Your estimate is important because it helps your client understand the value they’re getting for their money. Once they decide to work with you, your client estimate is one of the first things you’ll provide. It should be inclusive so that the client isn’t hit with any surprises when they get your final invoice.

Different photographers do things differently. In general, though, estimates should include similar things across the board. Let’s dive into what those are.

What to Include in Your Client Estimate

Here are some of the non-negotiables that you should always include in your client estimates.

• Client name
• Brief description of the job
• Your fees
• Outlined production costs, where applicable—studio hire, stylist, prop hire, etc.
• Ingredients and food—at cost, where applicable
• Number of images you’ll supply
• Type of licensing
• Deposit amount (and when this is due!)
• Total amount
• Disclaimer

It’s worth noting that the disclaimer is a key part of your client estimate. It lets the client know that what you’ve given them is an estimate, not an invoice. Translation: some fees, like production costs and ingredients, are subject to change. Don’t skip this!

Photo by NORTHFOLK on Unsplash

Estimate vs Final Invoice

You’ll send the client your estimate in the negotiation stage—and it should be labelled an ‘estimate’ so that it’s clear to the client that the final total will probably be different. In addition to the disclaimer, you should communicate this to your client via phone or email.

Here’s an example of how you can go about this:

Hi [client name],

I’m really excited to work on this project with you! Please find attached my estimated costs for this commission.

As discussed, my fees will be $xx for the two concepts (excluding any prop hire and ingredients, which are additional).
I’d love to make your vision a reality, so please let me know if this falls within your budget. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,
Rachel

Once the job is done, you’ll send your final invoice. To produce this, you’ll simply take your estimated fee items from the estimate and include the final numbers. Make sure you take into account any deposit the client paid when calculating the total owed.

Always chasing payments? Check out my post on tips for getting paid promptly.

Interested in learning more about the business of food photography? Read all of the articles in our Food Photography Business Series:

Building Your Base: Finding New Clients for Paid Work

Knowing Your Worth: How to Handle Free Work Opportunities

Stop Chasing Clients! A Quick Guide to Image Licensing

How to Get Paid (Without Any Chasing)

Signs You Need to Charge More – 3 Tips to Raising Your Prices

How Many Images to Supply (And When to Give More)

Onboarding and Educating Clients—What it is and How to Do it

The post Everything You Need to Know About Client Estimates appeared first on Two Loves Studio.

The best way to ensure smooth paid shoots is to educate clients on the work that’s involved.

Sure, you’re the expert—but your clients want to know that the amount of work matches their investment. You want to get them the best value-for-money package.

Educating clients can be difficult at first—especially if you’re dealing with a heated client who disagrees with your rates.

Generally, though, clients are receptive and will be willing to work with you if they like your art.

Onboarding and Educating Clients

1. Why You Need to Do it
2. What Do They Need to Know
3. Image Quantity
4. Deposits
5. Copyright and Licensing
6. Shoot Timing
7. Image Delivery Time

Why Do You Need to be Educating Your Clients?

Let’s look at it from the client’s perspective. Photography isn’t their area of expertise—which is why they’re commissioning you.

Maybe they’ve had five different photographers create images for them in the past. Each one ran their business differently. Some were inexperienced and didn’t know who owned copyright or how to license their images.

Perhaps some handed over every image they shot and/or they didn’t even ask the client to sign a contract!

Then, they hire you and suddenly there are ‘rules.’ Clients usually go one of two ways—they’re either impressed and feel like they’re in good hands because you act professionally, or they wonder why you’re making things difficult and won’t give them every RAW file you shot.

Remember that your clients love your work and want to work with you. They will appreciate you taking the time to educate them about your processes and ensure that the work you produce for them is of the highest quality.

Only once in my career thus far have I had a client tell me to go jump because he didn’t believe that I, the photographer, owned the images.

This isn’t the type of client you want to work with and they’re doing you a favour by walking away. There are clients for all kinds of photographers—find the ones willing to play ball with how you do things.

Educating Clients Check List: What Do They Need to Know?

In general, you want to be educating clients about basic workflow and legal items. Your processes may already cover some of this information, but sometimes you may need to have a more in-depth discussion with them.

Here are some of the key things you’ll want to cover with each client.

#1. Image Quantity

The best return on investment for your client is quality images over quantity. They have a split second to capture someone’s attention on social media—and that’s done with a few high-quality images, not a bunch of mediocre ones.

Fewer images don’t equal less professionalism. It’s actually more professional to deliver three killer, jaw-dropping images than 50 that are just okay.

#2. Deposits

From the outset, set the expectation that your client will need to be a deposit to secure the shoot. If they’re being difficult about providing a deposit, they’re probably going to be difficult in other areas, too. 

#3. Copyright and Licensing

This is a huge topic, and it usually only comes up if the client has previously worked with photographers who don’t understand the concept or weren’t confident enough to price on it. You should educate your client on copyright and licensing in any correspondence and on your estimate, invoice, and contract.

#4. Shoot Timing

If you’ll be working on location with the client, it’s important to educate them on how long it takes to perform a shoot. If you’re shooting from home or a studio and your client is working remotely, this may or may not come up.

#5. Image Delivery Time

The turnaround time is how long after the shoot your client will get the images. You want to discuss this with them so that they don’t contact you asking for the images—which wouldn’t make for a good client experience.

If the client wants their images sooner than your turnaround time, you can charge an additional fee.

Learn how to provide clients with an estimate for their shoot.

Interested in learning more about the business of food photography? Read all of the articles in our Food Photography Business Series:

Everything You Need to Know About Client Estimates

Building Your Base: Finding New Clients for Paid Work

Knowing Your Worth: How to Handle Free Work Opportunities

Stop Chasing Clients! A Quick Guide to Image Licensing

How to Get Paid (Without Any Chasing)

Signs You Need to Charge More – 3 Tips to Raising Your Prices

How Many Images to Supply (And When to Give More)

The post Onboarding and Educating Clients—What it is and How to do it appeared first on Two Loves Studio.

Let me start by saying that there should be no such thing as free work.

If you’re not working for money, you should be working for value or opportunity.

The sooner you start to think like a business, the better you will get at spotting good opportunities.

Here’s how to determine whether ‘free’ work is worth it and how to handle it.

How to Handle Free Work: Assessing ‘Free’ Work Pitches

If someone pitches you ‘free’ work, assess the value of the opportunity it will give you in return. If it will give you the right kind of exposure or the right clients, take it! The trickiest part is identifying those opportunities.

Here are some questions to help you decide:

• Does your ideal client follow this business?
• Does this opportunity align with your values, and brand and/or have an aligned following?
• Will this brand or business give you exposure, or are they scamming you for free content? Will they highlight your services?
• Is there enough value or opportunity to be worth your time? How long will it take to complete? Will it take you away from other promotional activities?

If a pitch feels like a ploy to get free content from you, it probably is. Big brands have the budget to employ creatives.

Of course, sometimes the best way to learn is to take a chance and measure the outcomes. It will help you decide which opportunities to pursue in the future.

Negotiating Your Terms

So, you’ve decided to take on some free work in return for value or opportunity—congrats! But make it on your terms.

Here’s what that could look like:

• Adjusting the offering or amount of work that you will do
• Requesting that the client share the work on certain channels—these should always be the ones that your audience is most engaged with
• Negotiating the number of images, when you’ll deliver them, and how long the client can use them (aka add licencing terms)

Any work you do should benefit your brand. If it isn’t offering enough value or opportunity or you can’t agree on reasonable terms, don’t hesitate to move on to something else. Your time and talent is valuable—don’t sell yourself short.

Ready to get down to business with a client? Learn how to educate clients about the ways you work (trust me—you’ll be doing everyone a favour!)

Interested in learning more about the business of food photography? Read all of the articles in our Food Photography Business Series:

Everything You Need to Know About Client Estimates

Building Your Base: Finding New Clients for Paid Work

Stop Chasing Clients! A Quick Guide to Image Licensing

How to Get Paid (Without Any Chasing)

Signs You Need to Charge More – 3 Tips to Raising Your Prices

How Many Images to Supply (And When to Give More)

Onboarding and Educating Clients—What it is and How to Do it

The post Knowing Your Worth: How to Handle Free Work Opportunities appeared first on Two Loves Studio.

Is there a “secret” to finding new clients for your business and for paid work? Well, one thing is certain in your career: you’re always going to need to create the best content and images you can—and create a lot of them. 

Like with SEO, it takes time to see results from your efforts. But it only takes one post to go viral. One post to be noticed by the right people. One post for that client to connect with you.

The work you put in today? It’s going to benefit you in the future. And you will get noticed by the right people—but you have to give it time. The biggest mistake most people make is quitting too quickly.

Let’s dive into how you can get started finding new clients for your business and secure paid work.

Finding Clients: Leveraging What Works For Others

Start by trying strategies that you learn from others—but don’t expect that they’ll all work for you or yield the same results. Figuring out what works for you and your business will require some degree of experimentation. Find a starting point and then test, adjust, and master.

Remember, too, that just because a particular strategy doesn’t work for you right now doesn’t mean that it won’t work in the future. It also doesn’t mean that your work isn’t good enough. It is—for the right client.

Pushing through in the face of uncertainty is the hardest part about being a freelance photographer. But you can do it. You’ve got this.

WATCH — Failures & Setbacks: 10 Years of Running a Food Photography Business.

Researching and Finding Clients

When it comes to researching clients, most photographers will open Instagram and make a list of brands they want to work for. Easy peasy—but it’s not that simple when finding new clients. 

What really matters is finding the types of brands that are the best fit for your level of experience and image quality. That isn’t always so easy.

