Commercial Food Photography: Onsite Photoshoot for a Local Business | Rose Nene | Skillshare
Drawer
Search

Playback Speed


  • 0.5x
  • 1x (Normal)
  • 1.25x
  • 1.5x
  • 2x

Commercial Food Photography: Onsite Photoshoot for a Local Business

teacher avatar Rose Nene, Photographer and Videographer

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Class Introduction

      3:28

    • 2.

      Class Project

      1:17

    • 3.

      How To Get Clients

      3:53

    • 4.

      Planning And Meeting With The Client

      4:02

    • 5.

      Selecting Props

      2:46

    • 6.

      The Day Before The Photoshoot

      4:13

    • 7.

      Photoshoot Day

      7:23

    • 8.

      Setup And Styling

      5:29

    • 9.

      9 Easy Composition Techniques

      6:08

    • 10.

      Famous Shooting Angles

      3:35

    • 11.

      Color Harmony

      3:42

    • 12.

      Gear And The Best Camera To Use

      4:31

    • 13.

      Camera Settings

      5:57

    • 14.

      File Formats

      4:07

    • 15.

      Communicating With The Client

      2:55

    • 16.

      Photo Management

      3:49

    • 17.

      Photo Editing

      21:38

    • 18.

      Exporting For Different Purposes

      7:06

    • 19.

      Final Thoughts

      3:08

  • --
  • Beginner level
  • Intermediate level
  • Advanced level
  • All levels

Community Generated

The level is determined by a majority opinion of students who have reviewed this class. The teacher's recommendation is shown until at least 5 student responses are collected.

1,525

Students

17

Projects

About This Class

Do you want to take professional looking photos of food? Or maybe you want to take food photos for a local business? Whatever it is as long as it involves food and a camera then you’ve come to the right place :)

We live in a day and time when it is harder to compete for attention online. If you are in the food business and most of your customers are online it really pays to invest in professional and inviting food photos. If you are an aspiring photographer then this is a great opportunity for you. There is a saying that "we eat with our eyes first". This is why Food Photography is a valuable skill. And that is what I will be sharing with you in this class.

My name is Rose :) I am a Photographer, Videographer and Entrepreneur from the Philippines. 

My husband and I started our photo and video business in 2017. I was more in charged of photos so I do a lot of events, products and food photography. I have helped several local businesses increase sales and boost online presence through professional food and product photos. Here are some of my work from my very recent photoshoots.

I recently did a photoshoot for a Taiwanese Café and we were able to capture most of the behind the scenes from this gig so In this class you will see me plan, prepare and do the actual photoshoot. You will see me set up lighting, select props, style my scene, set up my gear, etc. You will also see me edit some of my favorite photos from this photoshoot. Basically I will share with you everything I know about Food Photography and you will see me actually do all of it. 

This class is perfect for beginner food photographers, for foodies, bloggers, for photographers who want to venture in Food Photography, For food business owners who want to know what happens in a food photoshoot, And absolutely anyone who wants to learn something new and exciting.

You don’t need a fancy camera to participate in this class. Your smartphone camera is great to get started plus your hunger for new discoveries.

Here are some of the edited photos from this commercial food photoshoot to give you an idea.

 

By the end of this class you will know exactly how I was able to capture these images.

We will be covering food photography lighting set up, styling, props, backdrops, composition techniques, shooting angles, photo editing and many many more. Now if you’re ready, Let’s get started!

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Rose Nene

Photographer and Videographer

Top Teacher

Hi there! I'm Rose, and I'm here to help you level up your photography and videography game. With a background in events, food, and product photography, I've been through it all, including those times I made mistakes and invested in gear and props that ended up collecting dust.

My mission is to share all those valuable lessons with you, so you can avoid the pitfalls and fast-track your skills. Whether you're an aspiring photographer or videographer, my experience can be your guide. In my classes, I offer you all the wisdom I've gathered, guiding you through avoiding common mistakes and mastering essential techniques to enhance your photography and videography skills. :)


Why I teach?

I believe that education makes the w... See full profile

Level: All Levels

Class Ratings

Expectations Met?
    Exceeded!
  • 0%
  • Yes
  • 0%
  • Somewhat
  • 0%
  • Not really
  • 0%

Why Join Skillshare?

Take award-winning Skillshare Original Classes

Each class has short lessons, hands-on projects

Your membership supports Skillshare teachers

Learn From Anywhere

Take classes on the go with the Skillshare app. Stream or download to watch on the plane, the subway, or wherever you learn best.

