Fashion photography’s origin is closely linked to art, especially in those cases in which editorial names like Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, and more. Nowadays, fashion photography has evolved into a complex genre that scopes from sophisticated concepts published by fashion magazines to casual lifestyle imagery posted in a consistent way by highly skilled individuals.
What makes fashion in fashion photography is the unquestionable relationship it has to any of the outcomes from the fashion industry; clothes, shoes, accessories, cosmetics, and hair, all construct the iconic spirit of fashion. From models to backgrounds, they all make the necessary means for these products to tell the story in a moving and fashionable way.
Here, we’ll be sharing the seven essential tips and techniques needed for starting out today in the magnificent world of fashion photography!
1. It Ain’t Portraiture
Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes in which fashion photography newcomers tend to fall is the general confusion this genre keeps with portraiture. It is true that fashion photography can benefit from using portraits, but it is a broader universe in that sense. It can contain portraiture, but it surely doesn’t limit to making just fashionable portraits, whatever that might be.
This is important for you to understand because it will open up the creative possibilities that the portraiture mindset could be possibly restraining on your side. For example, portrait photographers tend to love shooting with 85mm lenses, but does that necessarily mean you could only shoot with that focal length as a fashion photographer? Of course not!
2. Build a Concept
Or at least have a story to tell. It is no secret that there are tons of talented photographers out there doing pretty much anything within the doable scope. But, there’s still room for rising talent in this highly crowded place of fashion photography; and that’s achieved with the aid of concept construction. Unfortunately for this, there isn’t an exact recipe. Hence the “at least have a story to tell” advice. Building a concept is just a fancy way of saying that in visual communication efforts, our creations should have a purpose; and that is the concept behind a photograph. But one thing is certain about concepts in fashion photography, they all are directed to selling something, and that something is any of the five aforementioned inanimate objects in which the fashion industry revolves. Selling any of those should be your conceptual baseline, and how to sell them will rely entirely on your creativity. As a specialized website in online photography courses which provides a professional variety of photography learning in the Middle East, Art and Creativity provide an extensive fashion photography course with step-by-step tricks and hacks.
3. Plan Ahead
Concepts aren’t out there in the wild waiting for us to cherry-pick them out, they have to be built with the aid of logic and imagination. And that requires sitting down and making some plans. Fashion photography is the way in which the fashion industry speaks to us in seductive ways, and for those images to become real, a lot of people must be added to the equation.
Make-up artists, locations, wardrobes, models, catering, and lighting assistants are some of the few common roles that get involved in moderately decent fashion photography projects. And in order to succeed in an endeavor like this one, zero improvisation should be allowed. Well, some improv wouldn’t hurt the images, but please don’t rely on having any plan at all. As in any other branch of commercial photography, preparation is fundamental for fashion-related projects as well.
4. Keep Lighting Simple
Even when solely relying on naturally available light, keeping things simple will guarantee you delicate and elegant results. Also, rich tonalities are better achieved when using soft lighting sources. But if you are planning on using some artificial lights as well, then keeping things simple will make your shooting more pleasant for sure. Light is the raw material with which any photograph is crafted, and having too much of it too little could ruin the whole thing; especially when there’s a concept that must be achieved in communicational terms. Understanding how light works as something that gets transformed throughout the photographic workflow will keep you safe from breaking your bank account. One good light source and a simple reflector could be enough to fill a properly lit scene with already available light. Some filmmakers rely on practical lighting, which is using distinct artificial light sources like candles, light bulbs, monitor screens, car lights, Christmas lights, etc. All in order to fill the gaps left behind from available light in a natural and realistic way.
For several photographers, this might sound familiar. A really common mistake newcomers tend to make is trying to create very complicated lighting schemes with flashes and strobes everywhere. History has told us that this only makes things worse, and takes the joy out of the craft. Be smart, learn from our mistakes, pick a location, see & feel what you have to work with, and only then think about how to light it in a useful way.
5. Find One Lens
This one goes against many suggestions, the same which are suspiciously sponsored by camera brands telling us to explore different optics and focal lengths options. But the truth is quite simple and doesn’t require that many gears. If you are just starting out, it will be very likely that the number 18-55mm feels somewhat familiar to you. This focal range corresponds to the usual cheap lens bundled with entry-level DSLR and mirrorless cameras, and it does have a purpose beyond knowing if your brand new camera works properly.
The kit lens is the humble introduction to the fantastic world of interchangeable lens capabilities. If you find yourself comfortable shooting with numbers between 18 and 28mm, then you should probably invest in a wide-angle lens that will allow you to continue capturing your fashion-oriented shots with that storytelling wide perspective. Certain companies have developed such capable wide-angle lenses, that they deliver virtually no barrel distortion when shooting with them. Also, they are built with high-quality components and come with fast apertures for shooting in subtle and low-light situations.
