David Loftus

David Loftus is an incredibly famous and internationally acclaimed photographer. Over the past twenty years he has photographed over 100 books for the likes of Jamie Oliver, Gennaro Contaldo, Elizabeth David and April Bloomfield. He is most known for his work with Jamie Oliver as he has photographed all but one of Jamie's international best-sellers, which has led to international book sales in excess of thirty million copies.
Although he is known for his food photography he has been involved in fashion, portrait and landscape photographer for various magazines including Red Magazine. He has also directed TV adverts including a very successful one for Sainsbury's and in 2012 published his first recipe book entitled "Around The World in 80 Dishes"
Over the years he has accumulated many awards including European Portrait and Garden Photographer of the year and in 2010 he was named the 65th most influential photographers by Professional Photographer magazine, who said "Loftus's natural approach to shooting food has led a revolution in food photography with the new emphasis being on honesty and ingredients over perfection and unreality."

I really enjoy David Loftus's work as his use of depth of field draws the eye towards the food yet the background is only softly out of focus so the food doesn't appear to harsh or sharp. His simple composition also compliments the food as it adds a natural feel and allows the food to stand out as the centre of attention. His work is very inspiring for food photographers and I'm sure he will continue to influence photographers worldwide.

Below are some of my favourites:









Bibliography: http://www.davidloftus.com/
http://photolandcontextual.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/investigation-towards-food-photography_30.html

Panoramic Photography

Panoramic photography involves taking many images of the same scene at different points and stitching them together to make one large photograph. It can be very useful as you can achieve a similar effect to having a very wide angle lens. It can be achieved by using editing software to stick images together but most cameras and smartphones have a panoramic effect making it quick and easy to create. Certain smartphones have the ability to take landscape panoramas as well as portrait panoramas to add a different angle to a scene or to emphasise the height of an object, for example a skyscraper. It can be a very useful tool for photographers as it allows the photographer to include many details within their photograph that may be far apart. It is a very popular tool for city skylines or for landscapes in general as it accentuates the vastness of the scene. It can also be used to create abstract photographs by moving the camera awkwardly while taking the panorama to stitch together fragments of an image instead of a smoothly transitioned image.
Interestingly when panoramic photography was first introduced images were captured at angles of 150 degrees with moving cameras but now it is possible to take a full 360 degree image of a scene with sophisticated cameras and good timing. These 360 degree panoramas can be converted into a square photograph to produce a spherical image known as a 'planet'.

I think panoramic photography is a great tool for amateur photographers as it is an easy tool on most smartphones that allows the photographer to include all necessary details and add a different angle to viewing scenes specifically landscapes or cityscapes. I really enjoy look at panoramas of cityscapes as they capture the diversity of cities by showing the differences between areas of a city in one single photograph.However, depending on the photographer the quality of the image isn't always guaranteed to be high as timing is important.

Some of my favourites found online:

Spherical panorama or a 'planet'

Bibliography: http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/how-tos/photography-techniques/what-is-panoramic-photography.html#b