Precious objects
With a combination of small compositions, stellar lighting and minimalistic aesthetics, you can make anything look precious
Here’s yet another interpretation of close – in the sense of close attention to detail. This shot was the culmination of a lot of planning and discussion with a client – Hakkasan Group, who run the eponymous Michelin-starred restaurants, for which I’m working as a photography consultant.
Much of this prior work went into styling the brand’s photography, which meant developing a style (or presentation, setting, lighting and so on) that would be identifiable and would mesh with the dining experience in these high-end restaurants. Dark and rich was the fundamental need, with the food strikingly and appetisingly lit – that meant shooting in a dark setting, from which the dishes had to ‘pop’ brightly. However, there was another layer of presentation I proposed.
This is Cantonese cuisine taken to a high level, and a significant part of the menu was taken up with dims, which are the bite-sized creations, usually steamed, or wrapped dumplings. In fact, they are exquisite small creations, and one of my basic proposals was a ‘precious object’ approach. The idea is to treat each of them as a precious thing, like edible jewellery. The shooting style flowed naturally from this principle. Just think how you would shoot jewellery, or an expensive watch.
Exquisite details
First, isolate them from the normal serving setting, which is steamer baskets. I’d chosen black Perspex as a basic surface, because in a quiet way it mimics black lacquer, which has all the right Asian quality connotations. Next, shoot from low. Eye-level to a small object (this is almost macro shooting, using a Nikon 105mm macro lens) automatically elevates it in terms of importance, much better than looking down on it as a diner would. The longer focal length of the 105mm helped this process, by not only allowing a less
Dark and rich was the fundamental need, with the food strikingly and appetisingly lit – that meant shooting in a dark setting, from which the dishes had to ‘pop’ brightly
crowded camera position a little further back, but by the subtle perspective ‘flattening’, similar to shooting a portrait, where a medium telephoto gives more flattering proportions to the nose and to the face in general.
The lighting too was carefully chosen, using small mirrors to sculpt the shadow fill from a single bank (see last month for a similar explanation of studio still-life lighting), and importantly a precision spot with a concentrated beam focused on the toppings and the edges.
Depth of field? Full, because while selective focus can be very attractive in close-up, adding colour wash, here I wanted each small dim sum to have as much commanding presence as possible. I shot fully stopped down, and the theoretical loss of sharpness to diffraction wasn’t even noticeable to the naked eye.