Will bloggers with the iPhone 5s and the VSCO Cam Photo App that enables control of focus, exposure and white balance change food photography and reduce the demand for professionally shot food images?
After reading this
Wired Magazine story Brendan I. Koerner I asked Martin Skultety, General Managing Director of
StockFood for his thoughts.
Hello Jim,
Thanks for your message.
I agree with Brandan in many ways. Technology is no longer the hurdle to shoot flawless food images. Just like Brandan, I'm also stunned about the many incredibly talented people out there sharing their food shots on social media websites.
However, I would put a big question mark behind the statement that nowadays in food photography "everyone is a professional". To create great food pictures at a certain consistency you need far more skills than choosing the best smartphone. The saying among photographers that "if you can shoot food you can shoot anything" goes for a reason. Professional food photography is often about discipline, teamwork and timing. It can take an entire day to get the perfect lighting, but seconds for whipped cream to run. Ever heard of any models being more cranky than that?
Chronicling private dining exploits might generate a lot of interest among friends and followers. A few smart posts can turn you into a social media rockstar. But from an income perspective, the stock photo market for random private food shots is small and completely oversaturated. Shooting impeccable images with faultless cameras just wouldn't pay for a living.
Joseph Beuys used to say that "everyone is an artist". He meant to say that we all have our creative potentials, no matter if evident or clandestine. He certainly didn't intend to say that everyone could make a living as an artist.
Most food image buyers are looking for exceptional recipes and highly creative arrangements. They are happy to pay for content to be used in their media or advertising projects. They don't want to waste time browsing around Instagram, by trying to identify people behind nicknames or by running into copyright issues. What they need is easy access to great, cheap and safe content.
That's exactly what agencies like StockFood offer. We source, select, keyword and provide all the legal guarantees.
By the way, we are actively sourcing the best talents across all major social media platforms and introduce their stellar images to the stock photo industry. Just check out
blog.stockfood.com/category/food-blogs-en/
Kind regards
Martin Skultety