If you find yourself comfortable with a bit of walking while still retaining some amount of wideness and that normal perspective feel, then a 35mm lens will be your next best friend. And if you are more into the portraiture approach with your fashion images, then a 50mm could do the trick for you. And also this optic is considered to be “normal” as it corresponds to normal human sign capabilities when mounted in a full-frame camera.
Last but not least, longer lenses or telephotos tend to deliver a really nice perspective when it comes to portraits; therefore anything from 85mm to 200 will be good for you. Just take into account that long lenses are harder to use when shooting hand-held. One thing that you need to remember is this, in fashion, you are trying to sell something, it might have room for artistic expressions, but in the end, it will still be commercial imagery, therefore try to look for a lens that will guarantee you that products will look as stunning as your clients expect them to be.
6. Stick to that Lens
This is one of the most important photographic pieces of advice you’ll ever receive. After finding that new lens that makes you feel at ease with your photographs, stop worrying about another one. Stick to it for at least one or two years, get to know that lens like your best friend, learn its behavior under any light circumstance, get to know how to anticipate frames with it, get to know which are the scenes or conditions the lens won’t make it with. And after that, you’ll be able to respond to light with your lens as if it is an embedded part of your body.
7. Take the Concept to Post-Processing
Another big mistake many photographers make is that they forget that a concept or purpose should be by the photographs side at every moment, even during the publishing stage. Therefore, when starting to develop your raw files, ask yourself, what should the developing decisions be made? Starting from white-balance to even lens corrections, everything has to go in line with the purpose of your photographs. It is no surprise that the White-Balance sliders are the very first thing one encounters in several raw image development software. It is the most crucial decision regarding the message that an image is willing to convey. A warm temperature will result in a soothing vibe, and a cold temperature could result in a nostalgic feel. Any emotion can be enhanced with this decision, and all of the following adjustments should correspond to the message that you are trying to convey.
Wrapping it Up
No matter the style that as a fashion photographer you might end up developing, there’s one thing that you should never forget, fashion photography serves a specific purpose, and that is to sell fashion-related items. It might be open to wildly creative and even artistic images but in the end, they have to influence people into making some buying decisions that will benefit the brand behind the shot.
Related Classes
Lara Zankoul – Editorial Fashion Photography
https://artandcreativity.com/course/editorial-fashion-photography/
So basically, I started photography back in 2016. I remember being so inspired by Beautiful Destination and their sick content back then. Their content did really hit a spot inside me that made me take the step to actually pursue photography, the funny thing is I wanted to be a filmmaker at first, so I have a bit of a background in filmmaking, but later on, I just found myself pursuing more photography cause I wanted to constantly create and photography was more convenient for me to do so, but with filmmaking, there’s a lot more planning and if things aren’t planned out well, it usually doesn’t work out for me.
My goal at first was to work for beautiful destinations since they’re the reason why I started all this, I later knew how hard it for that to happen just cause I am Egyptian, and being Egyptian requires you to always need to get a visa for everywhere you travel which takes time, and all they do is travel, so all I do is slow them down with the papers I need to hand in and all the government-oriented things. But I was fortunate enough to actually meet and go around Egypt with the founder of beautiful destinations. That by itself is a massive breakthrough for me and I figured later on that I have a long way ahead and I might as well choose a different path and do different things.
I used to have a lot of inspirations from a lot of photographers, but my 2 favorite photographers though are Emmett Sparling and Andre Josselin. Emmett is a landscape photographer and Andre is a fashion/lifestyle photographer. I love looking at diverse content, I don’t limit my work to just travel or street photography cause that limits you from growing, take note that Andre for example doesn’t look for a perfectly exposed image as much as he looks for a feeling to send through his work. It’s more art-oriented than just shooting random people. For some people, his work might seem unprofessional and for some people, it conveys a feeling. As for Emmett, he captures landscapes and street photography the way that absolutely satisfies me and is exactly the same way I like shooting this genre of photography cause it just says a lot about the story behind the photo.
Currently traveling around Egypt with Danone shooting people from different parts around Egypt, can’t wait to show it!
My first camera was a Canon 600D which made my first year of the journey very hard to create content due to its limitations, but that limitations really are what makes you truly appreciate higher-end cameras and really do make you learn the hard way so everything sticks more.
So as for landscape and street photography, I like to believe we like to have a lot of lenses so we don’t face struggles along the way with not knowing how to shoot something in a certain way. Well, I do not have a lot of lenses but I do have the essentials for me to achieve 90% of what I want, it always depends on the style of the person.
My main camera body is the Sony A7 III, this camera is an absolute beast in almost every situation, no matter what I am shooting, it gives me stunning results, it completely changed my style in everything, it made my commercial work much better, reasons, why I love this camera, is because of it’s amazing low light capabilities and high dynamic range, these 2 work so good hand in hand. The in-body stabilization is a massive one so I could shoot photos with a slow shutter and lastly, its battery lasts long more than I need most of the time. The only downside is the interface is not really that friendly for everyone, took me a while to get the hang of it.
