How to create great food photographs for Web site

Tiny Seeds

This was our second web site photography shoot for Coventry based Tiny Seeds. Following the success of our first shoot, the business decided to use us again. This time to produce a full range of product shots for their web based shop. They also wanted us to produce some additional editorial style shots for them. This one shows the lovely pickled blueberries with goats cheese.

We discussed if the product shots should be on a plain white seamless background or with a mirrored finish. They decided to go with the plain background without the mirror. However, we couldn’t resist producing some of the editorial images with a black mirrored approach. They loved these too!

This one was a particular challenge as the beer bottle label was full gloss. This meant that wherever we placed the lights they were reflected like mirrors. In the end the image is made up of 5 individual shots all combined to eliminate the unwanted reflections.

Whilst the beer is important in this shot in that it is an ingredient, the jar of mustard was the item being sold. It was therefore important that this element carried the strongest area of light within the image.

Web site photography

Having high quality images on a web based shopping site is paramount. The site is the shop window of the business. Customers need to see what they are getting through catalogue shots. But, they also need to be sold to through mouthwatering editorial lifestyle images.

The client was delighted with the work and are now in the process of upgrading their web shop with the new catalogue shots. An example of this style can be seen below. Note the crisp sharp edges on the jar. This is a sign of the quality of the imagery. Often poor quality catalogue images are cut out onto a white background because the photographer doesn’t know how to light the glass properly without blowing out the edges. Not the case here I am pleased to say.