Photographing Food at Fishmongers’ Livery Company

There is nothing basic about photographing food – in the sense that it is not just you, the photographer, that has work to do.  You need a competent chef to prepare the delicious food….. in a delicious way that makes it look delicious.  It’s rather like having a model to sell a product – more often than not, you need to have a person who is very pleasant to look at.  In the same way (and I don’t want to get controversial here) it’s hard to make ugly food look great.  So the chef needs to be aware of this.

Some food photographers only approach their subject if they have a “food stylist” on hand.  I think for commercial posters that can be hugely important – making the food “present” properly.  At Fishmongers’ Hall last week, I tried to get more of a “dining club” feel – so the “stapled lettuce” and “propped open” buns were not required.  I was very lucky to be presented with dishes by some incredibly accomplished chefs; headed up by Stephen Pini – a multi-published chef, and obvious expert in the art of turning out a well-cooked bit of fish!  I did nothing to the food – no sprays, no varnish, no staples, no cocktail sticks – just completely as it came – and boy did it smell good!

On my part, I was photographing in the Gold Room – a small dining room often used for serving breakfast.  It is a beautiful room – quite dark, but colourful and interesting – I wanted to vary the images to get some of that “patina” on show as well as showing the food in detail for publication.

I had 2 studio strobes (to flood the room when required), and 2 boards for reflecting the light to remove some of the overly-dark shadows.  For the “patina” shots I relied on the ambient light, with a reflector just to give a nudge to the light.

In all, I photographed 3 of each course – so 9 dishes in all.  Fishmongers’ does open rooms for private functions.  Now that I have seen the food close up – it’s a must!