Food Advatorial
Many photographers claim that food photography is one of the
hardest types of photography to master, or to engage in with some modicum of
success. The problems typically arise from the food cooling, aging and/or
wilting before you've set up a perfectly contrasting composition.
Terminology
Two terms are often used in commercial photography (which
food photography typically falls into): ethics and legality. The ethics of food
photography can involve how "honest" the portrayal of food is, while
the legal angle involves government regulations in advertising.
Considerations
In deciding whether or not to substitute, say, mashed
potatoes for ice cream, you have to think about the purpose of the photo. Is it
for an advertisement or personal use? The U.S. government has regulations about
"truth in advertising," which means that you need to show the real
product. The surrounding food can be fake or modified, but not the product
you're selling (see Resources).
Warning
Agree and sign a contract for any advertising work, whether
it's for a general food corporation or through an independent client (see
Resources). Hire an independent consultant if you have any questions about how
legal your photos are before submitting them.
Cookbooks
Cookbooks are one avenue of food photography that can be
"falsified" without any legal problems. There are many tricks
involved to make the food appear more appetizing, such as using hairspray or
oils, spraying on food coloring or even gluing garnishes in place
The official term for someone who professionally organizes
food for photo shoots, and knows the professional legal boundaries for ads, is
a "food stylist."
Ethical
dilemmas
In some
photographic genres, such as fashion and product photography (including photos
of food), a high level of manipulation aimed at producing perfection has long
been general practice. People accept these images because that’s what they’re
accustomed to, and only the most naive believe them to be real.
Where it’s
plain that images have been captured and altered with an obvious creative aim,
the photographer’s intention is usually quite clear and viewers should not be
deceived. It’s different when photographs create an impression of replicating
reality but have, in fact, been quite heavily edited.
Most
photographers acknowledge some degree of editing is universally accepted. For
example, all digitally captured images require a certain amount of unsharp
masking to overcome the softening caused by colour interpolation. Colour and
brightness corrections are also considered acceptable – provided their aim is
to produce an image that replicates the subject in as lifelike way as possible.
But what
about removing elements that ‘spoil’ an otherwise marketable image? Where do
you draw the line? Is it acceptable to remove power lines, contrails, stray
branches and other items that interfere with the composition or integrity of a
shot? Or move an element to make a more pleasing composition?
Should you
declare what you’ve done when you combine two or more images, either to produce
a panorama, create a high-dynamic range picture or produce a more interesting
shot by combining actions that happened within a tight time frame but not at
precisely the same time?
The
well-known American landscape photographer, Galen Rowell, applied the following
ethical litmus test when faced with such dilemmas: never do something to a
photograph that you wouldn’t want revealed. This begs the question: In what
situations should you reveal the adjustments you’ve made?
Standards
are particularly strict for scientific photography, where no manipulation that
affects the lifelike replication of the subject is permitted. In this case,
even unsharp masking should be declared – and how much sharpening has been
applied. Any other adjustments (such as colour and contrast corrections) should
also be declared.
Landscape
and wildlife photography are marginally less constrained, although there’s more
cachet in shots with minimal editing. Some competitions require all editing
adjustments to be listed, and most publishers will request details of the
changes that have been made to images when they are being presented as lifelike
representations.
Unfortunately,
because they are so accustomed to seeing altered images, many buyers of
photography are unable to detect whether shots are altered. And they usually
don’t care. Provided the image meets their needs, they’re prepared to pay the
photographer.
Highly
manipulated landscapes often earn fortunes for their producers because the
buying public has a taste for colourful, digitally-enhanced shots. Judging
between ‘acceptable’ and ‘unacceptable’ manipulation in this case remains the
prerogative of the purchaser.
Private or
commercial?
On the
whole, whether you declare the extent to which an image has been edited will
depend largely on how the edited image will be used. And it all comes down to
who benefits and whether the producer of the image has set out to mislead
viewer(s). Have the adjustments been made to communicate more effectively with
the viewer – or were they done to enhance the prestige (or bank balance) of the
photographer or the organisation commissioning the work?
