I’ve been showing you a lot of samples of Advertising Food Photography and new I wanted to show you samples of editorial food photography so you can understand the difference. While I’d admit that I shoot mostly for advertising purposes, many time my Pittsburgh and national clients want a little “different” look and that’s when I get to go a little more in the direction of editorial food photography. In fact, I love shooting this kind of project, because it’s more about making pretty pictures and entertaining the viewers, which is a nice change for me. I wish I got to do a little more of this and in the future, I think I may point my business in this direction.
Basically, if I had to describe the differences in lighting between advertising and editorial food photography, I’d say it’s in the lighting. Sure there are other differences to, like composition, but the lighting is the main thing. Editorial Food Photography tends to be lit more softly. Soft food photography lighting tends to be “prettier” and more appealing, especially for “wider” food photos. What I mean by “softer” lighting is that the shadows are less crisp. Check out the photos I have posted down below. They tend to have softer light and this, in my opinion, helps makes them a little more “editorial” in feel. The soup photo may be the exception to this, but I guess you can be the judge of that. And if you’re a reader from a city other than Pittsburgh, the same ideas apply.
Note that when you’re looking at food photography how editorial food photography tends to have softer light. There are other things that make these photos less commercial and more editorial, but lighting is one if the main things that tilts the scale toward editorial. We’ll explore the other things in future posts…
I still think of this shot as editorial in nature, btu the lighting is still pretty crisp
Another things that make a food photo appear to me more editorial, is it's simplicity.