So who can clients be? Here are some ideas to get you thinking:

• Large or small brands with food or lifestyle products
• Large or small magazines
• Local publications
• Branding and social media agencies
• Local cafes and restaurants
• Small startup brands and local businesses
• Small international businesses
• Stock agencies
• Chefs, bloggers, business owners, and personalities

Feeling overwhelmed? I can relate.

Instead of creating a long list of clients all at once, try spending your time on social media a little more wisely. Start small while still keeping an eye on larger clients you’d like to work with. Remember that small doesn’t always equal no budget! I’ve worked with lots of small businesses culminating in commissions of more than $10,000 over time.

A Rundown of My Clients

Work can come from many different places, so be open. With that in mind, I want to share some of the types of clients that I’ve worked with. Some of them approached me, and some of them I approached.

• National and international publications
• Local and state-based publications
• Local restaurants, cafes, shops, and bars
• Small publishers creating magazines, bookazines, and books
• International supermarket chains
• Social media and production agencies who need social and editorial content for clients
• Small businesses—butchers, online tea stores, dieticians, naturopaths, tablewares and pottery, food brands, health coaches, authors
• International food and hotel chains

One of the best things about food photography is that you can do it remotely. It’s the reason I’ve worked on some crazy assignments—a burger menu for a Malaysian restaurant chain, colour-themed imagery for sample print brochures for an Italian luxury paper company, and images for a UK bakery to name just a few!

More clients need our images than you can imagine. My hope is that this gives you some insight into the different avenues that you can explore for finding the right clients for you.

Have a free work opportunity? Learn which opportunities and worth it and how to handle them.

Interested in learning more about the business of food photography? Read all of the articles in our Food Photography Business Series:

Everything You Need to Know About Client Estimates

Knowing Your Worth: How to Handle Free Work Opportunities

Stop Chasing Clients! A Quick Guide to Image Licensing

How to Get Paid (Without Any Chasing)

Signs You Need to Charge More – 3 Tips to Raising Your Prices

How Many Images to Supply (And When to Give More)

Onboarding and Educating Clients—What it is and How to Do it

The post Building Your Base: Finding New Clients for Paid Work appeared first on Two Loves Studio.

Pricing is a hot, and often scary, topic! It feels like a daunting task to come up with a photography pricing structure and often there isn’t anyone to help with that!

I was very lucky at the start of my journey that I had people around me who could help me. If that’s not you, don’t worry — that’s what this post is for!

This post is the first in a series of three.

• Pricing Influences — Part 1
• Calculating Figures — Part 2
• Pricing Tips — Part 3

Food Photography Pricing Part 1 in a Nutshell!

In this edition, my aim is to set you up for thinking about your pricing. A lot goes into coming up with a price. The three main things we are going to cover are:

1. Who are your ideal clients?
2. How much do you want to earn each year?
3. Pricing Influences

To lay the foundation, I’m going to get you thinking about three important questions:

Let’s dive in!

Getting Started: The Two Questions to Ask Yourself

Now that you’re ready to start tackling your food photography pricing, there are two questions that you need to ask yourself:

Who are your ideal clients and how much would you like to earn per year?

Let’s explore these ideas a bit more.

Who Are Your Ideal Clients?

Take a moment to think about who your ideal clients are, both now and in the immediate future.

The client list that you come up with should match your current set of skills. This is an ever-expanding task, so you can always add bigger clients to this list down the track.

Things to ask yourself are:

• Is your ideal client in a certain niche?
• Are they a small, boutique or large well-known brand?
• Will they want editorial, product or commercial-type images?
• What sort of images do you want to create or projects do you want to work on?
• How often will you ideally work with them?

Being as specific as possible with your questions will help you to create a solid idea of what sorts of clients you’re looking to work with. This will shape your photography pricing.

ACTION:

Make a list of your ideal clients. Get as specific as writing down brands or names of magazines etc.

Don’t let those thoughts creep into your head that you’re not good enough to work with the people you want to.

How Much Do You Want To Get Paid Per Year?

Now I know this can be an arbitrary question, but how much do you want to make per year?

It might be unrealistic to think that we can replace a full-time salary in the first year of freelancing.

Good questions to ask yourself are: How much would you need to make to maintain your lifestyle? Or what do I need to contribute to my household to keep a roof over our heads?

ACTION:

Write down the figure you want to get paid per year.

Factors that Influence Food Photography Pricing

Despite what you might think, your price isn’t solely a reflection of how good your work is. Shocking I know.

The following factors will play a role in determining your price:

• The quality of your work
• Perceived value of your work
• Your confidence level
• Competition

Some of these aren’t tangible and therefore subjective. This makes pricing hard. Let’s cover these more in-depth.

The Quality of Your Work

Some might say this reads as ‘how good are you at photography’? But what we’re really asking is what is the quality of your:

• Images
• Lighting, gear, props
• Food styling skills
• Editing
• Business skills

Another way to put it is at what stage are your business or skills? Beginner, intermediate or advanced? How long does it take you to do a shoot?

One of the reasons a beginner charges less is because it takes them longer to do a photoshoot. As you get quicker, and your quality goes up, you will charge more.

ACTION:

Think about the quality of your current work. Does it match your current ideal client?

Perceived Value of Your Work

Perceived value is the worth of a product or service in the mind of the client.

This value will influence the amount the client is willing to pay for your products and services. A lot of the time some clients won’t understand just how much work goes into creating an image or they aren’t able to see the benefits quality photography will provide to their business.

What do you perceive the value of your work to be? Will the client see that value as well?

Getting these two to match up is an important factor in effective food photography pricing.

ACTION:

Think about what you perceive the value of your work to be. Does it match the quality of your work and your current ideal client?

Your Confidence Level

Confidence in terms of pricing for me comes down to two things, how confident you are as a photographer and how confident you are with your price.

As you get further into your freelancing career, you’ll have a better understanding of your costs, your time investment and what you should be paid.

You’ll be able to speak more confidently about why you are worth what you charge.

You’ll start to complete jobs more quickly. This is when your price per hour, per image or per concept, will rise.

As you get more jobs under your belt, you’ll be able to tackle these issues and get results faster.

ACTION: 

On your next shoot (paid or love project), write down every task you did to complete the job and how long each took you.

The Competition

It is hard to know what your competitors charge, I know, but your clients are most likely comparing your photography pricing with theirs and matching that to their perceived value — yikes!

At the end of the day, your work and style are what sets you apart from your competitors. If the client wants your work they will (hopefully) be open to trying to find ways to make it work where you both win.

I try not to focus on what others are offering. We all have different perceived values and overheads. We have different goals and different styles.

ACTION:

Can you find out what your competitors charge? If so, write down their prices and what that includes.

Next up, we’re going to get into the nitty-gritty of those ‘numbers and figures, go through an example and I’ll even provide you with the template I use for my food photography pricing.

READ NEXT: The Complete Guide to Food Photography Pricing: Calculating Figures

The post The Complete Guide to Food Photography Pricing: Pricing Influences appeared first on Two Loves Studio.

In this last post, I want to share some pricing tips when it comes to talking about pricing with clients and getting paid.

If you haven’t read the other posts in this series, make sure to check them out:

• Pricing Influences — Part 1
• Calculating Figures — Part 2
• Pricing Tips — Part 3

Tips For Confidently Pricing Your Food Photography

Most of my tips come from experience and mistakes I made early on! Here are some tips to think about when pricing your food photography:

• TIP 1: It’s better to increase your prices later than decrease
• TIP 2: Prices in writing command authority
• TIP 3: Give estimates over final project costs
• TIP 4: Only give discounts for future work
• TIP 5: Ask for a non-refundable deposit

We will cover these more in detail below.

It’s Better To Increase Your Price Later Than Decrease

It is much harder to go backwards and decrease your prices because you made a mistake or find clients aren’t willing to pay those figures than to increase in the near future.

This doesn’t mean that you have to undercharge but err on the side of caution when starting.

Increasing your pricing six months down the track looks like your business is flourishing and you’re gaining more skills, than reducing your pricing because your current skill set didn’t match up with perceived value.

If you find that you’re working too much or rarely hear ‘no’ from clients, it might be time to increase your rates.

Prices In Writing Command Authority

It’s as simple as that. Prices that are in writing are more believable.

This should be on a formal estimate with details of the services you’re offering, with your branding and details. Or you might have a pricing list on your website.

Because food photography commissions are always unique, not like other niches, it’s hard to have packages tailored to all clients.

In lieu of a written price list, when you’ve got the full brief details, send the client a written estimate, branded with your logo, contact details and business number.

This looks much more professional than just typing it into an email.

Give Estimates Not Quotes

Because you can’t guarantee production costs, it’s best to give the client an estimate over a final project cost.

Clients should be paying in addition to your creative fee:

• Groceries and ingredients at cost
• Studio or prop rentals
• Talent frees
• Overtime
• Retouching per hour

Not every job will have these things, except ingredients, and it is hard to know the final cost of these production fees.

Add them as a line on your estimate and make sure it’s clear that ‘final production fees are subject to change’. Labeling this clearly as an estimate and using this word with the client will further strengthen the idea that the final invoice will be different.

Only Discount Future Work

Usually, I would recommend not working for less money. However, if you have a repeat client, it can be a strategic move to give them a discount if they hire you regularly.

Letting the client know that you will give them a discount for future work gives them the incentive to work with you over someone else.

If you give them a discount on the first commission, then you aren’t rewarding them for repeat work, yet. Communicate via email, phone or in your agreement/contract that any discounts will be given for subsequent work.

Pricing Tip: Always Get A Non-Refundable Deposit Before The Job

I highly recommend asking for a non-refundable deposit to book your services.