Transcripts

1. Class Introduction: [MUSIC] Welcome to this class about Commercial Food Photography. My name is Rose, I'm a photographer, videographer, and entrepreneur from the Philippines. My husband and I started our photo and video business in 2017. I was more in charge of photos, so I do a lot of events, products, and food photography. I have helped several local businesses increase sales, and boost online presence through professional food and product photos. Here are some of my very recent work from my very recent photoshoots. [MUSIC] We live in a day and time when it is harder to compete for attention online. If you are in the food business and most of your customers are online, it really pays to invest in professional and inviting food photos. If you are an aspiring photographer, then this is a great opportunity for you. There is a saying that ''We eat with our eyes first''. The same thing is true for online buyers. They see the appetizing food photos and it affects their decision This is why food photography is such a valuable skill and that is what I will be sharing with you in this class. I recently did a photoshoot for a Taiwanese cafe and we were able to capture most of the behind the scenes from this gig. In this class, you will see me plan, prepare, and do the actual photoshoot. You will see me set up lighting, select props, style my scene, set up my gear, all of that. You will also see me edit some of my favorite photos from this photoshoot. Basically, I will share with you everything I know about commercial food photography and you will see me actually do all of it. This class is perfect for beginner food photographers, for foodies, bloggers, for photographers who want to venture in food photography, for food business owners who want to know what happens in a food photoshoot, and absolutely anyone who wants to learn something new and exciting. You don't need a fancy camera to participate in this class Your smartphone camera is a great way to get started, plus your hunger for new discoveries. Here are some of the edited photos from this commercial food photoshoot to give you an idea. [MUSIC] By the end of this class, you will know exactly how I was able to capture those images. We will be covering food photography lighting setup, styling, props, backdrops, composition techniques, shooting angles, photo editing, and many, many more. Now if you're ready, let's get started. 2. Class Project: Before we jump into the class, I just want to explain what the class project will be because you know that Skillshare classes are fun because of student projects This is our way of making sure you really get involved, and you really get something valuable after completing the class Don't worry, it will be very easy and simple For your class project, you just need to take a photo of your favorite food using fun backgrounds. Basically, you will just be needing your camera, may it be DSLR or your smartphone, your favorite food, and your choice of background or backdrop. You can find things at home that you can use, or if you want to go a little extra, you can shop at the nearest dollar store or a bookstore for additional supplies. You can even go all in by adding props like flowers, antiques, etc. As long as you photograph your favorite food using your very own unique background and styling, you are good to go. Upload your work using the "Create Project" button under projects and resources so we can see it and give it some love. I hope you are as excited as I am. Good luck and have lots of fun. 3. How To Get Clients: [MUSIC] Welcome to this lesson. I wanted to make sure I cover as much as possible in this class, including how I got this client and some ways you can get yours. This client found me through our Facebook page, FPS Productions PH. I post most of my work and classes here, so it helps with engagement and the algorithm detected it. This is the second time that when a client in our area searches for a food photographer, our Facebook page is being suggested to them. That is one way. If you are just starting out and can't manage a website, you can start with a Facebook page. The goal is to let everybody know, especially people in your area, that you are accepting food photography gigs. It will also help to do personal photoshoots so you can build your portfolio and add it to your page so it will look credible and drive engagement. This is how I got this client, through our FPS Productions PH Facebook page. If you will notice, we don't have a lot of likes and followers yet, but that is not a reason not to reach your target customers. Here are other ways you can get gigs and clients. Number 1, take photos for free at first. This is actually how I got my very first paying client. What I did was order their food online, then took a couple of nice photos of it. I ate it and it was really good, so I also had really good things to say about it. I posted it on Facebook and tagged them. Then a few days later, the owner of this store or this pizza shop contacted me and asked if I could do a professional photoshoot of their entire menu. This actually worked for me multiple times. You can do the same too. Just a couple of tips. Look for local businesses that do not have professional-looking photos on their website or social media pages so you'll know that there is a need. Another tip is to choose products or businesses that you personally believe in so It will manifest in your photos, plus it can help when creating genuine captions. Next is telling your friends and family, posting your photos on your socials and letting everybody know. This can be a great starting point. There are times when our friends have a friend who needs a photographer, but they just didn't know that we can be recommended. Sometimes we are so good at what we do, but we don't advertise it enough. You grow and master a skill fast when you do it a lot, so really build your skill and practice and let everybody know. Post often so the algorithm will detect it Use 8-15 hashtags, use keywords, tags, all of that. The good news is, social media is such a great way to market and most of it is free, so take advantage of it. Just a recap, ways that you can get clients and gigs are number 1, letting everybody know. Number 2, working for free and giving value first, taking photos of products and tagging businesses to introduce yourself as a skilled photographer. Finally, creating a page or a website where clients can contact you and see your work. Some additional tips are using 8-15 hashtags when posting on social media, maximizing keywords, and search engine optimization. In the next lesson, I will show you how I planned and prepared for this photoshoot plus things I talked about with the client during our meeting. See you there. [MUSIC] 4. Planning And Meeting With The Client: [MUSIC] Welcome back. In this video, I will share with you how I planned and the things that were talked about with the client during our meeting. This is one of the most important stages when doing a commercial photoshoot. This is where you set expectations with the client. This is where you gather what's in their thoughts or how they expect the photos to look like. This is where you also ask who your client's target audience is. This is where you create a theme board or a mood board and gain agreement with a client. I know we all have our unique style and creativity but at the end of the day, if we are doing a photography for a client, we need to make sure we are on the same page and that our client will be happy with our photos. So first, let me talk about the needs of this client and why they decided to hire me. They wanted a professional food photographer because their products are really good. I mean, during our photoshoot, I was able to taste most of it, and it is authentic. It is authentic Taiwanese food. But they said they could not translate that to their photos. Most of their customers or audience are online, so it is really important to have appetizing and inviting food photos. When you sell food on the Internet or on Facebook, people will not know that it's good until they taste it right? So here comes the "we eat with our eyes first" That was their first concern, make their food look inviting on camera. My game plan for this is to make sure I had the best lighting setup, use my macro lens 90% of the time to capture details, and do the rest in the editing room. Next concern is their branding. They wanted for the final photos to shout "Taiwanese" I personally don't know much about the Taiwanese food culture, so I dedicated one day researching about it. I collected photos from different blogs, I created a Taiwanese board on Pinterest, and check Instagram hashtags. So this is one of the theme boards that I sent the client, and they actually liked it. For the drinks, I sent them these photos, but they said this is not their branding or this is not who they are, so I searched further and found this on Instagram. I explained to them that instead of yellow, I will replace the other backdrop with red and they actually liked the idea, and that is the story behind these final photos. [MUSIC] Finally, their third concern is how to make one of their bestsellers, the Jumbo Chicken Steak look yummy and crunchy. My plan for this is the same as my plan with their first concern, and that is to capture the food in the best lighting possible using a macro lens and doing the rest in the editing room. So that is it for the meeting with the client. Basically, they just want the photos to show how yummy their food is, because it is. They want one of their bestsellers to look crunchy and appetizing and they want to see their branding incorporated with the photos. Their target audience will be online and of all ages, so the photos need to be eye-catching as well. Just to recap, the planning stage is where you set up at least one meeting with your client, this is where you set expectations. This is where you brainstorm and gather ideas. This is where you decide what will be the final theme and final vibe of your photos. This is where you take notes, research, and put all your ideas in one place, and now that I have an idea of the client's expectations, it's time to get to work and maybe do some shopping. [MUSIC] 5. Selecting Props: Welcome to this lesson. We are now moving on to selecting props and backdrops for our yummy Taiwanese-themed photoshoot. Here are my props. For this photo shoot, it would be inappropriate to use irrelevant props such as these wine glasses, this pink plate, but it would be appropriate to use this bamboo steamer, especially for the dumplings, these chopsticks, and these bowls for the soup. I wanted for the photos to look colorful and red so I will bring these place-mats as well. Maybe bring these wooden props too. If you will notice, I am sticking with neutral colors because they wanted red for one of their backgrounds, so I have to select colors that are complementary or look good with red. For the other backdrop, they agreed for me to use this design. Basically we will be doing two sets of each dish. One on this background and another one using this red and yellow background. But I don't have a red and yellow background yet so it's time for some magic. We are at a bookstore. It's a bit short notice for me to get a waterproof backdrop so I will be just using this poster papers, so let's see. For the bright red and yellow background, I can use this one. This will do and then I think this will do for the yellow background. Next, let's see if we can get a few more props. Alright, so we are inside Daiso Japan store. I know they have a lot of cute kitchen stuff and home decor here so let's see if we can find something that we can use. I think we have everything that we need. It's time to go back to the studio. Well, that was fun. Now that I have decided the backdrops, I have the backgrounds and the backdrops, it's time to pack my gear, pack these props, and I'll see you in the next lesson. 