Author Topic: Food photos ? (Read 4326 times)

graficallyminded · « **Reply #25 on:** June 04, 2009, 16:11 »

I'm a microtard

I like that! I'm gonna use that. Can I? I might even buy a hippy van and paint it on the side, but mine will have NOS and be a lot faster than yours.

Pheby · « **Reply #26 on:** June 05, 2009, 05:03 »

Quote from: luceluceluce on June 04, 2009, 00:29

hi food photographers

I read this stuff on color psychology:

Quote
While blue is one of the most popular colors it is one of the least appetizing. Blue food is rare in nature. Food researchers say that when humans searched for food, they learned to avoid toxic or spoiled objects, which were often blue, black, or purple. When food dyed blue is served to study subjects, they lose appetite.

Green, brown, and red are the most popular food colors. Red is often used in restaurant decorating schemes because it is an appetite stimulant.

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/colors1.html

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Physiological Effect: Violet has shown to alleviate conditions such as sunburn due to its purifying and antiseptic effect. This color also suppresses hunger and balances the body's metabolism.

http://library.thinkquest.org/27066/psychology/nlcolorpsych.html

What has been your experience with the use of color in food images? Is what is being said relevent to the success of different food images? Do you stay away from using purples and blues in your images? What do you think?
Lucy x

I shoot nearly nothing else but food, and I'm aware of what psychologists say about blue, but I don't stay away from it. Blue and purple often give a nice contrast to the boring colour of pasta (yes, I know that pasta can look very yellow, but I don't like that look at all). Often, I use blue and white edible flowers to decorate arrangements, and it looks nice with pasta and very light green salad leafs, for example. Also, blueberries and blackberries seem to be very popular dessert ingredients for American buyers (Europeans seem to like raspberries and strawberries more, from what I can tell), and these "new" blue potatoes that are trendy now go well with lots of dishes (maybe not meat so much, though).
What I find most important in food photography is distracting the eye from parts of the dish that you just can't get to look appetizing: Chili con Carne or Bolognese sauce as such always will look awful and offputting. Lots of shots of those dishes don't distract the eye from the ugly bits, the really successful ones always do, though!

luceluceluce · « **Reply #27 on:** June 05, 2009, 09:15 »

thanks stardust, really useful post... I haven't attempted photographing actual cooked food yet but when i do i'll definitely keep what you said about the distracting the eye from the icky bits in mind...
x

Pheby · « **Reply #28 on:** June 05, 2009, 16:34 »

Try it out! It's so much fun!

Jonathan Ross · « **Reply #29 on:** June 06, 2009, 11:37 »

Hi Stardust,

Pink is the best color to support food shots at least last year. The agencies analyze what pix sold the best then try to see the results and build data from them. So model in waitress outfit holding plate of food would sell better on a soft pink background than a blue one. Interesting stuff. Buyers do follow a general pattern but it is not etched in stone as the only info to go by. Do some testing yourself and see. Maybe do one shot on different backgrounds and see which sells the best, your own personal color test : )

Best,
Jonathan

Pheby · « **Reply #30 on:** June 06, 2009, 11:42 »

Quote from: Jonathan Ross on June 06, 2009, 11:37

Hi Stardust,

Pink is the best color to support food shots at least last year. The agencies analyze what pix sold the best then try to see the results and build data from them. So model in waitress outfit holding plate of food would sell better on a soft pink background than a blue one. Interesting stuff. Buyers do follow a general pattern but it is not etched in stone as the only info to go by. Do some testing yourself and see. Maybe do one shot on different backgrounds and see which sells the best, your own personal color test : )

Best,
Jonathan

Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for the tip! I've heard generally about trends like that being analyzed, but I've never actually found concrete information on things like that.
Regards,
Barbara

luceluceluce · « **Reply #31 on:** June 06, 2009, 22:29 »

Quote from: Jonathan Ross on June 06, 2009, 11:37

Hi Stardust,

Pink is the best color to support food shots at least last year. The agencies analyze what pix sold the best then try to see the results and build data from them. So model in waitress outfit holding plate of food would sell better on a soft pink background than a blue one. Interesting stuff. Buyers do follow a general pattern but it is not etched in stone as the only info to go by. Do some testing yourself and see. Maybe do one shot on different backgrounds and see which sells the best, your own personal color test : )

Best,
Jonathan

Hi jonathan.... where do you come across your data? ...... (hopeful)..... : )

Its not really on the food topic - but I'm starting to focus exclusively on pale grey rendered backgrounds. Outsells all the other colors.