If a client backs out, you could be left with fees for studio or prop rental, food you’ve bought, (which is often $100’s when working with food), etc.

Not to mention if you block off time for a client and they don’t pay a deposit, you will be turning away other clients.

Very rarely have I not asked for a deposit before I start a job. When I haven’t asked for one, it’s usually because there are no upfront fees.

For more pricing tips, make sure to check out my Pricing Tips: Mini Guide. Jam-packed full of well-kept pricing secrets, to creating a robust food photography pricing strategy that helps you charge what you’re worth.

​

The post The Complete Guide to Food Photography Pricing: Pricing Tips appeared first on Two Loves Studio.

This is the part that everyone wants to know! Gimme actual figures to understand how to calculate your rates as a food photography!

Most new photographers will charge per image, but there are so many methods and strategies to how you create a price list. Which one is the best will come down to the client and the job.

But first, you need to think about your costs and how much you want to earn.

This is the second part in a three-part series on food photography pricing.

• Pricing Influences — Part 1
• Calculating Figures — Part 2
• Pricing Tips — Part 3

Get Started Calculating Food Photography Pricing Figures

Now you’re probably not going to have the perfect figure calculated the first time around. The aim of this post is to help you learn how to calculate your rates and get you better paid than if you just pulled a figure out of thin air!

When calculating your photography pricing, we need to factor in things like:

• Amount of money you want to earn per year
• How many weeks out of a year you want to work
• Quantity of jobs per month you’d like to shoot
• Any overhead if you rent a space or hire an assistant
• How many hours it takes you to complete a job

I’m going to assume that you’re a new photographer who is working solo from home. So your overhead comes down to basic ‘home office’ expenses.

Want do You Want to Earn Per Year?

Now hopefully, you had a think about this if you came from Part 1 and come up with a figure that is reasonable and achievable for a new freelance photographer.

If you’re unsure, you could start with half of your 9-5 salary.

Or, ask yourself questions like:

• How much do I need to make to contribute to my household?
• What is the minimum I need to bring in to keep a roof over my family?
• What would help my family maintain their lifestyle and commitments?

How Many Weeks Per Year Do You Want To Work?

Kind of a weird question, but it’ll help you figure out a ballpark figure for each photography job — a great place to start.

The reason we work this out is if you want to work 8 months of the year, you’ll need to charge more to meet your salary goals, than if you worked 11 months.

This is a good question to ask because maybe you can only work part-time and you’ll lower your salary expectations. Perhaps you have the capacity to work full-time.

If you’re unsure, do with the standard working weeks for your country.

How Many Jobs Would You Like To Shoot Per Month?

This point is similar to the above. When working out how to calculate your rates, the fewer jobs we do per month, the more we need to charge. Think about your time commitment, how long it takes you to do a photo shoot (on average) and how many commissions you can take on in a month.

If you’re just starting your business, maybe 4 times a month, so once a week seems reasonable.

Now, The Figures: Food Photography Pricing Tips

The good thing about this ballpark figure is that it’s easy math.

It’s simply =
(annual salary) ÷ (working weeks ÷ 4) ÷ (jobs per month)

The trick to make this work is that you need to get the number of weeks you want to work into months. So you take weeks and divide by 4, (as there are 4 weeks in each month).

The other thing you could do is just say how many months you want to work. Don’t get too caught up on this though.

Remembering we’re after ballpark figures here.

Let’s look at an example.

Say you wanted to replace an average 9-5 job. So you go with $45,000. You want to work 48 weeks, (48 weeks ÷ 4 weeks per month = 12).

And a job a week, or 4 per month seems achievable.

Each job would, therefore, be worth $937.50. This is your starting point.

How to Calculate Your Rates: Adjust Based On Pricing Influences

Now that we have this figure, we think back to the factors that influenced food photography pricing, covered in Part 1.

Like:

• Quality
• Perceived Value
• Confidence
• Competition

We take the rate we came up with and adjust from there.

Maybe $45,000 is too much for our first year starting out. Maybe we lower that and take on one more job per month.

Now we get:

Then we take this figure and see how it ‘feels’ for us. Is it too much? Or does it feel right?

Is This a Side Hustle or Are You Working Part-time?

Maybe this exercise has you asking, is this a part-time thing, or is it currently a side hustle?

I often encourage photographers to work on their business slowly. Financial stress is known to kill creativity. If you want to start out part-time taking a few jobs here are then — that’s great!

Just remember you should be paid well for them regardless of how much time per week you spend on client work.

Perhaps you want to make $15,000:

Always assess your figures. These are starting points and don’t take into account the pricing influences we learned from Part 1 or overhead costs.

Don’t worry if this doesn’t make sense to you yet. Pricing is hard.

I have a low-cost done-for-you Pricing Calculator to help you create a pricing strategy you’ll feel confident about.

Next up, we’re going to get into some pricing tips and things to think about when creating your pricing and talking to clients about photography pricing.

READ NEXT: The Complete Guide to Food Photography Pricing: Pricing Tips

The post The Complete Guide to Food Photography: How to Calculate Your Rates appeared first on Two Loves Studio.

Color techniques is one of the things that draws us to food photography. In this post, I want to share 7 tips that you can use for color when you’re composing your food stories.

If you haven’t already checked out Basic Color Theory for Beginners or the Advanced Color Theory post, make sure to check out those two posts to get a better understanding of what we cover in this post.

Let’s dive deeper into colour tips and tricks so we can really make our food stories sing!

Color Techniques We Will Cover:

1. Warm and Cool
2. Basic Colour Contrast
3. Saturated and Desaturated Colors
4. Match Colors
5. Color Repetition
6. Pair Down Color Theory
7. Colors in Nature

#1 Think About Colors in Terms of Warm and Cool

When we look at a color wheel, we could think about colors as being split up into two so we have cool colors on one side, warm colors on the other side. Color theory, however, goes deeper than that.

You can have a green that feels warm or a green that feels cool. This is going to change how your story feels.

So think about what you’re trying to tell the viewer. Is the food comfort food or is it crisp and cool? Do you want to match cool colors with a feeling of freshness or do you want to have that cozy feeling that is going to lend itself to a warm orange?

Not only do you have to choose cool and warm colors, but you can change that in editing so you can take whatever color you want and you could make it a cool feeling purple or a warm feeling purple, and that’s going to change how the color feels overall. 

So really lean into how the color is making you feel. And don’t forget to play with warm and cool tones.

#2 Use Colour Contrast on a Basic Level

This can look very simple, like using complementary colors, which are opposite on the color wheel. Now I want you to think a little deeper and think about contrast itself. 

What is contrast? It’s when we have a dark tone and a light tone. We can you use that within color theory to pair a dark color and a light colour together to further enhance the contrast in your photos.

#3 Think about Saturated and Desaturated Colors

This is something that took me a while to get because when it came to color, I thought that rich saturated colors were what was going to make an image. But after a while, I realised that desaturating some colors can be just as powerful.

So when you’re at the editing stage, you can play around with a different saturation of different colors and see how it makes you feel within monochromatic color theory as well.

You might want to take a particular color and think about using desaturated tones within that color to further boost your composition.

#4 Match Colors in Props and Backgrounds

One thing I love to do is match props and backgrounds. This is something that Bea Lubas does all the time, and I love that she does this. 

In doing this the food itself is going to stand out in a different way. So when I put these things together, I like to pair lighting with the color of the background and the props. So they feel seamless and the food will pop out from the subject.

Now I know this can be tough when you’re starting, to have props and backgrounds that match together, but it’s something to think about as you build your collection because it’s a beautiful composition technique.

#5 Think About Color Repetition

How can we repeat the colors that you’ve chosen within your color theory throughout the image?

Let’s take of a raspberry cake. We might have the raspberries within the cake on top of the cake, or it could be raspberry jam or we might simply have raspberries scattered across the backdrop.

So, not only is this interesting from a visual perspective, but here we are using color repetition within that subject throughout the frame.

When it comes to editing and color, grading color repetition is going to really help you decide which colors to use when you’re going to grade and tone a photo.

#6 Pair Down Color Theory to the Food Itself

This is one of my favourite tips. I like minimalist composition. and I really like to focus on the details in food. You might be wondering can you think about color theory just at the food stage? 

Why not! Let’s say we’ve got a noodle bowl. We’re thinking about the colors that we’re using within that, or maybe you’re doing a show stopping cocktail. Can we use colors within that cocktail so that if you just put that cocktail on its own on a black background, it would be still interesting.

I really like to pair down my color theory to just focus on the food.

#7 Get Inspired by Colors Around You in Nature

There are color pairings everywhere, and a lot of them follow color theory. So next time you’re out and about whether it’s in the wilderness, your local streets or garden take a look at the colors around you. 

See if you can determine and name and the color pairings. Can you also think about how you might use that in your work?

During my time living in British Columbia, Canada I was just blown away by the different tones of blue here and this experience it really allowed me to use those colors in a photo shoot in this blueberry pie.

So never underestimate the colors around you because they are one of our best teachers. 

Bonus Tip: Pair Two Colors and Do it Powerfully

I’ve shared a lot of tips with you, but the simplest thing, the thing that I love to do the most is just to pair two colors and do it powerfully. Think about which color theory does that the best for you and what you are looking to achieve. Then you could think about warm and cool colors together.

Think about desaturated and saturated colors. Maybe even just pairing it down to the food itself. Remember it doesn’t have to be complicated. It could be really simple. And if you just lean into how the colors make you feel, you definitely can’t go wrong.

