Already at the first meeting with the client I was excited about this project because I really liked the concept, and the spark in the eyes of the man who told me about their project and how everything will be in the near future. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I didn’t get a clear T.Z. Only a rough description of the photos, my assistant and I knew only that we need to take pictures of pizzas for the website of the company “Dadim Pizza” and to promote the same company in social networks. On the one hand, it gives you the freedom to be creative, but on the other hand, the client’s expectations may be quite different from the creative impulse of your thoughts. Still, the pizza had to be shot, and I wanted to shoot it at the highest level.
Preparing
After meeting with the client, I began to think about how to photograph this pizza after all. I had a lot of ideas in my head, I looked at the sites of promoted pizzerias such as Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, etc. After all the viewing, I decided I wanted to shoot pizza against a dark background, and a 200 year old board would be perfect for that. Of course, I could not find this type of board, and I do not have the courage to rob antiques. I decided to make these boards! A couple of three hours of searching and buying tools, paint, varnish a few hours of planing on the balcony, one scene of my girlfriend about the stench of varnish in the apartment, and my background was ready 🙂
For the next two days I had a test shoot, buying pizza and trying to photograph it at home on my cool board. But due to the fact that I knew nothing about the pizza itself, how it is prepared, all my attempts were good in light and technique, but the pizza itself did not look good … After two days, and ruining five pieces of pizza, I still got some results and I had thumbnails of 4 shots that I had to take off for the client.
Shooting
On the day of the shoot, when we arrived at the client’s house to photograph the pizzas, we were told that we would be shooting Sandwiches, Pasta, Soup, Carrot Brownie, and Pizza. When I heard that, the rest of my hair stood on end. This shows that a Food Photographer like all other photographers should be able to improvise “On the fly” I did not prepare to shoot a sandwich, yes, I studied food photography and food styling, but I have never done it on the client site without the right tools for it 🙂 And macaroni is generally one of the most difficult shoots. And there’s even a food stylist who flies around the world and twists macaroni for the shot 🙂 As you can see, my knowledge and months of training in food photography theory were not in vain, I was able to shoot a sandwich, pasta, and even soup. My clients were satisfied, which is very, very important to me.
Results
So, we can summarize:
Shooting 12 frames including styling took about 10 hours.
Retouching 12 photos for about 12 more hours
Making the background together with the search for materials hours 8
Costs of preparation, fabrication of backgrounds and tools 189 Euro
P.S. Only food was used in all photos, no artificial additives or enhancers. The amount of food on the plate corresponds to what the customer gets when ordering food from Dadim Pizza.
I would also like to add that I really liked working with the team “Dadim” on the set there was a cheerful and friendly atmosphere. Cheerful, probably because for hygiene they made us wear hats (like in the maternity hospital) we looked very funny in them:) and friendly, because these people made a huge impression on me, I watched how they treat their work with what love and care they prepare dishes for their clients, I paid attention to food, and kitchen supplies, this kitchen was not something I could find fault with. I love to see professionals at work, and I saw them.