Where a
manipulated image is for your own use and you’re happy to reveal how you
created it to the people you show it to, no deceit is involved. Consequently,
you’re free to edit as much or as little as you like. Images manipulated for
artistic reasons and displayed as such can also be edited freely.
However, if you
plan to enter the shot in a competition or sell it in the open market, you will
be constrained by the laws associated with these arenas. If you submit the shot
as a true representation of reality when it has been manipulated you will be
guilty of fraud. Claiming otherwise is plainly dishonest.
You can
possibly trick some people into believing your edited shots are a true
representation of the subject, but you certainly won’t be able to fool all
viewers all of the time. When images are published they may come under the
scrutiny of hundreds of thousands of eyes, many of which know what to look for
to uncover any deceit. Clues that can reveal falsified images include:
1. When
everything in a natural scene appears equally sharp it’s likely the image has
been composed from several shots. Each image should have a discernible zone of
sharp focus, outside of which focus should fall off towards the camera and
behind the main subject.
2. When an
object is added to or deleted from an image, an edge is created that is usually
inconsistent with the sharpness of the rest of the image. Even an in-focus
image will show some blurring due to the diffraction of light from the camera
aperture.
3. Cutting
an object from one image and inserting it into another image leaves a sharp
boundary that is easily seen and creates an obvious sign that the image has
been altered. Using smudging tools to blur these edges will usually produce
blurring that is inconsistent with the rest of the image.
4. Shadows
pointing in different directions indicate an image was composed from several
segments that were probably photographed at different times of the day.
5. All
elements in an image should have a consistent perspective and geometry. When
parallel lines in a shot fail to converge to the same vanishing point as the
rest of the image, then this object could not have been photographed with the
same camera or perspective as the rest of the image.
6. Extra
replicas of elements created by cloning and ‘stamped’ into the picture to
create an illusion that there are more of them are quite easy to detect.
Repetition is the key to identifying shots in which this has occurred.
7. Some
things are obviously impossible – or extremely unlikely. Examples include
penguins and polar bears in the same shot; animals looking and behaving like
people and compositional elements that are out of proportion with the rest of
the picture. In fact, anything that looks impossible probably is.
8. Finally,
image processing alters the image characteristics in ways that can be revealed
in histograms. Boosting contrast can create gaps in the graph showing where
tones have ‘dropped out’. Objects inserted into an image can also alter the
shape of the histogram.
England's Indian Takeaway
Curry is
Britain's favourite food. And it's big business.
Curry
houses, takeaways and ready meals make up an industry worth more than £3bn.
At least 18
tonnes of chicken tikka masala is eaten across the country each week, served up
by Britain's 15,000 Indian restaurants.
But curry is
not just big business in the eating out sector.
The British
ready meal market is worth some £2bn.
Rival to
restaurants
The
undisputed Indian ready-meal king is Sir Gulam Noon, whose business sells more
than a million curries a week through all major supermarket retailers.
Whilst
profit margins have been cut, the recession has been good news for the company
and sales are growing by about 5% a year.
One
contributing factor seems to be that the company is taking business away from
restaurants as people increasingly choose to stay at home as they tighten their
belts.
"The
economic climate is very bad," Sir Gulam says. "Let's not kid
ourselves.
"But
the grocery bill has gone up for the housewife. Our volume has gone up. Our
factories are full."
Sir Gulam's
packaged meals retail for as little as £2 and the company is even bringing out
a ready meal packed up to look like a restaurant takeaway.
History
The
love of all things spicy was introduced to Britain as long ago as the
Crusades, long before Europeans even realised that India existed. Indeed,
Britain had three made-up spice mixes that were the equivalent to modern
curry powder as long ago as 1310 so that master cooks could choose between
'powder douce', 'powder fort', and 'blanch powder' to liven up their
creations.
By 1612 when the English merchants were enjoying their first meal in Surat, English cuisine was already redolent with cumin, caraway, ginger, pepper, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg with spices available to all bu the poor, since breaking the Arab monopoly. The 'heat' of ancient Indian cuisine came from black pepper, cardamom and cumin and it was the Portuguese in 1501 who first introduced chilli which is the hallmark of ethnic cuisine today.