6. The Day Before The Photoshoot: Welcome to this lesson. We are now preparing for our photo shoot tomorrow. This is what happens the day before the photo shoot. Number 1, I create a shot list. I create check boxes of the shots that the client expects and wants, and I make sure I go through all of it and I countercheck it with my props and my backdrops. I have one written down on this index card, and I have one on my phone for backup. Creating a shot list is very important when doing photo shoots to make sure you don't forget or miss anything. Next, I prepare and pack my props. I will be using this Megabox for the props. Starting with the plates, I am wrapping each plate using this yellow paper to make sure they won't break during transit, especially the porcelain ones. We are done with the props, all packed and ready to go. Next will be the equipment or the gear. I have my to-bring list here so I will not miss anything. So yes, it is very important to write everything down, have a list, and stay organized. I will be using and bringing this box. This is actually where I store my cameras and lenses. I have a dehumidifier device inside so the camera and lenses will not develop moist and molds. I will just make sure I have everything I need inside. First will be the camera, then lenses. The macro lens is the most important. Later on, I will show you why I could not stop talking about my macro lens. Next will be extra batteries. You don't want to run out of battery when shooting. That's a no-no. Related to extra batteries are chargers. Just in case my extra batteries are not enough, I can charge the spare bear while I am shooting. Next, SD cards. I have one already installed in my camera, so that's good, but I also bring an extra just to be sure. This brush to clean the lens, lens cover to protect the lenses. That is it for this box. Next on my list is the tripod. I have monopods and this tripod. But for this shoot, I will be using this tripod only. Later in the photo shoot, you will see why I love this tripod. Making sure I pack this too. Finally, my lighting setup. I am still deciding if I will reassemble the whole thing. This lighting setup is my favorite. You can definitely stick with natural lighting, which is light from the sun when starting out, but you can consider using artificial lighting like this because it is more manageable, it is predictable, and honestly, easier to work with when doing commercial food photography. This is a Godox SL-60W with 120-centimeter octagon softbox Bowens mount ring with grid. I really saved up for this setup, but honestly, it's not that expensive and it's worth it if you are serious about food photography. It's not limited to just food. You can also use it for product photography, for a studio portraits, and I personally use it for all my video lessons here on Skillshare. My husband suggested that I just remove the light with the octagon softbox and put it in the car this way, so it will be easier to assemble once we are at the location. Making sure I get the light stand as well. Finally, my reflectors. Don't you worry, later on I will explain further why these reflectors are important. The next lesson is photo shoot day. Yay! See you there. 7. Photoshoot Day: Hi again. This is the day. You saw me back my things. They're all in the car. Now, it's time to go to the photo shoot location. It is going to be an hour and a half drive according to Google, so call time is 9:00 in the morning and being early has lots of advantages. We're leaving at exactly 7:00 in the morning, so we can arrive 30 minutes before the call time. It's going to be exciting. Let's go! We are now at the location. We arrived early, so I will use this time to scout the place and find a spot where I can set up our food studio or food photography studio. Let's go. When we arrived, the first thing I did was to introduce myself to the clients. This is actually the first time that they will meet me in person, so breaking some ice and getting to know the business a little bit are good ways to start. In case you haven't it's actually the best time to ask more about their business, their products, the brand history, or the story of their business. This way it will help you in your photo shoot and in styling your scene. In my case, it got me really inspired because these clients were really passionate about their products. After catching up with a client and finding the best spot to setup the food studio, the next step is to set up the lighting. Since I did not disassemble my Godox SL-60W, it was easier for me to just install it back. Unfortunately, we were not able to capture the part where I set up the lighting and T stand, so I will be doing it here in my studio just to show you the whole process. First is to set the light stand to the appropriate height. Then we install the Godox light with the octagon softbox, then connect it to power and turn it on. Just to make sure I share everything. I set the lights to just 30 percent and it's already giving me a good exposure. Next is to set up the T stand for the backdrop. Same thing, set it to the appropriate height, connect this rod to form a T, then lock it. I have these clamps to attach the backdrop. We now have our light and backdrop. Next is to put the table where we will be placing the food products, then our background. Now, you may ask why I positioned the light this way. For food photos or in food photography, the goal is for the food to look inviting and appetizing. One way to achieve that is through lighting. When you position your food lateral to the light source, it will create nice shadows that will add depth and texture to the overall look of the food. Photos are 2D in nature, but using the lateral light setup can help make your food look three-dimensional, which is super cool. I use lateral lighting in most of my photo shoots. Just remember that to achieve this, the light and the food should be lateral to each other. Imagine that the center of the clock is your food. Light should be at three o'clock or nine o'clock. You might say, "Well, Rose, that's nice and good, but this setup also produces dark shadows." This is why I bring my reflectors. They come in different forms, but the goal is to reflect the light back to the food or the subject. It can be a white folder or a white piece of paper. In my case, I like using this multi-purpose reflector that I got online. As you can see, the difference between the one with a reflector and the one that doesn't. I also use this 5-in-1 portable collapsible round 60cm reflector for bigger scenes. When doing commercial food photography, it is very important to consider lighting. You want your food to look clean, balanced, well exposed, and professional. This is why investing in lighting gear is worth it, and this is why I am taking my time to explain all of these things to you. Since we are already on the topic, you might be wondering what this big octagon softbox is for. This is used to diffuse the light. Food looks better and appetizing on camera if the lighting is soft or diffused. This is an example of food with harsh light or light without a diffuser. Direct lighting can result in harsh light and shadows. When using natural light from the sun, diffuse lighting is when the clouds are blocking the sunlight, creating a soft and balanced lighting effect. Finally, mixed lighting. You will notice that we close the roll-ups to block the light coming from the sun outside to avoid mixed lighting. Mixed lighting is when you have multiple sources of light. It could be light from the sun, light from the restaurant or your house, and light from your artificial lighting. When doing food photoshoots, it is best to use just one light source and to achieve this, you simply turn off all the other light sources. Use a blackout curtain to block light from the sun, from your window, and in our case, closing the doors and roll-ups as well as turning off the restaurants lights. This is how our final setup looked like. Here are some of the photos as a result. We will be taking pictures of drinks such as bubble tea, milk tea, and fraps. Then for the food, we'll be taking pictures of their jumbo chicken steak, Taiwanese sausage, dumplings, bentos, soups, and other Taiwanese food. This is actually allowed for a one-day shoot, but I'm sure it will be fun too. Just the recap, to start shooting, I set up my food studio using an artificial light source with a soft box diffuser, a T stand for my backdrop, a table with the background and reflectors to reflect the light back to the subject. Next, lateral light is the best light direction or position when doing photography because it creates depth and adds texture. To achieve this, you position your food or subject lateral to the light source. Finally, mixed lighting is when different light sources are touching your subject and being captured by your camera, creating an off white balance. We want to avoid this altogether. In the next lesson, we will set up and style the scene. See you there. 