To learn more about color in Food Photography, check out my related blog posts:

• Advanced Color Theory: 3 Techniques To Boost Your Color Composition
• My Favourite Way To Use Colour Theory in Food Photography
• 3 Secrets to Edit Color Correctly in Lightroom for Food Photography

The post Color Techniques Tips and Tricks for Better Composition in Food Photography appeared first on Two Loves Studio.

New to color theory? Check out our basic color theory post before reading the below. 

In this post about advanced color theory, we’re going to take a look at how I use three advanced color theories in my food photography and show you how you can too. 

Now, just remember when it comes to color theory in food photography, it’s all about creating visual interest and harmony in our work.

Now let’s jump straight into our first theory!

The 3 Advanced Color Theories

To jump straight to each advanced color theory, click the links below.

1. Split Complementary
2. Triatic Color Theory
3. Diad Colors

Advanced Color Theory: Split Complementary

Split complementary colors, is a more advanced take on complementary colors. It allows us to be a little more flexible by adding in a third color to our palette.

I cover complementary colors in my basic color theory post, so be sure to check that post out before reading on if you are new to color theory. 

So when we’re looking with complementary colors, we’re looking at colors on the opposite side of the color wheel. So split complementary colors is gonna take it up a notch.

Instead of just using orange and blue, we’re going to anchor our color at blue, and then we’re going to use two colors on the opposite side. So this might be using a combination of yellow and orange. We’re not looking directly at the opposite anymore. We’re looking at the two adjacent colors opposite to the first color.

Let’s talk about this whiskey sour shot with a brûléed orange on the top. I’m using split complementary colors of blue and anchoring it with those adjacent colors on the other side of the color wheel, which are orange and red.

Another example of advanced color theory would be to use pink, yellow, and green. In this French 75 cocktail, we have a beautiful pink bubbly cocktail with a gorgeous yellow garnish paired with a nice green velvet for the background.

Tip: Split complementary colors are really useful when you’re trying to think about three colors that you want to pair.

When we’re new to advanced color theory we can get hung up thinking we can only use combinations like blue and orange together. But if you think about it, sometimes orange, yellow and red sort of blend into one another. 

This would be when implementing split complementary can help us wrap our heads around the variations of colors that we have in food.

Triatic Advanced Color Theory

Here we’re using colors that are spread evenly throughout the color wheel. Think about an equilateral triangle, if you could remember all the way back to high school, we’re going to be using that triangle within the color wheel to pick three colors that are evenly distributed.

An example of that would be blue, pink, and yellow. Here I have used that in this beautiful pink lemon shot. So we have a beautiful pink meringue with a lemon. It was just really easy to think about this particular color palette and pair it with a blue background. 

In this frozen cocktail photo, I used a combination of purple green and yellow distributed evenly throughout the color wheel. That really helped me pick a garnish that was going to work within color theory and make everything look harmonised. 

#3 Diad Colors – My Favorite of The Three

This is one of my personal favourites. When it comes to advanced color theory, I like to go down the road of less is more, and I love to focus on two colors and really make them shine. So this is where I use diad colors.

With diad colors, we are looking at colors next to each other on the color wheel, but that are separated by one color.

An example of the difference between diad and analogous colors would be red and yellow. In this Negroni shot here, I’ve paired this gorgeous red liquid with a yellow garnish and it just works so well together. 

If you’re really struggling to think, how do I pair two color? Using the diad color theory is a really good choice.

I have often used purple and orange colors together. I never thought that I would use those two colors together, but they actually work really well. 

If we take a look at this frozen grapefruit drink here, I’ve paired the purple gin, with orange in the grapefruit slice here. When I created this photo, I wasn’t actually thinking about color. I was thinking about the ingredients and the taste. Was it going to match the color of the gin? 

To learn more about color in Food Photography, check out my related blog posts:

• Basics of Color Theory For Beginners: 3 Easy Techniques
• My Favourite Way To Use Colour Theory in Food Photography
• 3 Secrets to Edit Color Correctly in Lightroom for Food Photography

The post Advanced Color Theory: 3 Techniques To Boost Your Color Composition appeared first on Two Loves Studio.

Let’s talk about the basics of color theory in food photography. 

When you’re starting out, color theory for some people can feel overwhelming. It’s actually a really simple technique, but sometimes simple isn’t always easy to do.

Color theory is a wonderful composition technique, especially with food when colour is so crucial to our food stories. You can also learn about Advanced Color Theory and my best Color Technique Tips in these posts.

In this post, I am going to share some basic color theories and an example of how I use them in my work, which will hopefully inspire your next photo shoot.

Basics Color Theory Techniques

1. Fundamentals of Color
2. Analogous Colors
3. Complimentary Colors
4. Monochromatic Colors

When it comes to color theory, the goal is to create harmony, balance and interest in our work.

Interested in advanced color techniques? Check out my Advanced Color Theory post.

The Fundamentals of Color Theory: A Color Wheel

We use a color wheel with unique combination pairings, to understand what colors we want to bring into our photos.

Now color theory can go a lot deeper than this, depending on the colors and the pairings that we use, it can evoke different emotions. It can create different movements, and it can really act as a different language to tell us something about our food.

So the first and most basic is we have three core theories that formulate color theory regarding food photography.

Color Theory: Analogous Colors

This is very simple to use and very beautiful. The analogous color theory works on the idea that we use colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. So we want to use two or more colors so we could use green or blue, which are next to each other. Or we could go for something like red, orange, and yellow.

One really cool thing that I think about analogous colors is we often see it in nature when it comes to food. Just think about beautiful heirloom tomatoes. We have reds, oranges and yellows all available in the one food. So it’s a really simple and powerful way that we can create a food story.

Here are some examples of how I’ve used analogous colors in my work.

Green and Blue Colors

The fashion world would tell you not to put green and blue together, but in food photography, these colors actually work really well together. Let’s take a look at this Kiwi fruit and mint Pavlova photo.

I have paired the key ingredients, which are green, with a blue background. This colour combination helps to give this beautiful, crisp and refreshing feel.

Red Orange and Yellow Colors

Another combination of analogous colors that work well together is this beautiful stewed rhubarb shot. The gorgeous pinks and reds all the way through to oranges and yellows are all in one shot, which is incredible to me.

It’s a good idea to think about what feeling your images and these color combinations play together. So when we’re eating rhubarb, it’s in spring. And how does this photo make you feel?

These colors are vibrant and invigorating, and it really matches how we’re feeling in that particular season.

Color Theory: Complimentary Colors

If you were to split the color wheel up into two, we have warm and cool colors. So the way complementary colors work is we are pairing two or more colors on the opposite side of the color wheel.

When using complementary colors, we’re pairing a cool and a warm color together to help create color contrast. 

It’s a straightforward composition theory to get started with. And often in food photography, we are using baked goods, which are tones of orange or yellow.

These salted caramel donuts, are very orange. And I’ve paired the donuts with a grey or blue background. Orange would be paired with what’s directly opposite it on the color wheel, which is blue

Then I’ve gone and changed the white balance in editing to give this really cool feeling. The cool feeling of the background is allowing our food subject, which is warm and tasty to pop out from the background.

I also paired green and pink which are opposite on the color wheel in this watermelon radish noodle bowl. Now, these two colors, like a warm pink and a cooler green can help to create contrast and allow the pink to really jump off the page.

Monochromatic Color Theory

This is a very special color theory to me. I think it works so well in food photography. 

The way this works is we’re going to take one single color and we’re going to use different tones and shades within that one color. Let’s take a look at an example of how I use this in my food photography.

In this particular shoot, I was styling pears, beautiful, fresh pears, and I decided to do a still-life shot. So here we have a different shade of green in the pair and in the leaf.

Then in the background, we’re just using one color, which is green, but how colorful does this photo look? Bringing in those different shades can really work wonders if you don’t want to overcomplicate things. Now let’s reverse that.

When I cooked the pears in this upside-down chocolate cake, suddenly we are able to change that altogether. We end up with this really warm energising and golden feeling and we’ve achieved this only using one color.

Color theory is really kinda exciting and not so daunting when starting out. I’d love to know which one you’re going to use in your next photo shoot.

To learn more about color in Food Photography, check out my related blog posts:

• Advanced Color Theory: 3 Techniques To Boost Your Color Composition
• Color Techniques Tips and Tricks for Better Composition in Food Photography
• My Favourite Way To Use Colour Theory in Food Photography
• 3 Secrets to Edit Color Correctly in Lightroom for Food Photography

The post Basics of Color Theory For Beginners: 3 Easy Techniques appeared first on Two Loves Studio.

How do you make your food photos interesting? A composition tip is to use the foreground space in your photos to help you not only create a food story, but to strengthen it.

In still life or food photography, we are responsible for placing all of the subjects in our scene. We can get so focused on the food being perfect and adding a lot of props that we can forget that ‘where’ we position them matters.

Let’s explore what we can add to our foreground to strengthen our images

Foreground Composition Tips: What is the Foreground in Our Photos?

The foreground usually refers to the area in our image which is closest to the camera, or at the bottom of the frame for photos that are taken with a straight-on to 75-degree angle.

Now that we know where the foreground is located, let’s look at why it’s important to add subjects, tips and what not to do.

Learn more about composition by joining in Composition Essentials Masterclass.

Adding Supporting Elements to the Foreground Adds Depth

The foreground in our food photography helps to provide the viewer with context for our food story and creates an important notion of a sense of scale.

The hero subject isn’t usually placed in the foreground, so we want to make sure that any subjects or supporting elements we add don’t distract our viewers or demand our focus.

What to Position in the Foreground?

In a nutshell, think about subjects or supporting elements that will add to our food story, rather than distract from the main hero subject.