From
16th century onwards, travellers to India often returned to Britain
accompanied by their Indian servants and thus started the first trickle of
immigration. Such was the importance of India to Britain throughout 17th and
18th centuries that it was inevitable that returning merchants and soldiers
would wish to recreate the spicy foods they enjoyed on their travels and
commercial curry powder was featured in many cookery books from the 1780's
onwards.
Immigration
People
from the Indian sub-continent have been present in Britain on a regular basis
since 18th century as servents and as travelling wealthy princes but were
recorded in Scotland in 'considerable numbers' as long before as 1540. The
main boom came in the 1950s with higher wages in British industry and cheaper
travel from India. The main surge of Pakistani immigration was destined for
the textile mills of West Yorkshire and Lancashire and engineering in the
Midlands, boosted by the Voucher Scheme of 1962. Bangladeshis originally came
to Britain as Bengalis - lascars for the East Indian Company - and the
startling fact is that the large majority come from the same region - Sylhet
- with 80% being Muslim. By 2001 there were 1,053,411 Indians ; 747,285
Pakistanis ; and 283,063 Bangladeshis in Britain with an estimated growth by
2050 of 41% for Indians, 89% Pakistanis and 125% Bangladeshis. The result of
this for Britain is not only a very rich multi-cultural society occupying
many professions but also the growth of an unrivalled catering and restaurant
industry.
Seventy
eight per cent of Black Africans and 61 per cent of Black Caribbeans live in
London. More than half of the Bangladeshi group (54 per cent) also live in
London. Other ethnic minority groups are more dispersed. Only 19 per cent of
Pakistanis reside in London, while 21 per cent live in the West Midlands, 20
per cent in Yorkshire and the Humber, and 16 per cent in the North West.
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Number of 'Indian' Restaurants in UK
Some
65% of restaurants are actually owned and run by Bangladeshis, most
restaurants being south of the Midlands. Other cities such as Bradford,
Manchester and Glasgow are mainly Pakistani, Kashmiri or Punjabi giving
variations in style. Numbers have improved again after a brief period of
plateauing as quality has improved and family-style units have closed. It was
estimated that 170 million meals were served in 1997/8.
The
annual turnover of the Indian restaurant industry including drink is approx
£3bn p.a. giving a total Indian Food & Drink sector annual turnover of
overx £3.5bn.
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Location of Restaurants
There
has been a marked growth in the number of covers per restaurant in the past
five years such that actual numbers have been only growing at around 2% p.a.
but total available covers over 10% p.a. The year 2000-2001 onwards, however,
saw renewed growth in numbers.
The
Indian restaurant sector has been the success story of the second half of the
last century, growing from near nothing to one of the biggest industries in
Britain employing over 60,000 people.
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Most Popular Dishes
In 2010
the eating out market in UK was ££33.04 pence per person per week (a a fall
in real terms 2007-2010 of 5.20%) as compared with the total beer market of
£6.19 pppw.
Sales of rice pasta and noodles in 2009 rose 3.3% compared with 2007.
The
total market for ethnic foods in UK in 2009 was £1.64bn an increase of 10% on
previous year.
In 2006
the estimated value of the retail Indian food market stood at £493.8 million.
(Mintel)
UK Indian foods market will grow by an estimated 6% to reach a value of £524.6 million at current prices by 2011.(Mintel) |
Indian
The history
of Indian food in Britain is now almost four hundred years old and not only has
the cuisine undergone a great change in the United Kingdom but also in its
native land. Apart from the reports of occasional explorers, the story really
starts with the arrival in Surat of the English merchants of the East India
Company in 1608 and then again and more successfully in 1612.
Soon lascars
- seamen, mainly from Bengal - were helping to man British ships and despite
The Navigation Act of 1660 stating that 75% of the crew of a British ship had
to be British, a number began appearing in London throughout the century.
The first
recorded case of an Indian being christened here was bound up with British
commercial adventures in South Asia. The baptism-on 22 December 1616 at St
Dionis Backchurch in the City of London-took place in the presence of governors
of the East India Company. Many of the first Asian arrivals in Britain came as
servants to returning East India Company agents.