8. Setup And Styling: Hi again. In this lesson, we will style and set up the scene. Food styling is simply the process of making food look attractive on camera. You don't just photograph the food as it is. You carefully and artfully arrange the food and the props to make it appealing and inviting. Using these two burgers as an example, the one on the right is definitely a styled burger. There could be toothpicks inside it. A heat gun may be used to make the cheese look like that. The one on the left looks like a burger that we get when we order online. The bread looks uneven as well as the toppings. The thing is, if they advertised this burger this way, I don't think people would buy it. That is why food styling is very important in commercial food photography. This is our way of telling our audience and viewers that the food is yummy, even if they haven't tasted it yet. We need to translate the perception of taste, aroma, and appeal that one gets from an actual dish to a two-dimensional photograph. Going back to our photoshoot, this is how the food looked like before I styled it. Then this is how it looked like in the final photo after styling. In commercial photo shoots, most of the food may not be safe for consumption because of how it was handled during styling and photoshoot. For example, for this Taiwanese sausage, I had to use this tissue paper to elevate it, and to give it this final look. Although I am using gloves, I would not be comfortable eating this after everything I did to it. Styling can be as grand as setting up a whole buffet table or it can be as simple as wiping smudges from the drinks or glass or adding garnishes such as parsley and basil for that fabulous final look. Basically, you think of creative ways to make the products or the food look attractive and inviting. If you want a more in-depth class on food styling, you may check my other class about food styling techniques. But to quickly show you and explain the story behind these images, let me share a couple of styling techniques. For the dumpling, since it looks pale and a bit boring, I created this setup to help make the final photo look exciting and inviting. I used two techniques to style the scene. First is layering. Layering means using props to add different layers apart from the food to add interest. For this setup, my first layer is the red background, second layer is the yellow place mat. Then the third layer is the bamboo steamer. Then, of course, the food. Another styling technique is using contrast. In this case, I use contrast in texture and colors. If you will notice the background is matte. The place mat has a different texture as well as the bamboo steamer. These contrasts and colors and texture, add drama and interest to the final photo. So you can do the same thing when you are styling for your food photography shoots. Take advantage of different colors and texture when selecting props and backgrounds. Just a tip, it is recommended to style your scene first before bringing in the food. Food can change its appearance over time, so what I do is make sure everything is set up and ready before bringing out or cooking the food. Another styling tip is using the ingredients as props. If you'll notice here, I placed the two main ingredients of this drink in this neutral colored saucer, and positioned it this way so it will look balanced and won't distract from the subject or our hero Instead it will support, and help tell the story that this drink is made from these two ingredients. I also included fresh tea leaves in most of the shots because we are photographing bubble tea and milk tea. I actually brought the whole plant, so every time the leaves will look sad and wilted, I can just cut another branch and use it to style my scene. A common technique to place the props to effectively style your scene is using leading lines, meaning you use the props to form lines and draw or lead your viewers eyes to the main subject. So just a recap, food styling is the process of making the food look attractive in the finished photograph. This can include arranging the positioning of food and props, brushing oil to make food look fresh, adding garnishes for that fabulous final look, shopping for a fresh looking ingredients, using layering and contrast all to make your final image irresistible. In the next lesson, I will share with you more composition techniques to help you in styling your scene, in positioning your props, and composing your shots. See you there. 9. 9 Easy Composition Techniques: You might have heard it a couple of times that composition is one of the most important, but also the most complex tool in photography and that it can take years to master. In this lesson, I will share with you nine easy composition techniques to get you started. I was able to use most of the composition techniques in this photoshoot starting with leading lines. Leading lines is a composition technique where you use natural lines to lead your viewers' eyes. You can do this by positioning your camera or props in such a way that it creates a natural line that most of the time points to the subject or hero. Next is using shapes and patterns. Our viewers are humans, so it pays to understand how the human eyes work or how humans see things. We are drawn to shapes and patterns. Remember when you were younger, we like to look at the clouds and guess the shapes and patterns we see. We can take advantage of this human behavior in photography. We can use props, styling, and the way we position the elements in our scene to create shapes and patterns. Another composition technique is diagonals or using diagonals. Just like how we are drawn to shapes and patterns, we're also drawn to diagonal or to the diagonal flow in an image. Same thing with the other composition techniques. You use diagonals to guide you in styling and composing your shots. The next composition technique is the rule of thirds, which is very famous among photographers. By positioning your main subject as well as other important parts of your photo a third of the way into the frame, you'll often get a very pleasing result. Imagine that your image is divided into nine equal parts by two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines then you position important compositional elements along these lines or their intersections. Most cameras and smartphones have the rule of thirds grid by default so you can just turn it on whenever you are taking photos, so you can use it as a guide to compose your shot. Another famous composition technique is symmetry. This is achieved when two almost identical halves of an image seem equal in balance and importance. The next composition technique is quite contradicting but can result in powerful images. Negative space is related to minimalist composition. It emphasizes not just the subject, but the empty space around the subject. The viewer's eyes may be drawn to a central figure, but they can't help noticing the large section of emptiness that surrounds and define that figure. The space surrounding your main subject in the photo is called the negative space, whereas your main subject is the positive space. I use this composition as well to give space for text, especially for photos that will be used for posters, ads, and promotions. The next composition technique is my favorite. Human touch is what the name suggests. Using human touch to make your photo look more interesting and to help tell a story. There was a survey done that a photo of a product with a hand got more engagement than the photo with just the product. You can combine this composition with other techniques like placing the human element in the rule of thirds or use it as a leading line. The key is creating a balanced, eye catching and pleasant-looking image. The second to the last composition technique is quite tricky, but I will try my best to share what I know. The golden ratio is a ratio of approximately 1.618:1 It has been used for centuries by artists, architects, and musicians, but it can also be found everywhere in nature. To use the golden ratio in photography, you simply apply it to the placement of objects in your composition or follow the golden crop or the Phi grid. To observe this rule, you need to place your subject on the golden mean intersection. You might notice that it looks the same as the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is actually a simpler version of the Phi grid. Another way to follow the golden ratio rule is using the Fibonacci spiral as a guide in the placement of your props and subject. Honestly, it took me some time to use this in my compositions, but after a lot of practice, I am naturally using it and applying this rule unconsciously to most of my styling and my shots. Finally, the last composition technique is your very own technique, your own unique style, your very own creativity. My top tip is this, memorize the composition techniques and rules, then break it. Keep practicing! Negative space, the golden ratio, symmetry, shapes, and patterns are all around. The more photographs you compose, the better you'll get at recognizing and using it. Just to recap, The nine composition techniques that you can use as a guide in photography are leading lines, shapes and patterns, diagonals, rule of thirds, symmetry, negative space, human touch, the golden ratio, and your very own composition. In the next lesson, I will show you the four shooting angles and how it helped me in commercial food photoshoots. See you there. 