I was very pleased to be commissioned to produce packshots for North Yorkshire based makers of delicious seasonal soup, Yorkshire Provender, and to spend an enjoyable morning in the studio last week with its co-founder, chef and inspiring food enthusiast Belinda Williams.
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Daylight was used for a natural feel for the propped “lifestyle” images. Copyright Tony May 2013.
Yorkshire Provender have just moved to more eco-friendly packaging of recycled card and lightweight plastic pouches. That reduces both the amount of plastic used and the weight of packaging around the food, which means less waste and less energy used in transportation. So “packshot ” images of the soup in its new packs were required for press releases, website and editorial use.
Belinda uses only fresh (not frozen) seasonal ingredients in her recipes and there are summer and winter ranges. The Yorkshire Provender ethos means sourcing fresh ingredients from local and British farms where possible. The soups are stocked nationwide in Waitrose and Co-op supermarkets and in northern branches of Tesco, Morrisons and Asda as well as independent grocers and cafes.
The photography brief was for two “lifestyle” images showing the new packs along with a plain white background packshot of each of the six soups in the winter range.
Having tested a few different angles for the packshots to find the best viewpoint to convey the shape and design of the new packs and most importantly to show the soup, the studio flash was switched off and the blackouts removed to create a natural daylight set for the propped “lifestyle” photography.
These images were kept simple in terms of props – a tabletop, a handful of small ingredients, some bread and an uncluttered background. Once the images were shot, Belinda could keep her next appointment and it was a case of changing the studio round again to shoot the five remaining packshots.
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Packshots of three of the winter soups. Copyright Tony May 2013.
Some lighting notes and the ability to overlay images whist shooting in Capture One meant it was possible to reproduce with great precision (and a little patience!) the viewpoint, scale and perspective of the shot of the first pack in the morning. A few tweaks to ensure accurate reproduction of colours and the images were ready to be used in conjunction with the appearance of the new packs in shops this week.