I would say that you should focus on learning lighting and composition and rely as little as possible on editing. Not to downplay the importance of editing, but I think you should go as far as possible with lighting and composition and in theory, you could do most things without editing.
Francesco Sapienza
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This episode features Francesco Sapienza, a food photographer based in New York. Francesco’s mission is to help elevate culinary brands using his extensive photographic knowledge and stunningly balanced compositions. He was worked with large brands such as Whole Foods Market, Oceans, Boucherie, Lavazza, Eataly, Hawksmoor, Smithsonian Books, Rizzoli Publications, and even The New York Times.
In this episode we talk about:
- What his favourite food is
- What aspiring food photographers should focus on
- Why food photography is as accessible as ever
& much more!
Francesco and I have a inspiring conversation that is surely to make you a food photography fan if you aren’t already.
Here is a preview of my conversation with Francesco.
Q: Does your lighting approach change whether you’re shooting for a cookbook versus a restaurant?
Francesco Sapienza: I wouldn’t say so. Maybe if you’re shooting for like ecommerce, like delivery apps and stuff like that. Maybe it would it would change a little bit, just because you’re just describing the dish. You’re not trying to create. You’re not trying to create an emotion and evoke the emotion when you’re on Uber eats. You just want to see what that looks like you’re not looking for inspiration.
Q: How do you stay creative?
Francesco Sapienza: One of the things is to write morning pages daily and this is an activity that will basically force you to sit down with yourself for even 3 minutes or 5 minutes whatever that is and just you know put on paper whatever it is that you feel like doing like putting on paper. Sometimes it’s more like 3 or 5 or 4 or 5 pages of just just stuff that comes to my mind.
Q: So, what do you like eating?
Francesco Sapienza: I like eating a lot of things, I would say that probably the least Italian part of me is very drawn to Asian cuisine and especially Japanese cuisine. I love sushi and I love many dishes, even non-sushi dishes from the Japanese culture
Links
Take Away
You don’t need to rely on editing if you properly compose and expose your images. Focus on lighting, composition, and the message you want to convey before worrying about what gear to use.