10. Famous Shooting Angles: [MUSIC] One of the questions I had when I was just starting out is this, how many photos do I give the client? Or how many photos of the product is enough? With education and experience, I concluded that 3-5 strong images of a product is enough, and the tool that really helped me get these 3-5 strong images are shooting angles. If composition is the way you arrange the elements in your photo, the shooting angle is how you position yourself and the camera when taking the shot. The four famous shooting angles are top view, 45-75 degrees angle, eye level, and details. Each angle has its effect and advantages. For example, the top view angle is perfect for photographing soup, but not very flattering when photographing drinks. The top view angle is famous on Instagram and it's also known as flat lay. Just take note that with this angle, you have to carefully and creatively arrange your props to create a visually appealing photo. To get this angle, I usually use a chair or a stool to get everything in the shot. Next, the 45-75 degrees angle is achieved when you position the camera this way, creating a 45-75 degrees angle. This is appealing because this is how we normally see food on the table when we're sitting down to eat. This is great for almost all food items and gives an effect that you are peeping into the food. Next is the eye-level angle. This is the best angle when photographing drinks. Basically, you position your camera on the same level as the subject, making it look balanced and tall. This is also best for stacked food like pancakes, hamburgers, and sandwiches. The last shooting angle is my favorite when it comes to food. The close-up or details angle is a shooting angle that shows how yummy the food is. This is where you show off details like the food's texture, the ingredients, the tastes, the aroma, and the appeal. You can combine the close-up or details with the other angles. This is an example of a top view detail shot, a 45 degrees detail shot, and eye level detail shot. Now that you know the different composition techniques, different shooting angles, styling, selecting props, and setting up a food studio, I hope you are becoming more confident with your future photoshoots. Just a recap, the four famous shooting angles that you can maximize in food photography are top view, 45-75 degrees angle, eye level, and details. In the next lesson, I will quickly go over color theory or color harmony. Another important tool in food photography that can help with branding and creating powerful images. See you there. 11. Color Harmony: [MUSIC] Color is another tool that we can use in commercial food photography. Combining the correct colors in our scene can greatly help in communicating our message and telling a story. Color harmony is the display of two or more different colors in close proximity that compliment each other and look appealing to the human eye. When I was just starting out, I made a lot of mistakes when it comes to using color. I would combine incorrect colors in my photos that result in confusing messages. I have learned the hard way how to be careful with combining too many colors in my images. When selecting props and backgrounds, the first thing I consider is the color of the main subject or the food. The colors of the props and background should complement the food. My top tip is this, stay with three color combinations or follow the color schemes. The three of the most popular color schemes are complementary, analogous, and monochrome. Complementary colors are the ones which sit completely opposite one another on the color wheel and they complement one another. For example, dark blue compliments with yellow orange. That is why I selected this plate for this dish. The plate is dark blue and the dish is somehow yellow orange in color. Other complementary colors are yellow and purple. Now, colors which sit next to each other on the color wheel and share a similar colors are known as analogous colors. They will have one dominant color in common, most often a primary color, but can also be a secondary or a tertiary. I follow the analogous color scheme in creating this photo. I have shades of green, yellow, and orange, which are analogous colors. Finally, monochrome or monochromatic. You may be familiar with monochrome referring to black and white, but it actually refers to anything which uses solely one color value. For example, this macro image of the jumbo chicken steak has one overwhelming color, which is color yellow. Now you may be thinking that you need to memorize all of this just like composition. The good news is, there are a lot of mobile apps and computer software that can help with color harmony. I personally use color harmonizer for Android when planning for my photoshoots. Basically you just select the color of your main subject, and from there you can select different color schemes and combinations. This can greatly help when deciding what color of the props or the background to use. It is also worth noting that different colors have different meanings. If you will notice, I use this red and yellow background a lot in this photoshoot because the red color encourages people to eat more, whereas the yellow encourages them to move quickly. Just a recap, color harmony is another tool that we can use in commercial food photography to help communicate a message, evoke a feeling or emotion, and to help in selecting colors to style your scene. In the next lesson, we will delve into cameras and settings. See you there. 12. Gear And The Best Camera To Use : We are almost done. Now that you know a lot of commercial food photography tools, it is time to delve into cameras and settings. I have been using this two crop sensor mirrorless cameras for most of my photo shoots. But what camera is the best camera to shoot food? The annoying answer to this question is this - It depends. It depends on your needs and your budget. When starting out, it is reasonable to get a secondhand entry-level DSLR camera if you're really serious about food photography and you want to get paid for it. If you are just exploring and you want to develop food photography skills and you don't have a budget for a DSLR camera yet, then your smartphone is a great tool to get started. If you are ready or if you're already accepting clients and you feel like you need a more advanced camera, then follow your intuition and go for it. The truth is, it does not end with the camera. You also need lenses to go with it. For example, to get these shots, I used a 60 millimeter equivalent macro lens. I can't get the shot using the kit lens that came with my mirrorless camera. I had to buy lenses separately. If you will be photographing big table setups, then you may need a wide-angle prime lens. If you want a lens that you can also use for different purposes such as family photo shoots and travel then getting a 50 millimeter prime lens first will be a good choice. Bottom line is that cameras and lenses have strengths and weaknesses. You have to take note and seriously write down your purpose, budget, and priorities, and decide from there. In my case, we got these cameras because we do photos and videos. We had to choose a camera that can do both. This camera may not be the best camera out there for photos, but I'm happy with what I am getting considering that I can also use it for videos to make lessons like this, accept videography gigs, and create other video contents. I also love that these cameras fit my budget. For the lens I have three that I purchased separately. I have a 50 millimeter equivalent prime lens. I have a 60 millimeter equivalent macro lens and a zoom lens. To show the difference, I took a photo of the same subject using these three lenses. Observe the difference with depth of field, the sharpness, and the overall look. Another tool that greatly help you with my food photography is this tripod. Your tripod holds your camera while shooting so your hands are free. When shooting food, there are times when you need to move something on your scene and you want to see it's effect on your camera. Tripods are also best because they eliminate camera shakes. One of my mistakes as a beginner is shooting handheld, which can result to blurry images. When doing commercial food photography, you want to avoid this altogether. Using a tripod can be your best friend. Just a recap, the main gear I use when doing commercial food photography are camera, lenses and tripod. The best camera to develop your skill is the one that you have right now. But if you plan to buy or upgrade, make sure to consider your purpose, your budget, and your priorities. Your lens choice will also depend on the photos you plan to create the most. A macro lens is best for a close-up images and a 50 millimeter prime lens is best if you plan to take photos of different subjects and a wide angle lens is best for capturing larger scenes. In the next lesson we will quickly go over a camera settings and a file format I used for this photo shoot. See you there. 13. Camera Settings: Welcome to this exciting lesson. One of my fears when I was just starting out was operating my DSLR camera. It was intimidating and overwhelming at first, but a tool that really helped me is the exposure triangle. Exposure is the amount of light that reaches your camera sensor. It is a crucial part of how bright or dark your photos appear. By understanding how to expose an image properly, you will be able to capture photographs of the ideal brightness, including high levels of detail in both the shadows and highlight areas. The histogram is a great way to tell if your image is properly exposed. When looking at the histogram, you will see this graph. If there is more weight on the left, it means your photo has a lot of shadows. When the weight is on the right, it means that the scene is too bright and there is a lot of highlights. Exposure is to the photographer, what measuring is to a carpenter. It's a significant tool. To properly expose a photo, you need to understand about the three most important camera settings of all: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Aperture is like the pupil in your eye. It can open or shrink to change the amount of light that passes through. At night, your pupils dilate so you can see things more easily. The same is true for aperture. When it is dark, you can open the aperture blades in your lens and let in more light. Aperture values are given in terms of the ratio of the focal length of the lens to effective diameter of the aperture. For example, F1.4, F2.0, F2.8, F2.4, F8.0, F11, and so on. F simply means fraction. Just like in mathematics, 1/4 is larger than 1/32. That is why a higher aperture, for example, F22 means less light is entering the camera. On the other hand, a lower aperture, for example, F1.4 means more light is entering the camera, which creates a nice depth of field making the background blurry. Just remember that a lower number means more light and a higher number means less light entering your camera. The aperture you use is a crucial factor in the design of your photos. The use of blur enables you to direct your viewer's eye toward the most important part of the subject and give emphasis to certain details. Again, aperture affects your overall exposure and the blurriness of your background. Next is shutter speed. If the aperture is like your eyes pupils, then the shutter speed is like your eyelid. They act as a pair of blinds that open and close extremely quickly. A low number of shutter speed allows more light into the camera sensor and are used for low-light conditions, particularly night photography. It may not be that useful for a commercial food photography. Fast shutter speeds help to freeze