Who could teach you how to become a better food photographer than someone who self-taught this skill to herself? About five years ago, Lara had a job with an IT giant and she took a break. In about five years she became a well known name in food photography industry. Let’s learn from Lara herself how to grow as a food photographer.
Let’s Welcome Lara Ferroni
Lara Ferroni doesn’t need any introduction. If you are a food blogger and are wanting to improve food photography, you must have visited StillLifeWith.
Lara has been photographing food for about 2 dozen magazines, websites and other clients. Her long list of clients include websites like Epicurious and magazines like Gourmet and Seattle Magazine. Her photos have also been published in Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Sunset Magazine. Read more about Lara Ferroni. Lara is also photographing for Gluten Free Girl’s upcoming cook book Gluten Free Girl and the Chef. As the Gluten Free Girl, Shauna, mentions
We were blessed to work with Lara Ferroni throughout the entire process of creating this book. Most cookbooks have photographs taken by a photographer the authors may not know, in a studio in New York, in four rapid-fire days of intense shooting. Instead, we worked with Lara for more than two years, shooting ingredients in farmers’ markets, our hands at work in the kitchen, ……
We talked with Lara on her phone for about 40 minutes. In this short time Lara explains different approaches to food photography, shooting challenging food dishes like soup, food photography workshops that she conducts from time to time and how to grow as a food photographer. This is a interview you do not want to miss.
Press play to listen to this interview.
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How Lara Got Into Food Photography
Lara worked for Microsoft. She took a short break and started a food blog. While at this break she started taking pictures. Lara explains in the interview how she taught herself food photography. Listen how Lara became food photographer starting at 01:35 in the interview.
How To Grow as A Food Photographer
Lara explains how anyone can grow and improve their photography skills. She explains what you can do to become better photographer. In a nutshell here are three things you should do:
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Study the photos from other photographers.
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Experiment what you learn from these photographers
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Keep experimenting with light, food styling
Lara explains this in more detail and gives some specific advice on how to grow. Listen to the interview for more elaborate explanation.
How Lara Got Her First Paid Assignment
Lara bought some citrus fruits and took some food pictures and posted them on her blog. The fruit company saw her photos and contacted her for taking food photos for them. Her challenge in this first assignment was how much to charge and licensing agreements with them.
Types of Food Photography
Lara classifies herself as editorial food photographer. She mainly does editorial photography and sometimes shoots for advertising and packaging. Each of these types have different requirements and the way a photographer interacts with the subject is different in each case. Lara explains this in more detail in this interview.
Read more about different types of food photography.
How to Shoot Challenging Food Like Soup
Some soups are pretty flat. They don’t have any texture and are pretty uninteresting to shoot. For making soup photos interesting, garnish the top by herbs or oil. Or add something in the background. Layer the photos with several elements that interact with each other. Put the soup bowl on a plate or use napkin to accentuate the bowl. Listen to the interview
Photograph That We Talk About In This Interview
We talked about these brunch photos in this interview. Lara explained her thought process behind these photographs..
Visit her portfolio to see Lara’s more food photos.
Food Photography Workshops by Lara
From time to time Lara conducts food photography workshops. You can contact her to find out more about upcoming food photography workshops. Lara also gives private lessons on food photography and these sessions can be customized.
Food Photographers That Inspire Lara
Lara has a whole list of food photographers that she likes and spends time looking at lot of their work. Some of these photographers are:
- Matt Armendariz – Read food photography interview with Matt Armendariz. Visit Matt’s Blog
- Keiko Oikawa from Nordljus
- Heidi Swanson from 101 Cook Books
- Bea Peltre from La Tartine Gourmande
- Aran Goyoaga – Read Aran’s food photography story and how she became top food blogger. Visit her blog Cannelle Vanille..
- Helene Dujardin from MyTartelette
As Lara mentioned, these are just a few photographers that inspire her.
Links We Discussed in This Interview
Thank you Lara
Please join me in thanking Lara for her time and advice. This interview was very special and I hope you found it helpful. You can follow Lara on Twitter @lferroni and @StillLifeWith and say hello.
What did you think about this interview. I would love to hear from you on what you would like to hear in future. Leave a comment or two on what you thought and what you would like to learn from the next food photographer. And as always thank you for visiting the food photography blog.
I don’t know what took me so long to explore your site! There is a wealth of information here. Absolutely fantastic resource. I’m going to sign up for email updates!
Thank you for your comment Trissa. Glad that you liked the site.
What an amazing resource, I am totally psyched to get started!
love your blog! this interview with lara was super! \however, i wish her cell phone had better reception!/ is the interview transcript posted to read anywhere? will there be more interviews like this? love the audio interviews, hints & tricks, links, etc. all good stuff ~ i’ve learned so much! thanks again!