My main lens is the Sony 24-70 F/2.8, reason, why I love this lens, is because it covers most of the needs wherever I am, it’s a workhorse. It does absolutely everything I need in terms of sharpness and depth of field. In street photography, it gets me the close-ups and the wides I want with perfect sharpness, my only problem with it though that it’s a bit heavy for someone who moves around a lot.
My second favorite lens is the Sony 85mm f/1.8, nothing says movie scene more than this monster, fixed lenses always give off a certain look zoom lenses never achieve, and that’s why a lot of photographers own mostly prime lenses, the sharpness is always better and offers low f/ numbers for these creamy blurry backgrounds. It’s also so nice to walk around with a very pushed-in lens that small, so it doesn’t give off the impression that you’re walking with a massive camera.
My third lens is the Tamron 17-28 f/2.8, the main reason I got this lens is obviously for the 17mm, funny story is that I used to love using wide angles when I first started off but now I just use this lens when I’m in tight situations such as shooting interior that is in a narrow space or narrow spaces in general. The price is a massive perk for this camera for what it offers.
Favorite photo so far is a photo of the Sailor I took here in Cairo. I don’t shoot a lot of portraits but that is definitely my recent favorite.
By far my favorite place was Saint Catherine’s, not just because of the absolutely stunning landscapes out there, the experience of hiking really got to me, I would want to hike more if it was possible not to drive 6 hours for it! Also, the feeling mountains give off is impeccable, it’s just so different from any other place in Egypt, cause most places out here have a lot in common, Saint Catherine’s has nothing in common with any other place.
I actually really want to go somewhere tropical like Zanzibar or Bali, never went to these places and I want to know what the hype is all about!
Pizza my friend!
My advice for anyone starting out photography is don’t let yourself down by comparing your work to anyone, I always say this in my workshops for beginners, is to never compare your work to others in the field cause we all have different perspectives and we can’t compare art cause that wouldn’t even make sense if you ever want to compare your work, compare it for educational purposes.
Shoot a ton every day, I used to shoot every single day, and If I didn’t, I used to research something about photography. I was constantly feeding my mind with anything related to photography, nothing will make you grow more than trial and error.
Look for inspiration, recreate it, but never steal it. Meaning that it is fine to try to achieve something someone made for the sake of trying it out and know how it’s done but not state that it was your idea unless you added a bit of your own personal twist, remember, there is no original idea, we’re constantly all feeding each other ideas and twisting them.
Don’t let gear limit you, whatever you have, use it. Gear comes later on when you earn the knowledge to use it. But for now, use your old grandpa’s camera, art is not defined by gear as much as it’s defined by your vision.
Seek constructive criticism and not destructive criticism, choose the people that you know will give you feedback that truly adds to your work and not destroy all your hopes and dreams.
Visit Seif’s website https://www.seifamro.com/
Photography in Egypt has been one of the most trending art for young generations. Over the last decade, the number of professional photographers increased rapidly, and the demand increased to learn advanced photography techniques. Most of the Egyptian young generation start photography first as a hobby by using their mobile cameras or basic DSLR gears. Later on, when they accomplish successful trials of photo sessions, they become eager to start a photography career and shift from amateur to professional. Eventually, many people don’t get to learn how to start their own photography business or how to create a marketing persona and become specialized in a specific field of photography.
Firstly, we have to outline photography in Egypt and what are the market opportunities. Egypt is one of the top markets in the Middle East and the biggest in the Arabic region. While the demand for photography in Dubai and Saudi Arabia is considerably higher in terms of service prices, Egypt has a developing market with high demand due to it is an increase in population and number of businesses as well as startups. The opportunities in Egypt can be outlined in some of the main categories.
Photo by Remon ElMarkiz
Wedding photography in Egypt is one of the most flourishing businesses. Due to the Egyptian culture, people tend to spend more on weddings, engagement parties, and recently even couples photo session is booming among young people. Hiring a professional photographer is becoming a must for such occasions and is considered as one of the most important traditions in couples’ relation to having a romantic photo session. Therefore, there is always a huge demand for this type of photography, and wedding photographers in Egypt are getting high prices for their services.
Photo by Sam Coran
The rise of online startups who conduct business on social media channels such as Instagram and Facebook is becoming phenomenal. This has generated a huge opportunity for photographers. Startups are searching for product photography which is one of the most important elements to increase their sales. Showing their product with high quality and professional images is now a must to survive the competition. Product photography in Egypt has several opportunities such as handcrafts, consumer products, jewelry, accessories, and many more.
Photo by Yehia Al Alily
Food photography in Egypt has a booming market in terms of food startups and restaurants. The demand for professional food photography and food styling is increasing and businesses are trying to win the competition by attracting customers. Restaurants are investing in their social media and want to frequently update their profiles with outstanding food photography. There is also a huge increase in catering services and online grocery who deliver food and meals and those are eager for high-quality food photos. The demand is increasing for food photography in tourist places as well as hotels and fast-food providers.