motion. This is where I find shutter speed useful. I like incorporating human elements and imply movements to my food photos and shutter speed help me to achieve a sharp image of moving subjects like pouring and splash. Finally, the ISO. ISO is a setting that will brighten or darken a photo and it is pretty straightforward. Low ISO number equals darker photo, high ISO number equals brighter photo. This is handy when your priority is the darkness or brightness of the image in a photo shoot. Just bear in mind that the higher you set the ISO value, the more noise or grain will appear in your photos. So to be safe, make sure to keep your ISO as low as possible. Ideal ISO when doing indoor shoots with decent lighting is 400-800, 200 when shooting outside and 100 when the sun is up and bright in the sky. If it's your first time holding a DSLR camera, I recommend taking photos using the auto mode at first, just to get the hang of it. The auto mode is letting your camera balance the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. I used auto mode for a few months when I was just starting out. After I got comfortable with composition, shooting angles and styling, I took time to practice and slowly transition to shooting in manual mode. Meaning I set the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO myself. The auto mode is really helpful. But at the end of the day, our eyes and brain are still superior. So if you want more control and be able to expand your creativity, I encourage you to really practice and shoot using manual mode. If you want to dig deep into the technicalities of DSLR cameras settings, and transition to shooting in manual mode fast, I also have a class dedicated to it. For this photo shoot, I shot all of the photos in manual mode and in a raw format. In the next lesson, I will share the reason why. See you there. 14. File Formats: You have reached the final technical lesson. I actually thought twice, if I will include this lesson in this class, but I honestly think that choosing the best file format can help in your commercial food photography journey. Here we are. Just like my other mistake in food photography, it took me a while to transition from shooting in JPEG format to shooting in RAW. You might have heard other photographers recommended it all the time, but what is RAW and JPEG anyway? A RAW image file contains minimally processed data from the image sensor of a digital camera. RAW files are named so because they are not yet processed and therefore are not ready to be uploaded or printed. Similar to raw food ingredients that need to be prepared and cooked before consumption, a RAW image needs to be post-processed using a software before it is ready to be printed, shared, or shown on a display device. Imagine this, let's say you want to eat cake, you can either buy a baked one or buy ingredients such as flour, sugar, vanilla extract, salt, etc. You bake it yourself. Let's say you bought one that is already baked and realize that you want it to be sweeter, you cannot just add sugar and mix it to the cake, it will taste funny, and that baked cake is like a JPEG file. Your camera made all the adjustments for you, processed it, and compress it to a smaller file size ready to be uploaded. On the contrary, when you buy your cake ingredients and bake it yourself, you can adjust the amount of sweetness and other ingredients to your liking. That is what a RAW format does for you, your camera preserves all of the data in the way of color, highlight, and shadow detail. Now going back to the baked cake ready for consumption, JPEG images are fully processed in camera, and all settings such as white balance, color saturation, tone curve, sharpening, and color space are all already baked in or applied to the image. You do not need to spend any time on post-processing the image. It is basically ready to use. Just like the cake, ready for consumption. JPEG is not well-suited to files that will undergo multiple edits, as some image quality is lost each time the image is recompressed, particularly if the image is cropped or shifted. This is why I transition to shooting in RAW. I edit and post-process all the images I take from photoshoots. I make sure that I edit and enhance the photos before I deliver it to clients. Most of the time, images will require cropping and a couple of exposure and color correction. If I shoot in JPEG, even basic adjustments can affect the quality of the image. I want to give my 200 percent to each and every client. I take the time to edit and enhance all the photos and I export for different purposes to match the client's needs. Just a recap. The RAW format is used if your photos will undergo editing and post-processing, JPEG is designed to produce a good-looking image right out of the camera, and this processing cannot be undone. In the next lesson, I will share some tips about communicating with the client. See you there. 15. Communicating With The Client: [MUSIC] We are done with the photo shoot. We are able to take these images using the lateral light setup, our DIY backdrops, styling, composition techniques, shooting angles, color harmony, and the exposure triangle. This can differ with every photographer, but in my case, I show my first couple of shots to the clients to see if they are happy with my setup. I inform them that I will still be editing the photos for best results. When they approve, I just go on and finish my shot list. When I am done, I just inform the client and if they don't have any other requests, I pack up and finalize a couple of things with them. First, is the delivery date of the photos. It will depend on your availability and schedule But in my case, I told the client that I can deliver all the edited photos in one week. I also informed the client that I will be sending the photos via Google Drive. You can use other file sharing tools for delivering photos to your clients. I am just sharing what worked for me. Next is the payment. Again, it can be different for all of us, but in my case, I get the payment right after I finish taking the photos. You can do the same or have them send you a reservation fee, then another percentage on the photo shoot day and the remaining balance after you have delivered all of the photos. I also included a copy of our contract in resources in case you want to use it as a guide. The contract is where I get the client's information and their signature agreeing to the service terms and conditions. Finally, addressing concerns with copyright and usage. It is best that you inform the client of their rights to the photos. By law, we, the photographers have the full copyright to the photos, but we can give the same copyright to our clients. You can also apply additional charges to the usage of the photo if they will print it in billboards, posters, etc. The key is to let the client know and make sure it is also stated in the contract and that is it. After I am done packing up, it's time to go home. The last step before I sleep is to import the files to my computer, so I would have two copies. One on my SD card and one on my computer. Just to be sure, I recommend that you follow the same practice. You don't want a whole day of hard work and cooked food to go to waste, just because your one and only storage of photos got compromised. In the next lesson, you will see me manage and edit some of the photos from this photo shoot. See you there. 16. Photo Management: [MUSIC] Welcome back. Today is another day for me. After the photoshoot, I rest one day and proceed with managing and editing the photos from the photoshoot. I do quite a lot of food photoshoots, so it helps if I stay organized with my files. After I imported the photos to my computer, I also copied them to my hard drives. Another tip when managing files is proper naming. This can help when you need to find a particular photo and in staying organized. This is my hard drive, 2022 photo and video. When I click on this, this is what I will be getting. Since we're still starting 2022, I have just a couple of folders here. As you can see, this is the Taiwanese photoshoot or the Taiwanese Cafe photoshoot. I have the date. I have these numbers here, 01 because I want the dates to be organized. I want to easily sort it. That is why I have the complete date. It will be easier for me to find and remember what happened on that date and It's also helpful If I can't remember the date and I just remember what the project is all about. That's how I name my files and my folder. When I click on this, I have photos and videos, yes, because I also took videos of the Taiwanese photoshoot. I can use it here in my video lessons. For the photos, I created another two folders. One is to edit photos and one is the Lightroom edited photos. Now for "to edit" photos, what I did is grouped it into kind. We shot a lot of food that day. It will be overwhelming to just put everything in one folder. With this, I was able to group each food into its kind. I have all the Bento meals. Bento, it's in this nice plate, and then all the food is there. I have the drinks. They're all here together. That is it. What I do is, I will import these folders to Lightroom and start editing. I know it looks obsessive compulsive, but I have a confession, I did not start this way. It took me years before I got fed up with lost files and wasting an hour just searching for one photo before I decided to be really organized. I took a little time sharing this to you because it is really beneficial for me and I know it can be for you too. Lastly, photo management helps me to reduce this huge task of editing thousands of photos to manageable chunks. It will be easier for me to edit these photos per folder rather than importing all of them at once. Our brain is lazy. If I see that I need to edit 1000 photos, I am sure I will procrastinate. But if I give myself a smaller task of editing just one folder at a time, it will be doable. Plus I can have a hit of dopamine or happy hormones every time I finish each small task [MUSIC]. 