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so a concept that i want to share with
you and is one that i talk about very
often is the concept of shooting in a
continuum so for food what this means is
that the continuum for me
is any time between
the purchase of the ingredients all the
way through to an empty plate at the end
of a meal so that means that all of
those opportunities in between create
lots and lots of shooting opportunities
that may not be on your shot list but by
reading your recipes and understanding
what's going to happen being familiar
with the food knowing what's going into
the food knowing the processes of the
food these are the the elements that are
present for us when we want to take
pictures of food because the hero shot
isn't the only shot so for example here
we have beautiful fresh ingredients that
clearly your shopping is your propping
with food when you buy beautiful
ingredients they become their own
subject so you don't need to work that
hard to make a beautiful picture this is
how it came out of the shop spray a
little water on it little styling trick
and it's beautiful and then of course
the process now we're going through the
process we're breaking down these
ingredients this is also a key element
to the continuum and that finding these
parts of the process
are valuable assets for making your
content for clients and of course for
resale these are things that are going
to always help you when you're looking
to expand the reach as a photographer
and then of course the final shot where
maybe we're a little bit beyond the
final shot here in that it feels like
it's already being interacted with
there's already some life involved with
the picture so i think that's another
element is that even if a human being
isn't touching the food and you don't
see hands in the picture you have the
ability to kind of inject the idea that
there's somebody interacting with the
food this is also part of that continuum
don't just fall in love with your hero
shot don't just fall in love with the
final shot that's perfectly plated with
your fork and spoon ready at the go and
a full glass of wine before there's any
mess on the table
that kind of feels very static to me at
times there are places where that is a
totally appropriate way to shoot food
but sometimes you're missing the
opportunities to bring things like your
own experiences with food into the
photographs so when you are existing as
a food photographer on this continuum
you really are trying to work through
the story you're trying to create the
story with pictures so even if there is
an accompanying recipe or an
accompanying story that goes with it you
have this opportunity to tell the story
solely with your pictures so working
through it really helps for a photo like
this this is that moment where it's
ready for us to sit down and eat it's
not quite the perfect hero shot there is
a little bit of interaction
it's a little bit precious but it's not
as precious as it could be if there
doesn't feel like anybody's interacted
with this so that little drizzle really
helps and this one it's soft it doesn't
really have that hard focus it feels a
little dreamy and it gives me an
opportunity to work that story a little
bit gives you a little bit of a
different perspective not everything has
to be the same focus the same depth of
field the same lighting everything can
have some kind of life inside that story
and the idea of where you pick up where
are you picking up the story so this is
actually a side dish for a bigger story
so that when you are building out a
table scene
sometimes taking pictures of the
individual elements kind of strings us
along through the story so all of these
elements kind of feel like they're
maximizing our opportunities i don't
mean just inside the continuum of what
we just talked about what i also mean is
how you set up your shooting space and
if you have the ability to set up your
shooting space with steady lighting like
led lighting and which i'll demo shortly
i want you to understand that you can
toggle between
still photography and video to make
short video clips that are really
valuable assets both for yourself maybe
for your website or for social media and
of course for resale so when you have
that opportunity you need to take it
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you