40 What Sells and What Does Not
So think of a season you like or a festival that is important to you,
and consider subjects you would fi nd interesting and representative of
that season or festival. Whatever your religion or interests, I am sure
you will come up with something to take pictures of that buyers will
fi nd interesting.Food
Food images dovetail nicely to lifestyle and to still-life photography
generally. After all, food is an important part of our lives, and good
food images are regular sellers on the microstock sites. Also, you don’t
need model releases for food, and food and ingredients are usually
easy to obtain.
While the best food photographers use studios to control setup and
lighting, and have food stylists to prepare the food for the photogra-
pher, it is surprising how easy it can be to make use of much more
modest equipment and facilities and still obtain great shots that sell
well. All you need is a bit of patience and imagination—and quick
thinking!
Witness Figure 3.9, “Healthy Eating.” My wife likes a healthy break-
fast. (I’m a fry-up man myself.) When she sat down to a breakfast of
muesli, raspberries, yogurt, and blueberries, I thought, “That would
make a nice shot.” So, to her dismay, I whipped the food away, took
a shot using the simple lighting setup I’ll describe in Chapter 7, and
then returned it. The resulting image has been a good seller. So much
for fancy props. And, yes, my wife ate her breakfast a few moments
later!
There is plenty of scope with food images to combine textures,
color, and some action. There’s not much action in the “Healthy
Eating” shot? Well, I think the spoon gives a sense of dynamism,
as does shooting the image at an angle. So there is some “tension”
in the image to give it a lift; the rest is done by the combination
of attractive, vibrant colors and healthy ingredients. Heck, I’d
almost give up my fry-ups for this, and it only took a few minutes’
work.
The rule simple sells also applies to food. Simple arrangements often
work best. There are a number of current tricks for good food
photography:- Freshly prepared food. Fresh food allows you to use less sheen-adding glycerin, for
example. - Shallow depth of fi eld. Set your lens at a wider aperture and focus (carefully) on the
most important part of your subject. - Action. This can be through the use of a prop, such as a spoon or knife that looks
like it has just been or is about to be used.