17. Photo Editing: After I managed my photos, I import them to Adobe Lightroom Classic. Yes. This is my go-to editing software for most of my food photos. You can also use the mobile version for free on your smartphone if you don't have the desktop version or you can use any other editing software that you are most comfortable with. You can apply most of the principles I will be sharing in this lesson even if you will be using a different photo editing software. I chose Lightroom because for me it is user-friendly and it provides me with all the functions and features I need to enhance and properly export my food photos. To import your photos on Lightroom. So first is dragging and dropping. You saw the folders earlier. I grouped the photos into clients. Let's say I want to import the snap. Just the snacks folder. You'll see all the photos inside that folder here. I can just choose which one I want to edit. I'll just cancel this to show you another way to import. You can just click on "Import", the import button here on the left side. Then on the left side, you'll see my folders here. I have the additional food, the bento, drinks, the group food photos, the platters, and then I can just choose which one I want to edit first. Again, it really helps with my workflow that way I don't get overwhelmed, like editing all of these photos at once. I can just select maybe just the bentos for today. Basically, that's it. I just check the ones I want to edit so I can just uncheck. Then from here, I can just check the ones I want to edit. This is also a good place. Let's say you have this photo, we import it. The library tab is where I do rotation. If let's say you shoot products in portrait and they're not appearing in the proper position, you can do that here, and you will also see here on the right, you can do a quick develop. Meaning you can do basic edits. You can change the white balance and apply presets. But I will be doing most of the editing using the develop tab. I want all of the options here to be available for me. I will show you one by one, what are the features that I'll be using from here. First, let me just select the photos that I want to edit. The snacks are my favorite, so sorry, not that one. This one. Sorry. Import and then I want the snacks. I want to edit the snacks. I've been showing you the photo of the dumplings, so let me just uncheck and select the dumplings. Maybe this one is good for stories. Let's see. Maybe just choose one here. You can also do the loop view here. You'll see it at the bottom. You can see the whole picture. Her hands is quite blurry, but the food is in focus. I like this one. I don't like to edit the fish fillet. Yes, for the jumbo chicken. This one I wanted to edit. Yes. This one too, and this one, and this one, this one, and this one, this one. Just to show you the different backgrounds because we have the yellow background of the jumbo chicken and the wood background or the neutral background. Just making sure we have enough photos to edit so I can show you. I think that's it done, and then I just click on "Import". Now, I have this photos. You can even do rankings here, you can rank it to your most favorite photo, the least favorite. Let's say I wanted to edit this photo first, I can just click on five on my keyboard and set the reading to five. Later on when I do the filters and I just click on the rated, then this photo will appear. When I click on "Develop", this is the only photo that I have. But then if I turn off the rating or if I turn off the filter, then I will see all of the photos here. You can do that if you just want to edit a couple of photos and you want to edit your favorite photos first. You can do ratings, you can even do color label, setting flag, all of that. We now have this photo. The first thing that I do when editing food photos is to correct the crop. It depends where you will be using the photos. What is your purpose? For Facebook and Instagram, the most popular crop is the four by five, and you have that option here on Lightroom as well. When you click on crop, on the crop icon, and then you have all the brain stored crop here. When you select four by five, it will give you the square crop. But for this photo, it does look very appealing. I'll just stay with the original crop. But just showing you that you can do that here, and that's the first thing I do. I'm happy with how this photo is cropped, so maybe I'll just straighten it out, just a little bit. Then the next thing is to correct the exposure. For me, this photo is well exposed, but you can add just a little bit here. Don't go crazy with the sliders because when you do that, it will look funny and all of that. I just do very basic and subtle edits, just to make it pop and make it look 3D and make it more inviting and appealing. Just add a little bit of contrast. Another thing is the white balance. I did not dig deep on white balance during the camera settings because you can actually edit that here on Lightroom or you can do that in post-processing. But of course, you want to take great photos straight out of camera. But just sharing with you that in my case, especially, this is a fast-paced photoshoot, so it wasn't able to set my auto-balance or white balance manually, so it's just in auto, and if I need to correct it, I can do that here in the editing room, so you can see the before and after just changing the white balance. The colors here looks correct. Moving on, so I have added exposure, I adjusted the white balance. Next thing I do is decrease the highlights. You'll see here on the right. I do that to give me back those details, as you can see. When you adjust the highlights, it gives you more details of the food. I do that a lot. It also do that with the shadows, but instead, I bump it up a little bit, just a little bit, just 30 maybe. Of course, I will lose some of the contrasts. I'll just compensate that here using the contrast slider. It depends on how well expose the photo is. Sometimes I don't touch the whites and the blacks. But then one of my favorite slider here in Lightroom is the texture because we like food with all the textures. You can do that here too. But don't go crazy with this slider because it will look real and it will look funny. Just a bit. Just to show us those details. Yes, I add clarity because we want our photos clear and sharp. Let's see the before and after. You're already seeing a lot of details. You're seeing a lot of texture, well exposed. The colors are correct. As you can see, just a couple of adjustment can really transform your photos. Yes, I can add a bit of vibrance to add more color, but I don't really use saturation because it saturates like all the colors in your photo. Sometimes it looks too much for me, so I avoid saturation altogether, especially with food. I use vibrance or I use the HSL or color. You can adjust the colors here separately. Let's say I want to desaturate the red as you can see. You can just adjust it here. Let's say I want to torn it down, just a little bit, maybe 10. Then the yellow as well, just a little bit. Then if you want to adjust the browns in your photo, you can do that using the orange slider, so maybe choose. Actually I'll leave the orange as it is. Then you can also use the tone curve to adjust your highlights, your shadows. You can do that here. Then if you want to add more shadows just to make it look dramatic and to add more texture and depth to it. Now for the sharpening, like I mentioned earlier, you want your photos to be sharp and clear so you can add sharpening here. by default, it's already setting it to 30 something, so you can actually bump it up. Then you don't want to sharpen the part of the photo that has noise. As you can see, there are some noise in this photo. So as you can see, there's noise there. What you want to do is to just sharpen the details with the lines. When you click on "Masking" and press the "Option Key", and then it will just sharpen the ones in white. Basically just the lines but not the noise, and you can do noise reduction here. Observe what happens to this noisy part here. Now it looks smoother. I'm actually quite happy with the result here. Basically that is it, and this is the before and after. As you can see, the final photo looks more vibrant, balanced, and appealing. This is why I edit all of my photos to make sure I give the best output to my clients. Even just a couple of adjustments can transform your raw photos into eye-catching and professional-looking images. The best part here in Lightroom is that whatever settings and edits I apply to this image, I can simply copy and paste to other images. I can just right-click, then go to "Develop Settings", "Copy Settings", then select the settings I want to be copied, then go to the image I want to paste the settings to, then paste it. I simply click "Command V" for Mac. But if you are using Windows, it will be "Control V" and voila, all the settings are now applied on this image. I don't have to do the whole thing all over again. But it does not end there. I can also do it to multiple images. So basically same thing. I just select all the images that I want to apply the same settings, and click on "Command V" again for paste, and there you have it. This feature speeds up my workflow. This feature helped me to finish editing 1,182 images in just two days. Let's go back to Lightroom and this time edit the jumbo chicken steak. If you will remember, one of the client's request is for their bestseller, this jumbo chicken steak to look yummy and crunchy. We will try and achieve that here in the editing room. Again, first in my workflow is to correct the crop. Let's see if we can get a good four by five crop for this image, just making sure that chopstick is not awkwardly chopped or cropped. This is good for me, and then for the chicken, again, we want to adjust the exposure. For me it's well exposed, but I just wanted to add a bit of exposure so it will look bright. Then for the white balance, just point to something white. The white balance will be correct as you can see the difference. Now it looks correct. Earlier it looks yellow and warm. Let's continue editing. After we've corrected the white balance, let's decrease the highlights so that we can retrieve those details of the chicken steak, and then again add or remove the shadows. I'm bumping it up really high because for me it looks more flattering. You can do the same, you can experiment with your highlights and shadows. Basically, those are one of the best settings to play around with when editing food photos. For me, it looks more yummy, it looks more pleasant. Going back to our editing sliders here, we want to add more texture to this. I'm going to bump it up to around 44 to 40 and we want to add more clarity. Again, I'm not messing up with my saturation because it will look too much. We're just adding a bit of vibrance for that pop-up color. I'm actually happy with my highlights and shadows, but let's see if we can add just a bit of shadows here, and just a bit of highlights. As you can see, we are now