Graphic Conceptual Food Photographer
News.QUALITY, HEALTH AND SURPRISE
I was thrilled to be commissioned by Lidl to produce a set of fun and conceptual key visuals as part of their rebranding for a future new store opening events. The brief for this set of photos was to create impactful food images which communicated Lidl’s brand message on quality, health and surprise.
With this photo Lidl wanted to celebrate the idea of ‘tasting’ in an image and do it in a way that was visually simple but distinct.
The challenge we faced with this photo was how to make a spring onion look like a fork?
This was one of those challenges where literally it came down to finding a needle in a haystack. The food stylist Adam Ziska searched far and wide for spring onions which had four shoots rather than the usual three and then to find ones which had shorter, more pointy shoots to mimic the prongs of a fork. From hundreds of spring onions we were left with two near perfect examples.To enhance the fork look further I brought on the highly skilled retoucher Barry Craig to the project who skilfully but subtly combined and manipulated the two spring onion images to make the perfect image.
With Lidl’s goal to make healthy food accessible to everyone, it was important to produce an image which reflected this message in a simple but punchy way.
There were a few different ideas floated about how to approach this image. Prior to the shoot we spent some time working out whether a carved pineapple would look good or whether something more graphic was more appropriate. As with most things, keeping things simple often is the best way forward. The difficulty we faced was producing a heart shape clear enough to be read by someone passing by. By cutting the pineapple into smaller pieces we were able to produce a clearer heart shape and make the whole image look more graphic and punchy.
And finally, the element of surprise with this photo we wanted to create a strong icon which supported the fanfare of a new store opening, and a party popper ticked all the boxes, now the hard bit... How to make party popper out of food?
To start figuring it out first we needed a prep day to test which vegetables worked best in the shot and experiment with different materials and clamps to see which would hold all the elements together. In the end we settled on a large piece of Oasis foam and thin wires, as this gave just the right amount of stability with the flexibility to position things differently if we needed to. This initial prep work was crucial in making sure we were successful on the day of the shoot. The build for a shot like this can take hours, so there really is no time to be figuring this stuff out on the day. In post production, we brought the whole idea of exploding veg to another level by adding motion blurring and water vapour. It gave the shot the finishing touches it needed to create that sense of motion and drama.
Finally, I would like to thanks the amazing team that was involved in producing this shots:
Photography, Production & Props: Ryan Ball
Food Stylist: Adam Ziska
Retoucher: Barry Craig
Art Director: Tony Hunt
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