All over, these items should be proportionate to the space and not too large and distracting. This could include:

• Crumbs, drips and scattering of small garnishes etc
• Peeking in napkin or linen
• Edge of a spoon or fork, or other props
• Cut off (at the edge of the frame) subjects so they don’t appear too large
• Pinch bowl with salt, pepper or ingredient from the recipe

An Example: Let’s Explore How Different Foregrounds Feel

There is no ‘right or wrong’ when it comes to your creativity. I like both of these shots and they have vastly different elements in the foreground.

To me, one shot feels more like a minimalist portrait of food that would be good for a magazine where text would fill the negative space. The other, feels more like a food story that can stand on its own.

Ask yourself, how do the differences in the foreground allow you to connect with these images? I’d love to know which one you like. Let me know in the comments below.

Do’s and Don’t’s with Foreground Styling in Food Photography

I don’t believe in rules and I always think they are made to be broken. However, if you’re a new food photographer, it’s helpful to know some guidelines for what to style in the foreground of your food photo.

Here are some do’s and don’t’s for styling your foreground:

• DO position subjects at the edges of the foreground
• DON’T place subjects that are really large and distracting
• DO use a shallow depth of field in the foreground to push the viewers to the hero food
• DON’T have more foreground than middle ground for balance
• DO use small items like crumbs, drips and scattered ingredients
• DON’T position too many items so it feels overwhelming

If you’re interested in learning more about composition and styling, check out my in-depth Composition Essentials Masterclass. It contains everything you need to know to style, compose and photograph your unique food stories.

If you liked this post on foreground composition tips, you can also check out other resources and blog posts I have on Composition + Styling.

The post Simple Foreground Composition Tip to Strengthen Your Food Story appeared first on Two Loves Studio.

I wanted to share the process I went through to get this vintage margarita photo shoot. Although I love to create my lighting from scratch with my artificial lighting gear and work in my dedicated home studio – I can’t escape chasing light.

Even after 10 years and being a pro-photographer, I am not above busting out my gear in the living room, asking everyone to step around backgrounds and props on the floor, and creating on the dining table.

During summer evenings (when the sun is out, which isn’t always a given in Vancouver), the light is PERFECT and I just can’t help but play with its beauty. From ideation to post-processing, let’s take a journey behind the scenes.

Ideation & Theme for Your Vintage Margarita Photoshoot

I wanted to set a theme for this shoot to have a vintage feeling. I love vintage, but my style isn’t fully vintage. So the story had to feel like my work and what vintage means to me. 

For the overall scene, I wanted to capture the Spring we had in Vancouver. Grey and rain all day, with a pop of gold at sunset. So the tones are heavy on grey and white, with the stand-out feeling of the golden cocktail.

It’s a balance of dread and excitement that we get within one day in terms of weather here. I used those feelings and the weather to inspire and create the colour palette.

I had a few ideas in mind for the background, composition, and garnish ideas. When time allows, I love to explore to understand what works optimally.

Create Beautiful Images with Lighting and Setup

Ain’t nothing fancy about this! But I think that’s important to share. You don’t always have to have a crazy setup to create beautiful images. There is beauty in how you see and how you translate that creative vision onto the tabletop.

I am shooting with a North-facing window (the equivalent to South-facing in the Southern Hemisphere) around 5.30 pm. The sun doesn’t set in the height of summer here until 10 pm. But the sun is still golden and low at this time.

The windows span far across the scene, filling and wrapping the scene nicely with delicate golden light. Yet, as the sun is lower in the sky, there is still plenty of opportunities for shadows to hide.

RELATED: Basic Lighting Setup for natural light.

Create the Composition and Feeling

I’d been collecting a few vintage items that I wanted to use in a cocktail shoot. A vintage chair I found on FB Marketplace, a retro cocktail shaker from a vintage salvage, and a metal cocktail tray from the thrift store.

Paired with two different types of margarita glasses (one is taller and slimmer, one is shorter and wider). While you may not be able to tell the difference, I strategically placed them so that the glasses at the edge or back of the frame felt balanced in terms of size.

I relied here on the following composition theories in teach in Composition Essentials:

• Layering (From salt rims to crushed ice. There is lots of details to explore)
• Shapes (From garnish to props, there is a variety of complementary shapes)
• Proximity (How close — or far subjects are create different feelings)
• Monochromatic colour theory (Shades of gold to tie the story together)

As this was my living space, I didn’t have the sexiest backdrop, so I have to choose the camera angle to be flattering with one wall OR I paired it with a board. Just this simple change can totally change the story and feeling in a photo.

Editing Your Vintage Margarita Photo Shoot

This was an interesting approach in terms of editing workflow and tools.

To get a vintage feeling, I wanted to have browns and yellows be the focus, but there also has to be contrast AND a softness. Not easy to do.

Instead, I focused on my exposure and high dynamic range tools to allow the foreground to middle ground to be bright, without compromising shadows.

In Capture One, we have the option of different types of clarity so I used one that added detail but kept it soft.

Lastly, I made the WB to be cooler and more correct for the whites, then added warmth for the vintage margarita feeling using colour grading.

Lastly, my background wasn’t quite large enough to fill the corners and I didn’t want to compromise the crop. So I extended the background easily in Photoshop and removed the edge of the windowsill.

Here’s the before and after in Photoshop.

I hope you found this creative process helpful, insightful, or inspiring. If you did, HIT REPLY and let me know in the comments!

The post Composition Breakdown: How to Create a Classic Vintage Margarita Photo Shoot appeared first on Two Loves Studio.

I’m super excited to share how to beautifully compose noodle soup bowls in this post. I shot my first noodle bowl back in 2016, it was a little bit messy and not super interesting.

Fast forward, five years later, I was shortlisted for the 2021 Pink Lady Food Photography awards. I feel like I’ve come a long way and I’m excited to share the top skills that I’ve learned along the way.

If you want to take better photos of your noodle bowls, let’s dive in and take a look at these composition tips.

Photo Tips For Styling Noodle Bowls:

• Tip 1 – Inside the Noodle Bowl
• Tip 2 – Highlight the Noodles
• Tip 3 – Tuck in The Ends
• Tip 4 – Variety of Noodle Bowls
• Tip 5 – Draw the Eye’s Focus
• Tip 6 – Style For the Angle
• Tip 7 – Create Interest With Composition

Focus on the Inside of the Noodle Bowl

Start by asking yourself what’s interesting about this your noodles. This could be the colours of the ingredients, variety of ingredients or creating interesting shapes with lines and curves.

Noodles are a very interesting subject so focus on incorporating these tips to make your bowls stand out. Remember that sometimes less is more:

• Colours.
• Ingredients.
• Shapes, lines, curves.

Use Lighting to Highlight the Noodles

Lighting your noodles bowls is really important. You don’t want the edge of your bowl to cast too much of a shadow across the rest of the bowl and the ingredients.

If you’re shooting with natural light, you’ll probably have no problem with this. When shooting with artificial light, place your light in the best position so the entire bowl is illuminated. Think about having your light slightly higher or pointing up.

Light the bowl so that it’s not casting a long shadow across the food. Then you can think about using editing tools to brighten your bowl.

Tuck in The Ends: Noodle Soup Bowls

To tuck or not to tuck? Tucking in the ends of your noodles looks more refined. When working on a shoot, particularly in advertising or packaging, you’ll want to tuck in the ends.

It’s also important to have balance. Ask yourself, does every end need to be tucked in?

A noodle end here and there can feel more organic. Many loose strands can be distracting. Aim for balance and what works for your creative eye.

Have a Variety of Noodle Bowls

When using a variety of bowls you’ll want to think about each one’s size and depth.

When starting out, I recommend you start with shallow bowls. They are easier to work with. Wider bowls need more ingredients and will require more skill with styling. You can work up to this.

Draw the Eye’s Focus With The Ingredients

Sectioning out your ingredients within the bowl is great when working with a lot of elements to style and showcase.

So when you’re working with a lot of elements to style and showcase, decide the ‘weight’ the noodles should have in your scene.

Then create sections for each type of ingredient/topping. This helps the eye feel relaxed, rather than unsure where to look.

Style it For the Angle You Are Shooting

Think about which angle will you be shooting your noodle bowls from. What works for overhead won’t necessarily work for 45-degree.

While shooting, it’s important to tether or look in-camera to see what looks best visually so you can adjust as you go.

You might have to arrange or re-arrange your bowl contents for different angles.

Think Size and Depth: Create Interest With Composition

To create interest in noodle styling composition it is really important to have a variety of bowls in a variety of textures and colours so you can best compose the scenes.

Another quick tip is the rule of odds. Rule of odds, 1 or 3 bowls. Different-sized bowls in a similar tone.

Condiment or toppings in bowls will allow you to play outside of the recipe.

If you found this post helping on how to compose your next noodle bowl photoshoot, be sure to check out Practical Tips for Styling a Beautiful Noodle Soup Bowl.

The post Powerful Composition Tips For Styling Noodle Bowls For Photos appeared first on Two Loves Studio.

I’m super excited to share how to beautifully compose soup bowls with noodle food styling. One of my favourite food photography subjects. I shot my first noodle bowl back in 2016, it was a little bit messy and not super interesting.

Fast forward, five years later, my noodle bowl was shortlisted for the 2021 Pink Lady Food Photography awards. I feel like I’ve come a long way and I’m excited to share the top skills that I’ve learned along the way.

I’m going to jump straight into three key ways to create your noodle food styling.

Preparing and Cooking the Noodles – Think Al dente!

When it comes to preparing noodles, we need to cook them a little differently from how we’re going to eat them.

To create the ideal styling for the perfect noodle soup bowl start by undercooking your noodles. We want them to be a little firmer than al-dente.

