side of a cardboard box. That’s why there’s so much skill to food photography.

And that’s why we recommend, like London food photographer Graham Precey of Precey.com.

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