Photo by Nour ElRifai
We all know that Egypt has one of the fastest-growing markets in real estate. The huge investment in new cities, compounds and coastal residential is increasing demand for professional photographers who are specialized in architecture and interior photography in Egypt. Real estate companies and brokers are actively hiring architecture photographers to provide highly professional images in order to help marketing the units. In addition, Egypt is one of the biggest tourism markets with huge investment in hospitality which requires professional interior photographers to create attractive portfolios and marketing visuals. Interior photography is having high demand in Egypt from interior designers and furniture stores as well as urban developers.
Becoming a professional photographer is not an easy step. There are many people who love taking pictures and sometimes they get excellent images and they edit it perfectly, yet this doesn’t qualify them to the professional photographer level. Starting your photography career is mainly about starting a business company. Photography skills are the main focus of photographers and they spend years trying to achieve a high quality and art sense. However, career development is important to sustain a profitable business and to establish a career. Your career goals should start with questioning if with what you are good at and what you need to achieve.
There are many ways to increase your knowledge and become more specialized. There are many opportunities to learn photography in Egypt such as workshops and online photography courses. People can learn in different ways and some photographers like to follow trial and error. However, the best way to learn photography in Egypt is to learn from the top professional photographer in the country. In Art and Creativity, we collected some of the best professionals in their field and who are commercially known for businesses to guide you through extensive courses. You will learn more than just the photography techniques on the set but will also get tips and guidelines on how to edit your work and how to deliver it to the client. These online courses are direct access to the career and will help you understand the needs of the photography market in Egypt.
Once you acquire the main knowledge and skills, the main task is to establish your business in the market. The competition is not smooth in the Egyptian market and each photographer needs to do extra efforts to join and compete. There are several essential steps to establishing your local business.
Finally, to learn photography in Egypt is a very promising step to build a career. The country offers a huge market for photographers to profit. However, it is important to have the right mindset and understand that photography is more than just talent. Being specialized is very important to be able to compete in cities like Cairo and Alexandria which has the most opportunities. Eventually, by enhancing your field of expertise and gaining business skills you are able to get on the right track in professional photography.
The architectural photography business is one of the most specialized and profitable business to pursue when it comes to photography. The architecture photography field offers an extremely rare sweet-spot between creativeness and commercial work. Architectural has a lot in common with other photography fields such as landscape and cityscape photography. However, Architectural photography has a more dynamic rate of demand from the market. Therefore, if you are thinking about starting your business in architectural photography, there are some things that you have to know about it first.
Photographers who are looking forward to changing their path and learn architectural photography tend to think that it is all about Real Estate, and nothing more. Eventually, while this is accurate or at least a very popular theme in architecture photography, it is not the only way to follow. There is also architecture photography drawn to showcasing buildings and places with no intention of selling or renting them; and last but not least, architecture and interior photography done for purely artistic purposes. However, landscape and cityscape photography is also considered for commercial use by several businesses.
Let’s dig deeper into the main particularities of each of the services you could offer as a professional business in architectural photography. We recommend having three portfolios, with each focusing on their own targets. We are enduring difficult times, and keeping all the eggs in a single basket isn’t a wise business call.
Knowing your clients’ deep expectations is a basic must, and real estate photography has only one major goal, selling or renting a specific place, venue, house, or building. Here, creativeness must be fine-tuned to meet this ultimate desire from the people hiring your business. No abstract or wildly artistic photographs would be asked, but utilitarian images that showcase the grand essence of a particular place.
Wide-angle lenses will be your best friends since they allow us photographers to amplify the overall perspective of a place. But be careful of using extremely wide-angle lenses that would end up giving you funny results. Keep things simple, and correct your lens’ barrel distortion in post-production if needed.
Business optimization is all about being accountable with ourselves, and designing a work-flow is one of the healthiest strategies ever to use. Start by designing a follow-up script that will allow you to cover all the important spots from the place willing to be sold or rented. Don’t forget the yard and the facade, trust me, it happens.
Some clients will understand the following, and some others might not. Educating them will be your hardest challenge, and it will be needed more often than you might wish. The next thing that we recommend doing when trying to create professional architecture photography that will sell, is a photo shooting schedule. This will need to at least cover the following after your overall scouting:
That working approach will give you all the needed inputs for delivering perfect image packages to your clients. Designing them should also be in your top priority business-related to-do’s.
From all the people that could possibly reach you out, not all of them will be interested in selling or renting a place. Some others will be just interested in showcasing their installations through social media or their beautifully designed websites.
Here, we recommend you as a professional photographer to-be, to design concepts that will meet with your client’s needs. This will give you a better idea about the amount of creativeness that your clients will be wishing to have. Also important, always ask for visual references in order to give a proper photography business quote.
