Have you thought about the top skills that you need to be successful as a food photographer? Mastering a craft or creative endeavour requires the consistent development of both hard and soft skills.
Hard skills are the knowledge and abilities you need to perform your work, such as operating your camera or using editing software like Capture One Pro. Soft skills are less tangible, and allow you to be successful at your business.
Examples of soft skills are organizations, listening, and time management skills. In fact, you need many soft skills to be a successful food photographer. When you have your own photography business, you typically only spend about 25% of your time actually shooting. The rest of the time you are promoting and managing the many facets of the business, which requires these soft skills.
In this post, I’ll talk about the top skills that I think are required to be successful as a food photographer working today. This is a general breakdown as opposed to an exhaustive list, but something to think about when assessing your food photography goals. You want to make sure that you’re developing yourself in all of these areas in order to achieve the success that you want.
Technical Skills
Photography is the perfect marriage of the technical and creative. You need skills in both areas to succeed.
Technical skills are the foundation. Your camera and other gear such as studio lights are the instruments of your work, and you need to be fluent in their use.
Some photographers are naturally more technical than others. Many photographers—such as myself—shoot using their intuition. This is great. Observing your light is just as useful as measuring it, and it we all have different ways of approaching our work.
However, you still need a certain level of knowledge on the technical side to adequately capture your images and realize your creative vision. You need to know the ins-and-out of your camera and your editing software, and most likely, an understanding of flash and how it differs from continuous lighting.
I struggled with the technical side of photography for a long time before I finally biting bullet and going to photography school. I learn better when something is demonstrated for me, and when I first started out, there were not as many resources online as there are now. You couldn’t really find that info on YouTube.
That being said, I’m still learning. Technology is rapidly evolving, and there is always something more to learn about how light behaves. In fact, I had an instructor once say that he’d been teaching for thirty years and he was still learning about light.
Creative Skills
Technical skills are crucial, but without creativity, your photos will fall flat. I’ve seen many photographers obsess about gear and having the latest and greatest, who love to geek out over the physics of light and the more technical aspects of photography, but when it comes to the aesthetic, their images lack the emotional connection that draws the viewer in.
Some people are naturally more creative than others, as some people are more technical. However, I also believe that creativity is a habit. A muscle that you learn to build and flex through daily practice. Creativity is the product of preparation and effort.
When I started shooting food, I had no idea about how to apply compositional principles to my scene, or to style props and my dishes for the camera. I learned through reading books, taking classes, studying visual art, including the work of other photographers (not just food photographers) and practicing every day.
And I still do this, because I want to get better. I know that even though I’ve been shooting for thirteen years, that I can get better and that I haven’t yet mastered my craft. When I review my images, I can see that the ones that I’ve shot this year are better than those I took last year. The previous year, my work was better than the year before. And so on. This is how it should be.
Practicing as much as possible is how you improve. If you only shoot for your blog or clients, take the time to photograph personal projects—things that you really want to shoot in the way you want to shoot them. Don’t rush the process and see what comes out of it. Taking your time will put you in a creative flow state.
Study art and observe the light and the world around you.
Attention to Detail
I’ve noticed that people who enjoy food and other forms of still life photography are often those who naturally tend to pay attention to detail. This is a crucial soft skill for a food photographer.
The purpose of your image is to sell a product. Your job is to create an emotion connection to the food for the viewer, and make them want to eat it. This means that the food needs to look perfect—or at least perfect for the intention of the shot. For some photos, perfectly imperfect is the goal, with crumbs on the surface and drips of sauce inviting the viewer into a food scene. These elements are artfully placed, of course, so there is intentionality there.
The placement of the props and subject, the overall composition and lighting are all crucial, but you need to develop your eye to spot anything that looks incorrect or out of place. This can be hard if you’re relying on the back of your camera, so make sure that you’re using tethering software. You’ll be able to see a larger rendition of your photos and spot any mistakes.
Successful food photography is about attention to the finer details and how they come together.
Problem-Solving Skills
When working with clients, it’s especially important to have good problem solving skills. In fact, you’re always problem solving when you’re shooting — adjusting the light that’s too harsh or flat, fine-tuning the composition so it’s more appealing to the eye—but you’ll also have problems continually cropping up when you’re on set with clients. You can have technical issues such as your software crashing or your lens not wanting to focus, or problems getting the food looking how the client wants it.
There can be a communication breakdown between you and the client, about the direction of the shoot, or they may not like the way the images are turning out. These are all problems that you need to be able to anticipate and resolve.
Being a food photographer means that you’re solving problems all the time.
Communication Skills
Without good communication skills, it’s very difficult to succeed as a food photographer. The first hurdle is understanding what the client wants, as many will approach you with only a vague idea. You can help them create a shot list or provide them with mood boards. The old saying about a picture being worth a thousand words is true. Nothing communicates more effectively than an example of a look that is sought, or even getting the client to refer to your own body work and point out what images resonate with them.
Speaking effectively and professionally, actively listening, and even writing clear and concise emails are all communication skills that you need to pay attention to and develop.
For example, if you’re not a good writer, take time to sit down and write some email templates that you can send to prospects you want to reach out to, or for those who reach out to you. Get a friend to help your edit and proofread them. Having these templates will not only help you put your best foot forward when communicating with your clients, but also save you time from having to reinvent the wheel every time you sit down to respond to an enquiry.
In Conclusion
You need many skills both hard and soft to be a successful food photographer but above all, you need to be willing to learn and to take the time to develop these skills. Practice and patience is ultimately lead you to the success as a working food photographer.
Are you struggling with the technical side of photography. Do you want to learn more about artificial light and don’t know where to start? Check out my eBook LightShaping: Getting Started with Artificial Light for Food Photography. You’ll get a bundle of four PDFs: an eBook that is over 100 pages, a gear guide, and exposure guide, a principles of light cheat sheet that you can have handy when you’re shooting to help you understand what you’re light source is going to do as you adjust it.
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