By 1804 the
number of lascars in London was quoted as 471 and yet by 1810 it had risen to
over 1400, around 130 of which would die each year such was the poor condition
of their circumstances. Concern about their plight led to the creation of The
Society for the Protection of Asiatic Sailors in 1814 and in 1869 complaint was
made to the India Office in London that there were upwards of 400 destitute
Asians on the streets.
As the
influence of the British in India grew, so did the interest in Indian food back
in Britain, leading to the publishing of recipes and the commercial creation of
curry powder in 1780. The first appearance of curry on a menu was at the Coffee
House in Norris Street, Haymarket, London in 1773 but the first establishment
dedicated to Indian cuisine was the Hindostanee Coffee House at 34 George
Street, Portman Square, London in 1809 as recorded in The Epicure’s Almanack.
It was opened by Dean Mahomet (or Mohamed/Mahomed) (See article) from Patna,
Bihar, India, via Cork in Ireland. He appreciated the interest in all things
Indian and offered a house "for the Nobility and Gentry where they might
enjoy the Hookha with real Chilm tobacco and Indian dishes of the highest
perfection". Decor was very Colonial, with bamboo chairs and
picture-bedecked walls, and it proved to be well received. As with many 'coffee
houses', however, it did not serve coffee, but was simply cashing in on a
popular name of the time. Unfortunately, outgoings were greater than incomings
and Mahomet had to file for bankruptcy in 1812, although the restaurant did
carry on without him in some form until 1833.
Lascar
desertion continued to be a big problem with many ending up on the streets
whilst others became entertainers or sold herbs and spices as did the famous Dr
Bokanby who sold herbs in London’s Petticoat Lane in 1861.
As the
nineteenth century dawned, the only eating establishments offering Indian
cuisine were community meeting places for those who had jumped ship in London
looking for a new life or, more often, been put ashore without any means of
support. Some of these were Vandary (Indian chefs) who jumped ship to seek work
in London’s growing restaurant community but not enough to provide any real
impetus for the cuisine.
The first
recorded Indian restaurant of the twentieth century was the Salut e Hind in
Holborn in 1911 but the first to have any real influence was The Shafi opened
by Mohammed Wayseem and Mohammed Rahim in 1920. Coming from North India they
opened their cafe in London’s Gerard Street (now the centre of London’s
Chinatown) and employed four or five ex seamen. It soon became a kind of
community and Indian Student Centre. Indian students in the UK rose from 100 in
1880 to 1800 by 1931.
These
restaurants were, not surprisingly, mainly for Asians but in 1927 the first
fashionable Indian restaurant opened when Edward Palmer opened Veeraswamy’s
Indian Restaurant in London’s Regent Street where it still thrives today owned
by Ranjit Mathrani and Namita Panjabi. Edward Palmer had been greatly
encouraged by friends and acquaintances after his successful running of the
Mughal Palace in The Empire Exhibition at Wembley a few years before and he
brought staff from India and created a traditional atmosphere such that it
became called “The ex-Indian higher serviceman’s curry club”. Many of the
people from all over India who were later to become the backbone of the new
‘curry’ restaurant industry, learned their trade at The Veeraswamy. In 1935
Veeraswamy's was sold to Sir William Steward, M.P., who ran the restaurant for
40 years. He travelled the world in order to source produce and was dubbed 'the
curry king' by The Times. His other claim to fame is the introduction of curry
in a can. It was at Veeraswamy that lager is first said to have been introduced
into Indian restaurants during a visit by the Prince of Denmark.
Queen
Victoria, shortly after the Prince Consort's death, arranged for her son to
marry Princess Alexandra of Denmark, the beautiful eldest daughter of King
Christian IX of Denmark. The couple wed at St. George's Chapel, Windsor on 10
March 1863. The Princess became Queen of England until her death in 1925.
Prince Axel of Denmark first met Edward Palmer when visiting the Empire
Exhibition at Wembley on May 2nd 1924. Palmer ran the fantastic Mughal Pavilion
at this early 'Disneyland' venture and the King and Queen of Denmark also
visited on 24th and 27th June. Having heard of the opening of Veeraswamy's, the
Prince visited and was enchanted so much that he made a present of a case of
the royal beer, Carlsberg and gave orders for a case to be delivered each year.