2020 Business Notice: Many places have switched to remote-working, and I’ve started noticing how some of them are investing in proper staff photography of their teams at their places. This will need a bit of portraiture, of course, but it could be a good business idea if you want to take advantage of this difficult time. Thank you later for giving you a very expensive idea for free.
Last but not least, the artistic side of an architectural oriented photography business. Art is one of the hardest markets to access, but it pays loads of money if you are able to deliver high-level aesthetic experiences through your creations. Here you could aim for stock images, to single pieces exhibited in a gallery. Your networking efforts will be tremendously huge, but the payoff will be worthy.
Unfortunately, we have little experience in selling on the fine art market, but we do know how it works. Curators and galleries are the voice behind what counts and what doesn’t, so moving around those social fields might give you a better understanding of what art investors are looking for.
Covered the imagery oriented side of the endeavor, we need to focus a bit further on the least thrilling part of the business. Unless we manage to make it interesting for you, we know that managing and accounting isn’t that fun, but we need to do it in one way or another.
Long gone are the days in which a photographic studio start-up could be built out of the blue with several people working with us. Photography businesses have a somewhat mature history of being one-person driven armies, and we hope that this brief yet substantial article has had the power of giving you some valuable insights for your upcoming projects.
Cheers!
Featured Picture taken by Nour Refai
How to learn food photography as professionals? Food Photography is one of the most attractive photography categories for photographers. In recent years, food photographers are one of the most required jobs in the Middle East and the Gulf region. Due to the booming in restaurants and hospitality services, food photography is becoming an important skill and career for photographers. Moreover, the rise of food startups including all types of food business from small restaurants to food delivery and bakery is increasing the need for professional food photography in Dubai, Cairo, Beirut, Amman, Kuwait, Doha, Al Riyadh, and Jeddah.
Eventually, while there is a huge demand for food photography, the market is still evolving and the skillset in many Arabic countries is not enough. However, there are highly professional food photographers in the UAE, Egypt, and Lebanon. Moreover, there is also high competition with photography agencies from the international market. Yet, the local Arabic talents still have a high edge since they are more advanced with understanding the local culture.
Arabic food photography is a unique skill that requires a deep understanding of the Arabic consumer food culture, local cuisines, and the food style that appeals to the consumer. The first step to becoming a professional food photographer in Arab countries is to understand the consumer taste and food style.
Study the different local cuisines in the Levant region, Egypt, Morocco, Gulf, and Mediterranean cuisines before you start shooting. Each Arabic kitchen has it is own food style, colors, ingredient, and dinning culture. This will advance your skills on the set and will help your clients to deliver their right menu and marketing brand.
As a photographer, creativity is the first role. There are so many professional photographers who can capture and edit a high-quality photo, yet when it comes to food as an element, it is important to have your own creative style.
At the beginning of your photography journey, creating quality work is most likely going to be your first concern. However, developing your identity is what going to last and will make you stand out among other photographers. Think creatively and set a plan to develop your art of photography. Quantity of photography is important and setting up a commercial portfolio requires time, but creating your own creative mindset is the key to position yourself in the market.
Online food photography courses are one of the most advanced shortcuts to learn food photography and to enhance your skills in a short time. Learning from professional food photographers will provide you with the main fundamentals of food photography tips, lighting tips, camera settings, propping and styling, and most importantly, how to edit your work for your customers.
In Art and Creativity, we worked with one of the most influenced food photographers in the Arab world, Yehia El Alaily to provide an online food photography course. With 12 lessons, the course represents the essential knowledge of food photography as well as live tutorials in the studio. Yehia El Alaily in this course takes you into an entertaining journey to learn the most effective hacks and tips of shooting food and he will also teach you to edit your food photography work.
Have a good time of your day with browsing and exploring beautiful food imagery from around the world and locally. Develop a daily habit of chasing food photography beautiful art. It will give you ideas and will refresh your imagination as a photographer. By searching for beauty, you will understand by time how to move your emotions before taking a new picture.
One of the most valuable tips by professional photographers is setting a consistent portfolio. While some would focus on the brands they worked with and the different markets they attended across the Arabic countries, the most important factor is your identity. The portfolio is a reflection of who you are, and in order to be successful with food photography, it is crucial to create your quality, theme, and style. When you start your food photography learning it is important to get some classes about how to create themes with your work. The photo above is the website of our instructor Yehia El Alaily
Professional photographers tend always to plan using sketches and storyboards before they start. In food photography, it is critical to start planning before you prepare the set and get into the studio. Shooting dishes, food, and beverages depend heavily on the preparation.
You will need to create a story you want to tell and choose the right content for it. Choosing the color palette, food style, accessories, lighting direction and all elements related to the composition are highly effective steps of the planning process.
Therefore, professional food photographers, have a good time in preparation and planning before starting a food photography session. This to help them focus on creating efficient photography and managing their time probably during the shooting and post-processing.