Add dried noodles to rapidly boiling water, and cook for 2 mins (an extra minute if you see them sticking together). Then add the noodles to a large bowl of cold water immediately.

Pro Styling Tip: Undercooking the noodles allows them to be firm enough so we can easily work with them.

Step-by-Step Plating: Let’s Build a Noodle Soup Bowl!

When building a noodle bowl there are a couple of styling techniques (which we will cover below).

When it comes to plating and noodle styling, we want to ‘build’ the bowl — one element at a time.

1. Add one noodle nest at a time.
2. Then add a few main (larger) ingredients to the soup.
3. Add a small amount of lukewarm broth. Cold broth can split the noodles and form fat depositories. Boiling water will make delicate ingredients wilt.
4. Add smaller elements and garnishes at the end.
5. Take the shot. Check it’s looking how you want it.
6. Always add more broth and take the shot again.

Test out your noodle food styling by buying cheap dry noodles from an Asian grocery store or the dollar store.

Now that we know how to plate a noodle bowl, let’s look at some styles or ways to think about noodle bowl composition.

Practical Noodle Styling Tip: The Full Bowl

Our first type of noodle bowl is the ‘full bowl’. It’s exactly as it sounds. A full bowl of noodles. it will probably come as no surprise, but it is a full bowl of noodles. The noodles are the main ingredient in this dish and are evenly distributed throughout the bowl.

It can be very artistic and appealing!

This method can be hard to style and can feel busy. The shape of your noodles is really going to help give it either a busy feeling or make it have a spacious and inviting feeling.

Pro Styling Tip: The shape of your noodles can help to give a more spacious and inviting feel.

Two-Thirds Rule: Noodles are the Star

The next type of noodle bowl is, what I call, the two-thirds noodles and one-third ingredient. We want to make sure the noodles are still the star, but the other elements are just as important.

For this shot, I used a Donna Hay recipe which includes shitake mushrooms. We also have hard-boiled eggs soaked in soy sauce. Adding these interesting elements helps create the entire dish.

You’ll notice that there are heavy nests or swirls to one side. The broth is featured in the remaining space and there are different heights of noodles.

The Centre Noodle Placement: Hero The Broth

For the next noodle styling, you might want to style your noodles in the centre of a large dish and give the sense that they are floating in delicious warm broth.

Here we want to star the noodles, but play off the interest other ingredients can bring. You can easily add other ingredients to highlight the other flavours and textures of the dish.

This technique also works well if you have a delicious coloured broth that you need to hero.

When it comes to showcasing your beautiful ingredients we want to get them floating in the Laksa or broth. Some simple ways to do this are:

• Stop your ingredients from sinking by creating a platform within your vessel.
• Build your scene in your bowl first and slowly add the broth in, in stages.
• Create sections for your ingredients.
• Should be used for very visual recipes.

Noodle Styling Tip: Stop Sinking to Get Those Ingredients Floating

These are my favourite tips when it comes to noodle food styling!

Have you ever experienced the ingredients or noodles sinking or shifting when you add the liquid? Here is a simple trick!

Pro Styling Tip: Place something inside your bowl to help create height and stop sinking. Use a bowl or a plate.

A plate inside the bowl is my prefered method. It’s going to allow me to have even more space at the top of the dish and allow me to place the ingredients I want to ‘float’.

One other option you can try if you can’t find a plate or bowl to work is using a ‘bed of noodles‘. To achieve this look, simply cook extra noodles and have a bed of noodles inside your bowl to achieve the required height.

Capture Multiple Shots with Different Levels of Broth.

The last tip that I have for working with noodles and noodle styling is one I learnt from working with clients. We want to make sure that we capture multiple shots with different levels of broth.

The amount of liquid that you use can really change how the bowl looks. Light and ingredients also play differently with different liquid levels.

Some questions to ask yourself:

1. How does a light pick it up even just slightly?
2. If there’s a little bit of a difference, does one make you feel like you wanna dig in more than the other?

It can depend on the particular recipe, so I always recommend that you capture a few options.

Now that we know a few ways to actually create noodle food styling, make sure you also check out Powerful Compositions Tips For Styling Your Next Noodle Bowl.

The post Step-by-Step Food Styling Tips for Plating Beautiful Noodle Soup Bowls appeared first on Two Loves Studio.

I often get asked by new photographers who are looking to photograph food — can I be a food photographer with an iPhone? Or at least get started with their iPhone.

The answer is yes! You’re not defined by the camera you use.

In this post, I’m sharing the advice that I give new photographers starting out with an iPhone.

Limitations of being a Food Photographer with an iPhone

I firmly believe that it’s best to get started with what you have and that’s what I encourage.

While you most definitely can get started in food photography with an iPhone, there are limitations that you’ll eventually face as your photography skills grow.

At some point, the reason that you’ll need a camera is that there are limitations to shooting with an iPhone including:

• Size of image files and format limitations.
• Creative restrictions, there are limitations to how you can express your creativity.
• Restrictions on focal length of your lenses.
• Limitations to lighting and tethering abilities.

Composition & Lighting Skills Happen Outside the Camera

The good news is that you can get started because there are skills that happen outside the camera, (or in your case, your iPhone).

Learning composition and lighting are two great skills you’ll need to learn (and master). So why not get started now?

You can learn and practice these regardless of the camera you use or becoming a food photographer with an iPhone.

Why You Will Eventually Need a Camera

One of the main reasons that you will need a camera is that if you end up shooting for clients, you need the ability to shoot RAW files. Plus, the freedom the creative control cameras give us.

This includes things like:

• Shooting different apertures and focus modes.
• Taking macro and detail shots.
• Hooking up to artificial lighting and tethering for clients.
• Select the best focal length or lens for the subject.

Borrow a Camera or Rent One to Use

A lot of photographers are really set on believing they need a camera before they can get started. But cameras cost money (dah!) and sometimes it’s nice to make sure you’re committed.

When I first started, I borrowed a camera. For years in fact. I was able to borrow one of my dad’s cropped sensor cameras. Check out the difference between full frame and cropped sensors here.

In fact, I used second-hand or borrowed cameras for nearly 8 years of my journey until I bought my first camera – a mirrorless camera.

You Don’t Need A Brand New Camera, Buy a Used One

You don’t need the best or most expensive camera to be a good photographer. In fact, I spent the first 8 years of my journey using second-hand or borrowed cameras.

It’s better to get started on working on skills than to do nothing and wait until you can afford the best camera.

Use your local online marketplaces and reputable camera stores to see what deals or secondhand options they have.

Not sure what to look for? Here are some tips for what you need when buying a new camera.

Where Do You Start? Learn Food Photography!

Now that you’re confident and excited that you can get started today (and save for that used camera), what skills should you learn first?

Check out my Start Here page. I’ve outlined, in order, the skills I recommend working on.

Composition and Lighting are great places to get started. Check out the online courses I teach for food photography.

There is also a heap of Beginner Resources on this blog for you to sink your teeth into. Make sure to bookmark this site and can’t wait to be photography BBFs!

The post The Limitations of Being a Food Photographer With an iPhone appeared first on Two Loves Studio.

Post-production, or editing, comes at the end of our creative process. It should, however, never be an afterthought.

A powerful editing workflow that creates stunning images, from RAW to WOW, happens in the little, finer edits. The small attention to detail.

After teaching thousands of food photography students how to edit, I’ve seen a lot of common Lightroom editing mistakes.

Let’s explore those in this post.

Not Reading Your Histograms When Editing in Food Photography.

Our Histograms are a wealth of information. They tell us all about the types of tones in our image and their particular brightness.

Histograms tell us about our blacks, shadows, midtones, highlights and whites. Their volume and if we’ve clipped any information in our image.

So why is that important? The fundamental reason you’d want to be able to read your histogram is to:

Be able to identify where your tonal values sit and if you have enough dynamic range to make a GREAT image.

Lightroom editing mistakes: You should use your Histogram to

1. Understand if you have good tonal contrast to make an image POP.
2. Make exposure (or tonal) adjustments to match the type of mood you’re looking for.
3. View your midtones and if a large percentage of midtones is making your image feel ‘flat’.
4. Prevent clipping your black and white tones, causing blown-out highlights and shadowed areas.

Only Making Global Adjustments to Your Images.

Firstly, let’s talk about what a global adjustment is.

A global adjustment is when we use tools that make edits to our entire image. When editing in Lightroom, all panels except the Masking Panel are examples of global adjustments.

Global adjustments are great and should be part of your workflow.

But they don’t always fix every editing issue we have. Like colour correction. This is where local adjustments or masking enters our workflow.

For example, you would use a local adjustment or mask over a global adjustment for the following edits:

• Reducing brightness/exposure on one side of our image where the light wasn’t even.
• Correct white balance in a corner of the image
• To reveal the texture of our hero food by lifting our shadow.

Local adjustments or masking usually comes at the end of our workflow, unless you need to do drastic exposure reduction from uneven lighting to even start editing.

Not Adding Adequate Contrast to an Image.

9 times out of 10 when a student comes to me and asks me why their image doesn’t POP, or feels flat — it’s because there isn’t enough contrast in their editing.

Contrast comes in two forms: Tonal and Colour Contrast!

Did you know that there are eight ways you can create contrast in Lightroom and NOT even one of them is using the contrast slider?

Contrast is the separation between the darkest (blacks) and the brightest (whites) area of the image. When editing, you’ll watch your Histogram to view when this happens.

If your image feels flat at all, it’s likely you haven’t added adequate contrast to your image. Add contrast using the following tools:

• Contrast Slider
• Tone Curve
• High Dynamic Range Tools like Black, White, Shadow and Highlight Sliders.
• Clarity

Here is an example of a Histogram that has contrast.