According to the psychologists grey will evoke feelings of loneliness and detachment so i reckon the buyers spend too much time online and not enough time outside playing in the sunshine.

I don't think these buyers need our images... i think they need our hugs x

Jonathan Ross · « **Reply #32 on:** June 07, 2009, 10:28 »

Hi Luce,

We all need some hugs

I am involved with Several Macro agencies that pay research companies to find this info out. There are people researching just about everything you can imagine. The food companies definitely do analysis to figure out the color that is most appealing and pink has won hands down for a while now. The grey thing is good I think because it is easy to cut out, it allows either black or white type face and doesn't compete or clash with what your model is wearing. The data is sent to me by several different Macro stock agencies. Hers is a fun one. Did you know that one of the leading money making stock shots ( I am talking huge money ) in 08 was a dripping ice burg. Wish I had thought of it but it is an excellent example of a photographer paying attention to the world around him before shooting. Something I need to get a lot better at.

Best,
Jonathan

gostwyck · « **Reply #33 on:** June 07, 2009, 11:26 »

I'm a little sceptical that the background colour of food shots is that important __ especially pink. After all a half-decent designer should be able to modify the background to any colour they choose.

Food is basically thousands of niche subjects, some of which are vastly more popular with buyers than others. Beef is generally the most popular meat for example and with Chinese food then shrimp dishes almost always outsell any other kind of meat or fish __ basically because they both look good and, being more expensive, are somewhat 'aspirational'. As they say 'stock imagery is about portraying the world as we'd like it to be not how it actually is'.

I doubt many buyers would search for something as unspecific as 'food' anyway. They'll be after a specific type of food like 'lasagna' or 'bacon sandwich'. That cuts choice down a lot. I'm sure even a marginally better image of a lasagna on almost any background will always outsell a worse portrayal on a pink background. Much better concentrating on getting the food and the photography right than thinking it's all about pink backgrounds.

Of course microstock vastly outsells the trad agencies in volume anyway which therefore provides much better data on what is popular. For example Lise on her own sells roughly the same amount of images per month on IS as the entire Alamy library does. The results of any popular search term at IS, sorted by best match, will tell you anything you want to know about what styles/colours/etc are currently popular with buyers.

luceluceluce · « **Reply #34 on:** June 07, 2009, 12:55 »

Quote from: Jonathan Ross on June 07, 2009, 10:28

We all need some hugs

I know! we do... especially recently... $:-\$

Quote

one of the leading money making stock shots ( I am talking huge money ) in 08 was a dripping ice burg.

: D I tried to get the same shot, but using lots of trickery and imagination. That photographer could have been me, if only I'd managed to find a way to staple the icecube to my studio wall : (

Lucy x

luceluceluce · « **Reply #35 on:** June 07, 2009, 13:02 »

Quote from: gostwyck on June 07, 2009, 11:26

Beef is generally the most popular meat for example and with Chinese food then shrimp dishes almost always outsell any other kind of meat or fish

That's so interesting. I wonder if it varies by country though.... Obviously beef is a big no no in India. Im right next to a Siva temple and my dog's a german shepherd so the right size bone for him is a cow bone. They're littered all over my garden and it's starting to nag at me... even though my neighbours have been too kind to mention it. Indians are really sweet like that. And they're a huuuuuuuuuge up and coming market. They call it 'veg'. Meat eaters are called 'non-veg'. It's like the opposite of Argentina.

x

gostwyck · « **Reply #36 on:** June 07, 2009, 13:11 »

Quote from: luceluceluce on June 07, 2009, 13:02

That's so interesting. I wonder if it varies by country though.... Obviously beef is a big no no in India.

Possibly in time but 90%-odd of our market is currently North America and Europe. Of course contributors are drawn to what the market wants too so the most popular selling subjects tend to be the most competitive with the very best exponents of the art attempting to exploit it. I would even think of doing battle with the giants of our industry (and their budgets) for 'business team' shots for example.