Food photography is different than other categories of photography. While portrait, fashion, and makeup photography are about human as a hero, food photography is about the food object and human emotions. It is a tricky part when you start to learn food photography. Some might think that food styling is the main key behind capturing an outstanding food image, the emotions and imagination is the key to master food photography. Understanding the motives of the human being when they see food, or their mental picture of the food experience or cuisine is meant to be a pleasure.
Food photography is more than just food, it is about colors, shapes, textures, and even an imaginary smell and taste. Think of arranging every frame as a chief and as a person who is going to eat it. Combine these feelings in your frame and food styling then craft the shot with your professional photography skills. That’s the real essence behind food photography art.
Avoiding mistakes and poor techniques can help a lot in achieving good skills in a short time. Eventually, food photography in Egypt, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia have so many poor techniques by amateur photographers that you can easily spot. Moreover, food photography in the UAE has also some cases of low-quality food photography practices.
Studying mistakes can eventually help you in gaining further steps in your career as a food photographer. Therefore, we will explore some of the most important tips to enhance your food photography.
With food from around the world, it is important to understand the dish or the meal before presenting it. In Arabic countries, each dish has it is own presence in the daily culture and its own mental image. Research and find out what each dish represents the local culture. While you learn food photography it is important to know that in some countries in the Middle East, some dishes are like movie stars and have their own atmosphere, occasion, and even quotes and traditions.
Therefore, the food styling should consider all the strength factors of the dish, and even it is background tradition. Falafel has different ingredients and meanings that differ in different countries such as Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria. The same dish will have a different perspective when it is represented in the GCC countries. That’s where the food style plays an important role to make the dish authentic and appealing in different places.
Food styling for deserts and bakery might become a very different perspective in each country according to its tradition. For instance, Arabian coffee is an important element to the Gulf region as part of the dessert presentation. Eventually, food styling for Arabic food requires an in-depth understanding of Arabic food cuisine and dining traditions.
Finally, starting your career and to learn food photography requires dedication and soft skills such as the ability to present yourself and to communicate with the client. While this sounds like hard work, the opportunities in all countries are wide open due to the massive demand for food and hospitality industries. Stepping into the field and learning food photography can provide you with a combination of profitable career and joyful art. An online food photography course is an important step to consider in this journey.
Photography is one of the many creative fields that can both be a hobby or a profession. In the Middle East and Arabic countries, there is a big demand for professional photographers which encourage a new generation of photographers to shift their career and start their photography business. In a region with emerging markets and the great demand for media, photography is becoming the most thrilling career in many regional countries including Egypt, Lebanon, UAE, and Saudi.
For camera lovers who developed a good level of photography skills, there is no most desired thing than becoming a professional photographer. But what exactly is that thing that defines a photographer from being a pro or not? And what it takes to start a regional photography business?
There are several misconceptions about the term “professional photographer” in the region. Beyond the skills, the talent and the style, the “professional” word is not limited to making money or that a photographer is making a substantial amount of its income. The real meaning of professional photography revolves around the entrepreneur journey that doesn’t stop there. Moving step by step in the photography business takes more than just extraordinary talent in highly competitive markets like Dubai or Cairo. It requires the ability to learn and adapt to be able to move to the next level. And that is the Business of Photography.
Today we want to share with you some insightful things to consider before starting the rocky road of developing a solid photography business nowadays.
Photography is an art and with art, learning is an ongoing process. In the Middle East, you can advance your skills by joining photography courses, face to face workshops, or by learning directly from other professionals you meet along your journey. However, some of the most popular photographers in the commercial market in Arabic countries are self-taught photographers.
Whether you choose to learn at an academic institute or by joining a photography workshop, it doesn’t define the results. Learning photography requires major efforts of self-learning and practices. Getting the most valuable tips from professional photographers is one of the keys to improve your photography skills in a short time. While YouTube has several tutorials and classes, yet sometimes it is only limited to fundamentals and not specialized in a certain type of photography.
In Art&Creativity, we have collected the best online photography courses in the Middle East to help people in Arabic countries to learn extensively from professionals. The photography courses are ideal for people who want to advance their skills in commercial and editorial photography. In addition, online courses contain tutorials and business guidelines for people who are starting their careers as professional photographers.
There are two types of photography beginners; the ones that have spent some money on gear, and those who haven’t done it, yet. If you belong to those that haven’t spent that much money yet, then this is your lucky day. Gear could overwhelm anyone in no time thanks to all the available options in the market. Cameras, lenses, tripods, lights, props, etc. Any piece of gear that you buy should be seen as an investment, and it needs to correspond to the genre that you feel the most passionate about.
If you have already bought a camera, it will be very likely that you have a standard 18-55mm lens with you right now. And despite what you might think, it will be very helpful for you! Make a recount of all the images that you have made, and sort them out into themes. If you enjoy taking a lot of interior photographs, then you might need to invest next in a wide-angle lens. If you are feeling more drawn to portraiture, then perhaps an 85mm will be a wise investment for your photography business. If you find yourself with a sort of homogeneous theme, then you might think about investing in a 35mm or a 50mm lens. As soon as you start getting more and more experience on the field, you’ll encounter some situations that will lead you to think about specific solutions like tripods or lights. All the upcoming gear needs will come with time, and as long as you see each purchase as a necessity for your business, you’ll outsmart the market offers for good!
