Today’s Questions with a Pro features Francesco Tonelli. Francesco left his career as a professional chef to become a food photographer, and now brings the eye of a true master to everything he shoots from table to farm and beyond.
See more of Francesco’s exquisite imagery on his website.
We Asked: Your work encompasses a wide range of genres – food, architecture, people, cityscapes, farms – do you have any advice for those struggling to achieve a consistency of vision across multiple subjects?
Francesco Says: Most of my work is food and that’s what I am most comfortable shooting. But when my work with chefs and restaurants started demanding chef’s portraits, architectural shots of the space or outdoor shots of farms and landscapes, I embraced it in the best way I could and tried my best to give those shots my own style and personal vision.
The only advice I could give is: try to find a connection with your subject, get excited about it, no matter what it is and try to capture it in the the way your eyes see it. Research possible shooting techniques and tools for your new subject and practice before the real shoot to become familiar outside your usual comfort zone.
In all honesty, initially I was uncomfortable stepping outside of my comfort zone, which is food, and although food still remains my number one subject, I enjoy my small adventures outside of it more and more, and have come to love experimenting with new angles, tools and techniques to capture other subjects such as people or interiors.
We Asked: You’ve trained as a master chef and are known for doing much of your own food styling. How does that background play into your marketing, pricing and relationships with your clients?
Francesco Says: That’s a great question. I think my background has been the key element to my business. Initially, anything I lacked in experience with photography, I made up for with my experience of the subject I was photographing. My relationship with clients has benefitted greatly from my culinary expertise and credentials, which gave my clients confidence that I would understand their product in a way that went beyond the aesthetic aspects of shape and photography. We could relate in the way we thought the product would show it’s best appetite appeal and how to treat it to make it look its best.
In my marketing, I have always pointed to the advantage of being a chef and styling my own food. Initially this was seen as a disadvantage as art buyers believed that working with a food stylist would have made the shoot proceed faster and more efficiently. And, I must admit that when I faced those concerns I started thinking the same until I tried, several times, and noted that the shoot was not necessarily going faster and that my idle time, waiting for the food stylist to prepare the food, was no different that if I were styling the food myself. In fact often I felt I would have moved faster, because I knew exactly what I needed to do to achieve the changes necessary under the light and through the lenses.
Soon my clients recognized the advantage of being able to communicate their needs directly to me and skip one extra filter in communicating their vision and needs, and we found out that many shots moved along a lot more efficiently and effectively.
Don’t take me wrong, I admire the work of many stylists and there are many occasions where I find it preferable, or even necessary, to work with one, especially when a very specific style or specialization is desired, like in the case of fake ice cream for example.
But in most food shoots, being a chef, understanding the product and being able to style it directly myself has been a growing selling point that made my shoots more effective and efficient.
Regarding pricing, in general there is no significant difference in a commercial shoot budget as I charge for food styling when doing it myself so when the client chooses to have me style the food, it is not to save money on the food stylist. But I must admit to having an advantage when it comes to low budget editorial shoots and personal work, where I can undertake complicated food shots independently and without incurring the cost or coordinating the schedule of a freelance food stylist.
We Asked: What advice do you have for photographers who are struggling to master lighting?
Francesco Says: Keep it simple. Most of my work is done using one single light source.
If this post was of interest to you, then check out some of the other posts in the Questions with a Pro and Questions with an Educator series.