Many staff learned their trade at Veeraswamy's at that time so Carlsberg became
the beer of choice as they moved around Britain opening their own
establishments.
Until 1962
members of the Commonwealth were allowed to enter Britain freely but even
thereafter many Asians came from Africa and a bigger group came from Kenya in
1968.
The fifties
and sixties saw a rapid growth in Indian restaurant numbers in Britain,
especially London and the South East, where over 45% of Indian restaurants are
still located.
Gradually
the Indian restaurant concept spread all over Britain, even though those
running the restaurants were often not Indian at all. Until Bangladeshi
Independence in 1971 at least three quarters of ‘Indian’ restaurants in Britain
were Pakistani owned. After 1971, the geographical differences became clear,
with over half the restaurants owned and managed by Bangladeshis, most of whom
were from the one area of Sylhet. Once you reach Birmingham, however, the
situation changes with the number of Bangladeshis decreasing and Pakistanis
increasing. By the time you reach Bradford and Manchester, the restaurateurs
are almost entirely Pakistani , Kashmiri and North Indian and once you reach
Glasgow the concentration is almost entirly Punjabi as it is in the Southall,
Wembley region of London.
In
Birmingham Abdul Aziz opened a cafe shop selling curry and rice in Steelhouse
Lane in 1945 which became The Darjeeling, the first Indian in Birmingham, owned
by Afrose Miah although some say it was The Shah Bag on Bristol Street owned by
Abul Kalam Nozmul Islam who also owned Anuh Bag. The growth really got underway
in the 1950’s. The Aloka opened on Bristol Street in 1960 and Banu on Hagley
Road in 1969.
Manchester
started with the Bahadur brother’s Kohinoor in Oxford Street followed by Malik
Bokth with The Everest, Nojir Uddin who opened Monzil and Lal Miah who opened
The Orient. Rajdoot, long a favourite in Manchester, opened in 1966. Malik Miah
Guri, manager at The Kohinoor, moved to Birmingham and opened The Shalimar at
Dale End.
In
Bradford,The Sweet Centre on Lumb Lane which opened in 1964 was one of the
earliest after The Kashmir in Morley Street in 1958. When the owner of The
Shafi, Mr Dharan died in 1963, Ahmed Kutub, who worked there, went to open his
own restaurant in Newcastle and in the 1950s Rashid Ali moved from a cafe shop
in London’s Drummond Street to Cardiff to open his own establishment. The first
restaurant to open in the north was The Anglo Asian on Ocean Road, South
Shields run by Syed Lukman Ali.
North of the
border, the first record is of a restaurant opened in Glasgow by Dr Deb from
Nawakhali before 1939 and since that time the management staff in most existing
restaurants seem to have developed from just two original Punjabi style
establishments giving rise to a great similarity of menu.
According to
most pundits, however, the first curry shop opened in the city in 1954,
although there had been cafes for seamen and others of Asian origin before
this. The Taj Mahal was opened in Park Road by Sultan Ahmed Ansari. The great
man died in 1995, having triggered the mushrooming effect that has created the
Glasgow curry scene of today - that is unless you listen to the other stories
that say the first was Green Gates in Bank Street in 1959!
Practioners
Shirish Sen
Chef and food photographer in Bangalore, India who specialises in providing affordable food styling and photography to restaurants, cafes, magazines, and food companies.
Sanjay Ramchandran
Sanjay Ramchandran is one of India’s leading food, interior
and travel photographers with over 10 years of experience in the field. His
repertoire of work continues to be heralded as one of the finest in these
categories, with his photos being showcased in varied national and
international publications.
Sanjay has been closely associated with some of the leading
hotel chains of the country, covering food and beverage, interior and location
shoots for them. With the backbone of his photography inspiration being food,
he has six cookbooks with leading chefs ready for release and a few more under
production. Sanjay already has to his credit the photography of two cookbooks
including for an international award winning one.
Sanjay has a regular
column on India’s top inflight magazine —Jetwings, and also heads photography
on India’s first online magazine on interior design, travel and lifestyle—
Prismma.