View your Histogram. Are the tones separated?

Colour Correcting Using Just the Eye Dropper Tool

The Eye-dropper Tool in Lightroom is a great place to start when tackling White Balance issues. But we shouldn’t rely on it to tell us what are correct whites for our images unless you’re using a grey card.

Make sure to combine colour correction tools. Like:

• Eye dropper Tool
• White Balance Sliders
• White Balance Presets
• Color Grading

Sometimes correcting White Balance issues will benefit solely from the eyedropper tool. Other times, you’ll have to use a combination of tools — and that’s ok!

READ – Avoid the Mistakes: Turn your RAW file into a POW file.

Lightroom Editing Mistakes: Over-Saturating The Colours in Your Image.

Colour, colour, colour. More is better, right?

Colour is definitely important in food photography but focusing on saturating our colours isn’t always the best way to edit.

When it comes to editing colour, think beyond just the saturation slider. We can edit for:

• Colour contrast
• Vibrance
• Hue
• Luminance
• Saturation
• Color Grading

I actively encourage you to explore using the Vibrance Slider or just saturating one specific colour individually in the HSL/Color Panel.

Powerful editing in food photography can often be desaturating your colours too! I do it all the time. Not every colour needs to be saturated.

Brush up your skills in editing by checking out more Two Loves Studio posts on:

• How To Compare Using The Lightroom Before And After Tool
• If Your White Balance Is Terrible, Read This Article
• The Secret To Edit Color Correctly in Lightroom For Food Photography
• Reasons to Avoid Relying on Lightroom Food Photography Presets

The post 5 Lightroom Editing Mistakes to Avoid in Food Photography appeared first on Two Loves Studio.

Color in food photography is everything! And really if you think about it, color in food is everything. What would you do if you saw a brown strawberry? So it would make sense that editing color in lightroom is an important skill.

Would you want to eat it? Most likely not. But a luscious, juicy, plump red – now you’re talking.

Getting the colors right in your food photography editing is one of the key elements in connecting with your viewer. Editing color in Lightroom is therefore very important.

Tools to Edit Color in Lightroom Correctly For Food Photography

Did you know that there are over 8 ways you can adjust, enhance and edit color in Lightroom? Exciting right?

If you’ve ever said to yourself: “I can’t get clear colors, my pictures seem to be boring and dull” – then listen up!

I’ve got some tips for you to think about. In this post we’ll cover:

• The Hue Adjustment Tool
• The Color Grading Panel
• Luminance Tools

Let’s dive in!

Use the Hue Adjustment Tool in Masks to Fine Tune Color

In any of your Masks, you can use the Hue Adjustment tool to change the color of your masked subject.

Hue refers to the type of color. Green, yellow and orange are all different hues. If you have a food subject that feels greener than you want, you can use this slider to push those hues into yellows.

To assist with a precise edit, you can tick the ‘Use Fine Adjustment’ box to limit how far you can push this edit.

If you’re looking to drastically change a color, you can do that too!

Add a Feeling Using Color in the Color Grading Panel

Color grading is a powerful way to add not only color to our images, but to evoke a mood or story.

If you’re unfamiliar with what color grading is, it’s the ability to:

• Add color to the shadows, mid-tones, and highlights independently. Or adding a color globally.

• Focusing on adding colors to shadows, mid-tones, and highlights to create an atmosphere, you can control the depth of saturation of colors as well as their luminance.

• When it comes to color grading food photography, less is usually more. We rely on colors to look realistic.

Color grading is often a tool that people feel intimidated by. But it’s actually quite easy once you get the hang of it.

To get you started with Color Grading, try out my special edition 10 Color Grading Adjustment Presets for Lightroom.

The Luminance of Color Changes: How Bright a Color Appears

When it comes to color, there is more to editing than just the type of color, like pinks or reds.

A color can be saturated or desaturated, dark or bright. We are influenced by how bright or dark a color is. This is where luminance comes in.

Luminance refers to the brightness of a color.

There are about 4 or 5 ways you can target luminance adjustments in Lightroom for your food photography editing.

The most common way to change the luminance of a color is by using the HSL/Color Panel. Here, you can change the appearance of a color’s brightness just by using the sliders.

Play around with different luminance feels of different colors.

For more tips and tricks on how to edit in Lightroom, make sure to check out my Lightroom Magic class: The editing secrets for turning your food photos from RAW to WOW!

I’ll show you not only how to edit, but how to identify what your images need. Each time you approach editing, you’ll know exactly what tool to use and when.

The post 3 Secrets to Edit Color Correctly in Lightroom for Food Photography. appeared first on Two Loves Studio.

I’ve been a photographer for over 10 years, and I wanted to share these three simple things I do to get rehired by my existing clients.

Now, there are obviously many things that you can try. But I wanted to share the things that have worked for me that I think are somewhat effortless and also don’t annoy brands or clients. 

You can watch or read the tips. It’s your choice, but if you’re ready to get rehired by existing clients then let’s jump right in!

Getting Rehired by Existing Clients Tip 1: Share a Concept Idea With The Client

This is my personal favourite and something I love doing. It feels effortless and doesn’t feel like work. It makes it really easy to reach out to clients. 

I’m constantly on social media and Pinterest and looking at different concepts for photography. So when something really sparks my imagination or I get inspired by it, I always save the idea. 

This helps with inspiration for shoots and I use this method for an existing cocktail client I work with. I think about the specific types of liquor brands and recipes that I can create for them. 

So when I find something that I think is really cool, that I would love to work on and that aligns with the brand, I save it into a specific folder. Imagine getting rehired by existing clients to create work you’re excited about.

Then I reach out to that client and pitch my new idea and concept. Just like the images above. I pitched this idea to them.

Clients love this for a number of reasons, especially if it’s a small brand, because not only are you being proactive but because you’re helping them out with creative concepts. You’re also demonstrating you understand the brand’s needs and can bring something innovative to the table.

The best part of all is typically once I’ve shared these ideas with clients, I’ve gotten hired and paid to create the things that really excite me. 

Getting Rehired Tip 2: Reshare Client Work on Social Media

Not to be underestimated, the power of this next tip is really simple and easy – but it works!

Reshare a photo from a job that you did with a client.

In my photography business, I have monthly retainer clients, clients I work with for over a quarter for a specific season. Then there are other clients that I work with maybe once a year. 

The clients I work with once a year, are the ones that I need to make sure they remember me. What I like to do to get rehired by existing clients I only shoot for once a year is share a photo that I love from a particular photo shoot.

Then I mention or tag the brand, the creative agency, and the art director. This works as a little reminder to say, “Hey, I’m still here and I’d love to work with you”. 

What I’ve learned over doing this for a number of years is that people that work at magazines, agencies, and brands, they’re just people that have jobs and they move on to other jobs. Whoever takes over that job, doesn’t know I exist. So you just wanna pop in and stay relevant. 

The aim here is that the new employees will remember who you are and decide to reach out.

BONUS TIP: It can also work in the opposite direction. If your contact moved to a different creative agency. They may remember you and pitch to have you on a job as the photographer because you did such a good job last time and were really good assets.

Send Portfolio Updates via Email: Getting Rehired Tip 3

My third tip is just to send a simple email. I hear you though, what if you are unsure what to put in that email? What’s gonna help you stand out and be helpful to the client? 

My recommendation is to reach out with either a portfolio update or share a new skill that you’ve acquired.

Maybe you’ve started doing beverage photography, or maybe you’ve mastered noodle styling.

You might have a bunch of new props or you’ve moved into a new studio. Perhaps there’s something more you can offer them with your photography service. 

Sometimes it can feel icky like we’re bothering a brand by emailing them. But after doing this for so many years, you’ll be surprised at what will come back.

Don’t let those little voices tell you what to do because your email could just be the saviour that a client is looking for. 

On the flip side of that perhaps the client doesn’t get back to your email and as a creative, we can take that personally, like we’re just not good enough for the client to hire us. But what we have to remember is that email is text. 

No matter how good that photo is, if the subject line wasn’t enticing for them to click on or their inbox just got bombarded, then they’re never going to see that photo. So we just have to keep trying and be courteous.

How do You Cut Through The Noise?

I’ve been lucky enough to do some social media account takeovers with large brands, and I’ve seen what’s on the other side. I’ve seen what it’s like for brands and how many people are reaching out to them. 

They get hundreds of direct messages. Hundreds of tags t in a day. I tell you this not to let that put you off, but sometimes there’s a lot of noise out there.

I think the way that we do that is we want to be really thoughtful in the content we’re sharing. You want to tag them in your best work only. Don’t tag them every day in hundreds of things. 

Sometimes with brands that I really wanted to work with, it took me like five years to get there. 

The key things to remember here are to share something you’re passionate about, share your best work, and just show up time and time again. 

If you enjoyed this post on getting rehired by existing clients, make sure you also check out Practical Tips for Client Creative Briefs For Photographers: What to Include.

The post 3 Easy Tips for Getting Rehired by Your Existing Clients appeared first on Two Loves Studio.

Running your own food photography business can be a daunting process at times. I know, I’ve been there, but it’s a rewarding process and after reflecting on the last 10 years I wanted to share the key messages I’ve learned along the way.

Wherever you are in your journey, maybe you are thinking of starting your own food photo business and need some inspiration or maybe you are already in the thick of it and are looking for guidance, either way, here are 10 things that I’ve learned over 10 years of running my own business.

Tip 1: Turn a No Into a Yes for Your Food Photography Business

The first thing is that a no can become a yes. I’ve reached out to clients and I’ve heard ‘no’ many times. If you want it badly enough you can turn that no into a yes.