getting more texture, more details of the chicken steak compared to its originals earlier. It doesn't look that yummy, but now you can really see those cramps. It's now well exposed. I'm actually liking where this is going. I'm happy with that. Do I want to adjust the orange or the chicken steak? Let's see. Again, brown is equivalent orange in your sliders. You can do that here if you want to make it look a little orange or a little darker. You can do that here to add more color to our chicken steak, maybe just five. I'd go crazy with that and just desaturate the yellow just a little bit, maybe 10 or negative 10. I won't be doing the split toning and for the sharpening, yes, let's do that. Bumping it up to 60 and making sure it doesn't sharpen the noise, as you can see here. It actually sharpen the noise. So let's do the masking. Again, option and then make sure to sharpen just the ones in white. Note the noise there. Again, for the noise, let's try to do some noise reduction. There you go. But that is too much. It actually affected our chicken steak, so we don't want that. Maybe just 25. Let's see. Okay, it's looking better. I don't mess up with this settings right here because my lens is not being detected. That's good. I'm happy except I'm seeing smudges here on the left side. There's a full feature here in Lightroom wherein you can actually remove smudges like this using this here or a clone brush. You just click this brush and then you just select the one that you want to remove or fix, and then you point to something that you want to imitate or clone, and that's good. I like that. See, that's gone, and I have some here. That's it. We have some here. Here's the before and after. Let's see if there are other smudges that we can remove. Let's remove, I can see just a little bit of wrinkle here , and some here. You can actually do this when you're editing portraits. If your clients want to remove blemishes, if you're doing portrait photography, you can definitely apply this to different types of photos. If you want to remove imperfections and things that you don't want in a photo, this is a really cool tool to do that. Here is our before and after. I think we were able to achieve that crunchy and yummy look for our jumbo chicken steak. Again, whatever changes I made here, as long as I apply to the same setup or the same photo with the same lighting conditions, same lighting setup, I can get the same results. I just copy all the white balance, all of that. Then I just select all of this ones, the one in yellow background. Then paste it, and as you can see it, these are the settings for those six images. Let's see the before and after. Perfect. In here it looks overexposed so we can definitely adjust that. We can adjust it manually for each photo. Then that's it. Now, if you will notice, I did not apply the settings here because this is a totally different background, so it may not be as effective. As you can see, it's a bit blue, but then maybe we can just adjust the white balance. Let's see. That looks good. You can do that here too, and then just adjust the white balance to match this scene. That is it. In the next lesson, I will share with you exporting tips in case your client will use the photo for different purposes. See you. 18. Exporting For Different Purposes: [MUSIC] Have you ever taken a really nice and sharp photo and then uploaded it on your social media and noticed that the image quality got degraded? I experience it a lot and I found out a way to avoid this. Exporting your images to match the platform you are uploading it to, can really help in preserving the quality and resolution of your images. Let's go back to Adobe Lightroom. To export, you just click on the image that you want to export, so let's say we want this image of the dumpling, this chicken steak, and this close-up photo of the chicken steak and this one. You just click on File and then click on Export. You know me, I want to keep my files organized so I choose the folder where I want for these photos to go. I want it to go to my hard drive and then Photos and Videos and the Client Shoot, then the Photos, and then Lightroom Edited Photos, so I'll just choose it here, and I'll put it in a subfolder, let's say for Instagram. All of these photos will follow my export specifically for Instagram and these photos will, obviously go to Instagram. I can rename it to just custom naming sequence, so I'll just put here Taiwanese Food. Then I'll leave the quality to 100, so I want to make sure I preserve the resolution and quality of this image. I won't be limiting the file size, but I will be resizing to fit. For Instagram, standard is 1080 or 1,080. Then for the resolution, if you go above 72, it's not very noticeable when you're viewing it on a digital product or on your screen. Bumping it up to, let's say, 300 won't make much of a difference, but then it will just enlarge the file size. Let's keep it on standard, which is 72, standard for digital devices. Then sharpen for screen and just personal preference, you can do low, standard or high. You can even check your images, try to export it in different ways, but then this is just how I do it for most of my photo shoots. Then yes, I include all the metadata and I don't do watermarking. I don't do anything after exporting or post-processing, so basically that is it. Then I just keep hit on Export. It will export these files, so it will go to this folder, so my hard drive, and Photo and Video, Photos, and Lightroom Edited, For Instagram, and here are my photos for Instagram ready to be uploaded. Now, what if I want to upload it to Facebook? Same thing, same selection, and I just go back to Lightroom and then go to File, Export, and then this time for Facebook, so we are organized and they don't mix, of course. For Facebook, same custom name. Then the quality, still 100. Now for the image sizing for Facebook standard is 2048 or 2,048 pixels. Again, resolution, same thing, 72 pixels per inch, that's the standard for digital products, same thing, sharpen for screen, and just standard for me in keeping the rest of the settings the same. So basically I just changed the image sizing and that's it. Same thing, Export it. Now, what if you want to export it for best and high-quality because the client wants to print it, let's say for a poster or any type of printing? What you can do is export it in high resolution. Same thing, Export, and then this time let's rename it to For Printing or For Print. Same name. Again, quality, make sure it's always in 100 to preserve all the resolution and the best quality. Don't resize to fit, and then what I do is change the resolution to 300 or to the maximum, or depending on the requirement for the print. Let's say if it's a really big print then maybe you can bump it up to 600, I don't know, but for me for client requests or for prints, I just bump it up to 300 and then I change the sharpen for matte paper or glossy paper, it depends. Lets say matte, and then you can go high here as you want it to appear high-resolution when printed, so you can go with that and just click on Export. Just note that it will just take a little longer to export because the image file is bigger, but then that's it. You were able to export or we were able to export our images for different purposes. For Facebook, for Instagram, and for print. Here are our images. Don't worry, I have included a PDF file with the exporting settings that you can use in your future food photography photo shoots. Next is sharing your work. Sharing it with your client and with the world. Remember the tips from the earlier lesson, one way to get clients is by constantly sharing your work, especially online. Make sure you don't skip this part. I also give my 200 percent for every photo shoot so I can get repeat clients or I will be recommended. My favorite way of getting clients is through recommendations and referrals. You know how the old saying goes, there is no traffic after the extra mile, so don't hesitate in going the extra mile for your clients. It is really worth it. Well done, this is the final step in my workflow. The next video is just a little recap of all the things I shared in this class and a cheesy goodbye message. I hope to still see you there. 19. Final Thoughts: I know that was a lot, but I hope you learned something new. To recap everything that we covered in this class, here are my favorite shots. I achieved the shot using a Godox SL60W artificial light at 30 percent with softbox and a multipurpose reflector to bounce light back to the subject resulting in a well exposed photo. Here are the camera settings. For this shot, I used layering to style the scene, the rule of thirds for my composition, and 45 degrees shooting angle. Here are the camera settings. For this next photo, I used the analogous color scheme from the color harmony lesson. Basically, I used only three color combinations, yellow, orange, and green. Here are the camera settings. That is it for this class. You have seen my entire commercial food photography workflow. You have seen me plan, prepare, and actually do all of the basic things in a food photography shoot. Hopefully, you were able to gain new ideas and confidence for your very own food photo shoot. If you have questions or if you want me to create a class about a certain topic that I forgot to include here, please let me know by starting a discussion. You can also follow me here on Skillshare so you will be notified once I publish new photography classes like this. If you want to go a little extra, you can also follow me on Instagram. My handle is @rosellenene. I share updates there, my recent works, photo shoots, behind the scenes, food that ruins my diet, and random home life and vacation photos. If you haven't already, please don't skip the class project because that's where the real magic can happen. You can watch all of my video lessons, but nothing will change until you get that camera and take that delicious photo. If you've never done food photography before, the class project is a great way to jump start your new creative journey. If you are a food photographer, I'd love to see where you're at and learn from your work. Plus your fellow students can learn from you too. I am super excited to see your work and give it some love. I hope you had so much fun and find this class valuable. But either way, please leave a review because I'd love to hear from you. Thank you and congratulations on finishing this class. I am excited and I am rooting for you. All the best and see you soon. Bye.