Dinesh Khanna
Dinesh worked variously as a Calculator Salesman, Garments
Quality Checker and a Busboy in an Upper Eastside Bar in New York in his early
years. This rather confused career path was due to his teenage belief that if
he followed in his Photographer Father's footsteps he would be yet another
victim of the Indian caste system. This rebellion further led him to a 12 year
long career as a Client Servicing Executive in Advertising where he finally
achieved 'burn-out' at the ripe old age of 33 years and which left him with a
burning desire to become a Professional Photographer.
So in 1990 he finally succumbed to what can probably be
blamed on genetic coding - the desire to make images - both as a means of
making a living and as a form of creative expression. The last 21 years have
seen him involved in creating images for Advertising, Editorial and Corporate
clients, specifically in the area of Food, Still-life, People and Interiors.
Creating the images
After being let down by a number of companies who initially agreed to let me use their products and premises to complete this brief i am a little disappointed with the final result. Having sorted The Loch Lomand Whiskey Company (Whiskey), Warburtons (Bread), The Dome in Edinburgh (Cocktails), to be told insurance wouldn't cover, takeovers and lack of management comunication, I found myself in the position with 5 days from dead line desperate to find somebody to let me shoot the brief. Originally with opulence in mind I have had to settle for the Indian Takeaway, disappointed to say the least.
The main point I noticed in Indian food photographey is the vibrancy of the colours, highly saturated in color that really makes the food stand out in the images. Beautiful contrasting red, greens and yellows. This is something I wanted to emulate in my images, crisp focal points with gentle fall off blur.
After being let down by a number of companies who initially agreed to let me use their products and premises to complete this brief i am a little disappointed with the final result. Having sorted The Loch Lomand Whiskey Company (Whiskey), Warburtons (Bread), The Dome in Edinburgh (Cocktails), to be told insurance wouldn't cover, takeovers and lack of management comunication, I found myself in the position with 5 days from dead line desperate to find somebody to let me shoot the brief. Originally with opulence in mind I have had to settle for the Indian Takeaway, disappointed to say the least.
I approached my local Indian Takeaway (AKASH) who reluctantly (after pleading failure and desperation) allowed me into the kitchen to shoot the Chef whilst making food that had been ordered. Although accomadating they didn't give me long to accomplish the images I wanted. I shot candid images as food was being prepaired and ordered food to take home to a make shift studio in my dining room using speedlights and my best attempt at food design.
The images inside the takeaway were shot on a canon %d iii, ynonghu speedlight, ynonhu hss triggers and an 85mm and 24-105mm lense.
Next I decided to approach my local Indian Restaurant who kindly let me in and set up a table top shoot in the restaurant. I used two speed lights, a soft box and a light diffueser to control and shape light. This was the first time I had done this kind of shoot with strobes and I learned alot. I used triggers and a rremote controll to adjust light settings, so all I was left to do was to direct my assistant to move the lights accordingly. I felt some pressure to get the shoot done as the restaurant was being used and I felt uncomfortable being in the way.
Using strobes has become a great help to me as lighting set ups are expensive, so it really is very cost effective. As this was my first enviromental shoot using this equipment I really wanted to get it right.
I was really happy with the results from the shoot when I got them home, I liked the vibrancy and colors of the images, wich is exactly what I wanted to create. I would have liked more products to photograph btuI was grateful to be allowed the location to be honest.
If I could go back and re-shoot I would allow myself more time, more products and experiment a little more with light set ups and reflectors etc... Overall I wish I had been more organised from receiving the brief and not relied on companies so far away to get this done. I originally wanted opulant images for this commercial brief and felt I had settled for second best with the Indian food, but in actual fact I wish I had gone down this rout originaly because I feel I have achieved some really nice images from my second visit. With more time I know I could have done so much more. A lesson learned,
My biggest disappointment was the quality of print, after editing and sending them to print, I recieved what seems to be quite dark looking images. After speaking to DS Colour Labs it seems I need to calibrate my laptop again.
All in all I have actually enjoyed this brief once I got
into it, I have learned a great deal about food photography and the commercial
aspect of the business.
I am extremely disappointed to have failed the module
originally and will be more organised in the future and make sure shoots are
organised and finalised in writing before assuming they can be done.
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