They may say we don’t have room for you, or they don’t even work that way. But six months, nine months later (sometimes even three years later) I’ve been able to turn that no into a yes!

Now, maybe you don’t want to hear that it can take months or years, but the thing you want to remember is that if this is your business long-term, all the work you do today can lead to work in the future.

RELATED POST: Composition Breakdown: How to Create a Classic Vintage Margarita Photo Shoot

Tip 2: Your Mindset Matters The Most

Your mindset actually matters more than your photos.

Now I know that sounds crazy because we get paid to take photos, but if our mindset is not in check, we can self-sabotage. We can doubt ourselves. We can let imposter syndrome, drive our decisions. Being creative is hard, and there’s a lot to unpack in terms of mental health.

One thing I’ve noticed in my food photography business is that it’s not the best photographers who succeed. It’s those people who believed in themselves, those who kept showing up, and who worked on their mindset. This is also true for many creative fields.

Now we’re all human and we feel the same things. So if you feel like things aren’t working for you, maybe check if your mindset needs to be worked on.

Tip 3: Diversifying Your Income.

It’s hard to make a full-time living from your creative pursuits and stress and pressure is not a good thing for creativity. So I think how you survive in the long-term is by diversifying your income.

That can look so different depending on what you want to do. With your creative business, you could:

1. Sell digital products, like courses or eBooks.
2. Start your own blog and earn income through advertising revenue, affiliates, and sponsored posts.
3. You could even have a totally different job which could be part-time if you want.

There are so many different ways that you could approach this thing.

Tip 4: What’s the worst that can happen?

I used to be terrified when I first started my food photography business, but what can be the worst thing that would happen. Literally, the worst thing that could happen is you take a photography job when you don’t get paid because the client’s not happy.

So when you feel fearful of doing new things, ask yourself, what’s the worst that can happen? Then you can ask yourself, is it worth taking that risk?

I can tell you nine and a half times out of 10, you can actually sort things out with the client. And often the worst that you think will happen will never actually happen.

Tip 5: Manage Your Time Wisely

This tip may sound simple but consistency is key. It is almost impossible to get everything you want done in a day but if you keep showing up, you keep working as much as you can, you’ll be astounded at what you can achieve within your food photography business in 10 years time.

Tip 6: You Are Your Best Investment

Invest in yourself. You are your best asset.

It took me years to figure that out. I didn’t feel worthy of investing in myself. It’s one thing I wish I’d changed because I’m never going to get that time back. Whether it’s investing in camera gear or taking courses, invest in yourself because nobody else will.

Tip 7: Get Comfortable Saying No

It is okay to say no. When I first started out, I was saying yes to everything. It doesn’t work. It is okay to say no.

There is power in saying no. To say no to the wrong projects, will free yourself up for the right ones.

Tip 8: Learn to Trust Yourself

It’s not easy. It took me years to learn, to trust myself, to trust that I would find my style that clients would like my work that would be able to make a long-term career out of this.

Trusting yourself is like a muscle. We have to build it up. And the thing is, if you don’t trust yourself, nobody else is going to do it for you.

Tip 9: Find a Friend with their own Food Photography Business

This is my favourite tip!

This journey can be lonely and not everybody gets it. If you talk to people who are not creative or not trying to run a business, they can’t always empathise with where you are.

Find a friend, find a colleague, find someone through a blog or through Instagram, who you can really talk about things with.

Talk about creative difficulties, mindset struggles, and difficult clients.

The creative friendships that I have built have been some of the greatest friendships I’ve ever had, and I wouldn’t have made it through without them.

Tip 10: Enjoy The Journey.

You’ve all heard the saying “It’s not about the destination, it’s about enjoying the journey“. You have to find a way to enjoy the journey.

This is a hard road. Being creative is hard, running a business is hard and thinking about how are you going to get there 10 years later if you don’t enjoy the journey.

I don’t know how I would have done it otherwise.

That’s not to say the journey is always easy, but if we love what you do, you love food photography, and you find ways to enjoy the journey along the way. I actually think that is the definition of success.

What did I miss? What’s the number one thing that you’ve learned from your time being a food photographer?

Let me know in the comments below.

The post 10 Powerful Tips From My Food Photography Business After 10 Years appeared first on Two Loves Studio.

After 10 years of running my own food photography business, I wanted to share some of the setbacks and failures I’ve experienced.

Creating a business from scratch that pays your bills is hard. It wasn’t easy for me despite what it looked like from the outside peeking in.

I love the food photography community, who have supported me endlessly and I feel a responsibility to talk about my true journey.

It pains me that somebody might quit because their journey feels hard,  it’s not happening the way you thought it should. Or we compare our journey to others and what it looks like on social media.

This journey is unique and can be a lonely one. I want you to know that you’re not alone. In sharing my setbacks, I hope to show you, we all have them. 

Make sure to hit play on the video above or watch on YouTube: 15 Mins of Failure (& Setbacks).

Failures and Setbacks: Trying To Start a Business

The first time I left my full-time job to start photography, two weeks later, my husband lost his working visa. We were both out of work and it was a terrible time to start a business.

For the next six months, I worked a retail job 7 days a week to support us and wasn’t able to work on my business at all. It sucked but I knew that was something out of my control. I could try to start my business again later.

Once we sorted my husband’s visa out, I was working part-time as a photographer and working part-time in retail. I gave in to family and social pressure to pursue a management position with a salary. I temporarily gave up on my business.

This job was so toxic and took me down the wrong path for a few months before I decided I need to listen to what I wanted.

Life Thew Further Setbacks with a Death in the Family

Coming back to try running my business again, (but this time full-time), my mother-in-law passed away. We had to fly back and forth between Canada and Australia for six months to be with family. 

Again, this was not a good time to work on a new business. Everything was very stop-start and we were also dealing with the loss of a family member that we loved. 

It was a really hard mental battle to manage the loss of a loved one, trying to be creative, and working on a business. The process felt disheartening that here I was three years later and I still couldn’t make it work.

The silver lining, was these events taught me there is so much in life I couldn’t control, the one thing I could control was the ability to try again.

Hustle Leads to Burnout: Business Setbacks

Once I had the opportunity to work on my business full-time, that’s what I did. I hustled my butt off. Taking every job possible, networking, learning skills, asking for feedback, and connecting with other like-minded people.

But what ended up happening is I burnt myself out. I’d worked so hard for next to nothing, that I had gotten myself into this space where I had no energy. I was fatigued and my mental health was suffering. 

I ended up having to take three months off my business, again.

So here I was, I’d just spent three years trying to make this work full-time. I’d had all these setbacks and I finally got to this place of being able to work on my business full time and I couldn’t cut it

I wasn’t sure how I was going to move forward.

How Can You Charge That Much?

My first couple of client experiences were really challenging (but I learned a lot from them). My first ever paid gig was an event client, where I had to shoot people with food and the client wasn’t happy with the photos I sent them.

At the first food photography gig I took, they wanted a lot of things. So I charged a lot of money. I was astounded that I was paid that much, however,  this client turned out to be a bit of a challenge.

The creative director took me out for a coffee. She sat me down and said, “You can’t charge this much”.

The whole conversation had a tone. Who are you to charge this much? We won’t work with you if you charge this much. I was so new, this didn’t feel like a conversation to me. It felt like a takedown and it really rattled my confidence. 

Discovering How to be Kinder on Myself

I really wanted to make the educational part of my business work. My first digital product and coaching didn’t go so well. I sold around five eBooks, which was really disheartening for me. More proof that again, I couldn’t do what I wanted to do. 

It led me to a place where my mental health was really challenged.

I actually ended up having a panic attack and I realised this wasn’t the way I wanted to live. I was putting so much pressure on myself and working too hard. Taking any jobs. I wasn’t feeling like I was in control and I had to step back again.

So I went back to sewing pants for two days a week to make ends meet, to also give myself a break. It was a really good job. I worked with some great people and it ended up being really therapeutic which was exactly what I needed.

At the same time, I also felt like a complete failure. When people would ask how photography was going, I had to tell them I’m back working two days a week, sewing pants in order to survive. 

What stood out for me the most in that situation was that I really wanted to make this work. I wanted to give it my best. I changed how I thought about myself and the pressure and expectations I put on myself.

My Perspective Changed Everything

After all the failures and setbacks, I realised that I needed to start working on the things I wanted to work on.

The best part is that people took notice when I worked on things that I was passionate about. Like creating editing courses and writing about my Nikon gear.

Just when I started to make a name for myself, we moved to the other side of the world. I had mixed feelings about this new chapter. I’d worked so hard to get to this point and now I was facing having to start all over again.

This time I wasn’t so scared of the change, because it felt more like a metamorphosis. That I could choose to leave the parts of my business that weren’t working and move forward with the things that I really wanted to do. 

I had done this once and I knew I could do it again. I also started to really trust myself.

This is when my business really started to take off. 

10 Years of Business Setbacks Taught Me

These last 10 years of business have really taught me that there is no success without setbacks or failures. 

There is so much that we cannot control within creativity and within life. The only thing that we can control is getting up every day and trying again.

If you feel like things are hard, you’re probably on the right path.

Building a creative business is the hardest thing that I’ve ever done, but know you’re not alone. I hope you keep trying. 

It’s taken me 10 years to be comfortable enough to share some of the setbacks and failures that I’ve experienced. My hope in doing so is that you won’t give up because maybe you thought my journey was easier or different.

Remember it’s all about the long-term game. Do anything you can to survive. To be less stressed. To be kind to yourself, to trust and believe in yourself.

If you want to improve your mindset, head to my post on My Journey Into Food Photography.

The post Failures and Setbacks: 10 Years of Pursing a Photography Business appeared first on Two Loves Studio.