It is important to understand your market to be able to plan your business model. The photography in the Middle East is mostly commercial with several key fields including wedding photography, interior, and real estate photography, product photography, food photography, and finally, beauty and fashion photography.
The first step is researching your local and regional market to be able to define the opportunities. Each market has a higher demand for a certain set of professional photography skills. For instance, the demand for photography in UAE is diversified between commercial photography as well as additional categories such as events, fashion photography. Markets like Lebanon and Egypt will have higher competition, yet there is a huge demand for professional photographers in the region.
This requires some time to think about it and there are no exact recipes for it. A niche is a special segment of the market you are trying to serve or satisfy. And it has a lot to do with the unique value that your style can deliver to meet those needs. You don’t have to build a new genre, you simply need to make your style stand out from the crowd, especially when having so many photographers around.
For this, we can borrow a pretty useful tool from the business management world, the SWOT analysis. This is a simple tool that will help you find the following:
– Strengths: Or the particular things about your photographs that make them different from others.
– Weaknesses: The overall stuff that puts you at a disadvantage against other photographers.
– Opportunities: This refers to the elements that you can exploit to take a certain advantage in the market.
– Threats: All the elements that could give a hard time to your photography business. After defining these 4 dimensions, you’ll need to build some strategies for your strengths to overcome your weaknesses as well as making your opportunities more substantial than your threats. This is challenging, we know it, but it is also fun and will help you out into sailing the murky waters of businesses in a safe way.
If you are reading this, then it is very likely that you have already asked yourselves about how to price your work. Well, there are several ways for doing this, but we find that the hourly rate is the smartest way of answering that.
Finding an answer to that question is quite easy nowadays, even for entry and mildly level photographers. The rates can vary for photographers in the Middle East based on the many factors including the brand name, the industry, the market competition, etc.
For those, depending on the skills and level one might juggle between $25 to even $100 per hour of work. But don’t just throw a number, there are several things to consider before giving your photography clients a proper quote.
Project Mindset Photography is not something you can replicate in a series like a factory-made product. Each shoot and every session should be seen as a project that will require expenses that should be covered. There are several things that come into play when designing a photography project, and the only experience will give you the best skills for nailing it better each time. But we found a very useful tool that could give you an idea of how much a photography project could cost you to develop. This is the National Press Photographers Association, a calculator. This tool is oriented towards photojournalism of course, but you can change some names from “Health Insurance” to “Make-Up Artist”, “Hairdresser” or “Lighting Rental” for example. Also, this could lead you to properly design convenient packages if you are thinking about building a wedding photography business or similar.
The important thing is to brainstorm all the things that you’ll need to invest for each project or package, including your own gear devaluation, fixed business expenses, and your own salary! After all, profit is the main reason why we pursue a career based on our hobby and passion, otherwise, a cubicle job should be more interesting…
Next step, take your spreadsheets to accounting level and beyond by using invoice services like this one or this one.
The Middle East and Arab countries are filled with tons of different clients, some of them are highly valuable, and some others will require you to have a bit of patience with them. After all, you can’t refuse to work for all clients if you want to have a successful photography business.
In this path, you’ll encounter creative clients that will want Disney-like productions, Perfectionist folks that will ask for any changes, Smart-ones that will judge your gear and opportunists that will offer you “exposure” in order to work for free. You’ll also find wise clients that will know how much creative work takes to be crafted, and clear-minded ones that know exactly what they want. The experience will tell you better how to deal with all of these, but the wisest move you can do is to always ask for visual references. What might seem “simple” to your client could be a $20K production or higher, so always guard yourself and ask for these materials. Oh, and please, never give your talent away to people offering “exposure”. On the other hand, the trade could be nice.
Now, the next step would be for you to invest in marketing, branding, and beyond. Many photographers in the Middle East market like to do everything on their own. Don’t try to make this a one-man army thing, because you’ll just get exhausted and you will not have the time you need to focus on your photography skills. Hiring a marketing consultant or professional marketer can help you to promote and brand your photography business in the Middle East and Arabic local markets. Take it one step at a time and invest in the proper people that have become more experienced in those fields. The biggest mistake we can make when thinking about business photography is to think that we can make those stuff “because they seem easy to make”. Just like some people think that photography is just about pushing a button, right?
We are being constantly bombarded with photographs since quite a while now. Nevertheless, there is one subject in those photographs that takes a huge place on the visual spectrum. All products benefit from, there is no doubt about it. But food is the one that benefits the most from it. Good looks are absolutely crucial when it comes to food photography, and today we are going to talk about some things that you should know before photographing food.
