Floating Food

Georgia D. :: Class of 2023

Ever wonder how these photos were taken? For this project we are going to explore the idea of floating food. This can be done with a whole meal, or something more simple, but there needs to be a lot of planning and some setup.  You can do this with a single item, but using something that has several layers (sandwich, or hamburger, or a stack of pancakes) adds to the interest of the final image. Do you want this to be funny? How about holding your hand below to levitate the food. Or what about throwing something at the camera (please fake throw) to make it fun?

What Am I Learning: How to use LR & PS to create imagery that cannot be created in the camera

Why Is This Important: Photographers can feel limited by their camera and this helps to break that reliance on the camera alone

How Will I Know I am Successful: ​When I create an image using new editing techniques that are otherwise impossible to capture by using the camera alone

Assignment:

Create 2 floating food images. Remember items with more physical layers is more interesting, but having those layers be easily attached helps to make them interesting (i.e. it is very hard to float a layered trifle or an ice cream cone). You will need to take several images of each food to give yourself options, but the setup is most important. Think about a clean background to make it easier to use the content-aware fill option, also think about your lighting. Creating a mini studio is helpful in making this very clean in post production. 

Steps:

• Start by checking out this website on one way to photograph your floating food
• Also check out this video on throwing a donut (this one was done with clear fishing wire)
• Think of ideas—what kind of food do you want to float? Think back to your food photography project
• You are creating 2 floating food images, you want to take several images for options but they may be of the same setup. Remember to change your lighting.
• Post-production is where these are going to come together by erasing objects that hold the food up, so be sure to have a clean background that is easy to use for content-aware fill. 

Objective: To create interest in your image by implementing photoshop editing techniques to make pieces of your photo disappear