It is hard to pin-point when food photography became so massive, but we are sure that social media has a lot to do with it. Prior to that, food photography was exclusively held by advertisement companies, which kept food-styling techniques more secretively than nuclear codes. After some of this information was given to the public, people started demanding more sincere and honest marketing practices. Food-styling is still around but is more sophisticated than before because it now aims to capture food in its natural and more edible state.
Before we get to the considerations, it is important to know why food photography matters so much. We have a vast amount of food businesses rising every day, from food-trucks to small bakeries, from boutique restaurants to BBQ masters, from artisan breweries to detox juice-bars. Spotting that, there is undoubtedly a huge opportunity there for someone who wants to specialize in a photography genre. Being a factotum photographer nowadays isn’t a wise call, you need to be able to stick to a genre and develop it consistently through time. Food photography happens under “controlled” situations and is very open to styled related enhancements.
Be Passionate
No kidding? Yup, we know that this one is highly obvious, but hold it down for a second. You need to be as passionate with light as your clients are intense for their food. You need to be able to cope with the looks with the flavors. Cooks are always concerned about the flavor more than the looks, and you will be focused exactly in the opposite direction, so be careful, you need to be able to balance the two. Contemporary cooks have more to do with artists than you would imagine, they have structured and complex ideas that build up their entire restaurant concepts, so you need to pay close attention in order to truly understand the soul behind their dishes. If you are able to understand a creative concept, then you’ll have the advantage over other photographers that are trying to build a food photography style.
Food Visuals aren’t New
Still-life isn’t new either, and one of the main themes of it was (and still is) food. We can learn a lot of the dark and moody light that those paintings had in order to make a more compelling and easier to crave food photography. Therefore, there is a huge legacy behind us that could help us in getting better food photography ideas. Revisiting the past is always a nice way of innovating in the future.
The Organic Look
Way before the rise of social media, food photography was aimed in a baroque direction, focused on idealized conceptions of food and flavor. Nowadays the organic and even raw look is more pleasing for us. Food is responding nowadays more to a moodier narrative, which results in a pretty realistic visual experience. This reduces the huge gap between reality and expectations of big-name billboards which spend serious amounts of money in their ads.
Food Photography ≠ Food Style
One of the main problems one encounter as a newcomer to food photography is the fact that food styling and food photography are completely different disciplines, and each has their own secrets. Food stylers have developed plenty of knowledge about food make-up and how to make food last longer during a photoshoot. Food photographers, on the other hand, have to develop more graphic design related skills in order to assembly aesthetic looking plates.
Chefs won’t do Their Photos
Well, of course, they can do them, but there is a high chance that creative cooks would like to have a professional photographer capturing their creations than themselves. At least they start considering that way of doing things after some failed attempts. Trust us, food photography has its tricks, but it is a nice genre to work with. Serious chefs are aware of the complexity behind making a dish look good, just like they know that designing their dishes isn’t an easy thing to do. There is profound mutual respect between creatives that should be exploited more these days.
You Need to Understand Light
Everything in photography is about light, and food isn’t an exception to this rule. Light enables food photographers to enhance or flatten out textures, depending on the visual intentions of the concept that the chefs handle. In cultural terms, we can say that there are some dishes with a strong relationship with feelings and emotions that span between the nostalgic and the outrageous. Your lighting decisions should correspond and even comply with those highly expected feelings that are embedded in people’s minds. It doesn’t matter if you are shooting with a phone, a point, and shoot camera, a chunky DSLR or a mirrorless camera system. Even an analog film camera can work, what really matters in food photography is composition and lighting decisions.
Have a Visual Script for Preparing the Food
This one is being bored from the conceptualization process, a fundamental element in artistic photography. Even if you are not creating a fine art piece, this should be considered. Start jotting down some ideas, make some sketches, decide composition on paper, think wisely about the color pallet that will hold your photographs together, etc. This isn’t a precise recipe, and there aren’t perfectly designed step-by-step guides either. You need to start doing things in a systematized way so you can reduce improvisations during the food photography session. Designing the plate on paper (or a pdf file) will guarantee you a higher degree of control during the shoot.
Some Nice & Easy to Perform Tips and Tricks
Here is a brief list of easy things that you could start doing today in order to capture better food photographs.
We hope that this brief list of things to consider and tips will inspire you into making better food photographs. Remember that beyond technique, graphic design skills will help you out into producing more pleasant compositions and food arrangements. Understanding light will help you out into making your dishes talk for themselves. Food photography isn’t easy, and by now we are sure that you know this better. Practice daily, and above all, enjoy it. Do what you love, and love what you do!
Related Online Photography Courses
Give a friend $15 off their first class and we’ll take $15 off your next one
get started
Or use your personal link to share:
You’re going to love Art And Creativity! Use my link to take $15 off your first Art And Creativity class!
Share with your friends using Twitter. When posting please do not delete your personal link.
Share with your friends using Facebook Messenger by clicking the button below:
(0) 