Food vs Film Series: Ratatouille
Recently, I have realized that there are so many different sources of inspiration other than just looking at other photographs. Artists gather inspiration from everything; nature, architecture, history, and one in particular that I’ve been focusing on: movies. Obviously, photography and cinematography have a lot in common. They use the same composition principles and understanding one can be helpful in learning the other. Therefore, expanding my knowledge of cinematography tools like colour grading, and using lighting to create specific atmospheres, has been very beneficial in forcing myself out of my comfort zone in a way that allows me to be more creative.
While looking at live-action films are certainly something I want to explore as well, I wanted to start with my all time favourite animated movie: Ratatouille. Naturally, this movie is already about food, and has a very specific style that I thought would make it easier to learn how to emulate.
So let’s walk through my process together…
The first thing that I did was screenshot parts of the movie that stood out to me and inspired me to use certain props or backdrops. Using these screenshots, I decided to do three photographs in the series. One, would be the kitchen where Remy is supposedly cooking something up. Another, was inspired by the restaurant itself. And lastly, (true Ratatouille fans will remember this one), is the scene where Remy tastes the strawberry and cheese, and the background goes dark as colours and music swirl around his head. It is meant to represent the mind of a chef.
Using these three scenes as the inspiration, I sketched out a design of where everything would go in the photograph. Along with this, I wrote a list of possible props or backdrops I could use. And of course, this was all written in my Ratatouille notebook that I bought this summer in Paris :)
Inside Remy’s Kitchen
For this shoot, I knew I had most of the props and ingredients. The only thing that was missing was a wooden board for the shelf. I have seen other photographers make a fake shelf by holding up a wood platform against the backdrop. So, this is what I decided to do too. I just put two chairs on either side of the table (since my table wasn’t wide enough) and placed objects that could hold up the wooden board.
In all three photoshoots, I used artificial light. However, unlike the other two photos that are darker and more moody, this photo is light and airy. I wanted it to appear bright like a kitchen would need to be. Then, in the editing process, I also made sure to reduce the contrast and increase the highlights. This created the same type of filter that the movie appeared to have, as shown here:
Using these two images as inspiration, I also paid attention to what colours they used. The photos consist of mostly browns and whites, along with pops of green using herbs. I didn’t have a tile background exactly like this one, but I had a similar one from Drop/A/Wall Backdrops. And then I used a beige backdrop that I got from Club Backdrops as the kitchen counter.
When it came to setting up the composition of the photos, I realized that I needed a more prominent main subject. Using the pan looked too flat in the photo, and if I used a pot it would be too big. So, I decided to make my Ratatouille notebook the main subject of the photos. Which stood out perfectly against the neutral colours in the rest of the picture.
Here’s how the final photos turned out:
Welcome to Gusteau’s
For this shoot, there was a little more DIY required. Originally, I thought that I would only need to make two things, a mini lamp and the red backdrop. But when I got to setting up the composition, I realized it needed something else in the back. So, I decided to create a menu as well.
But first, let me walk you through the whole process. These were the photos I found as inspiration for the restaurant:
I did not have a red backdrop, so I decided to paint my own rather than buy one. I mixed two parts red and one part blue paint, with a touch of yellow to create this deep burgundy colour.
I wanted my photograph to look like one of the tables at this restaurant, so I used a white tablecloth along with white dishes and wine glasses, to give it a classy and elegant look.
As for the lamp, again, I did not want to buy a small lamp just for this one photo shoot. So I actually took the lamp shade off of a lamp that I already had (the lamp was too tall to use in the photograph) and placed the lamp shade on an LED candle that I had.
Like I mentioned before, when I set all of this up, I realized it needed something else tall in the background to balance the height of the lamp on the right side. I decided to include a menu. To make this, I cut cardboard to the correct size of a menu, cut leftover fake leather (that I had from a previous craft), and glued the two together. Then, printed a little Ratatouille restaurant logo and glued this onto the menu as well.
I could have made a pasta dish or some fancy meal to use as the main subject, but I already had a vegan cheesecake in my freezer and decided to use that.
Unsurprisingly since I was taking photos of desserts, this was my favourite shoot! I Here’s how the final photos turned out!
The Mind of a Chef
This last shoot was inspired by the part in Ratatouille when Remy tries a strawberry, and then tries a piece of cheese, each one creating a different atmosphere or feeling. Then, he tries both and there is music and lights swirling around him to represent the incredible taste combination. I wanted to create this same type of photo while pretending that Remy is making some pasta this time.
After deciding which ingredients could possibly go into pasta, I set up my lighting, black backdrops so that I would get just a plain background, and placed a big pot in the middle of the scene.
With each food, I did something a little bit different. The larger foods like the onion and garlic, I stuck a chopstick into to hold it up. The smaller items like the herbs, I just threw into the scene while continuously taking photos. This process took a very long time to get it all perfect.
But once I was satisfied with the photos, I uploaded them to lightroom, edited one of them and created a preset from that edit. This made editing all the other photos so much easier because they needed to look as if all the food was in one photo by the end of the editing process. Since I do not have photoshop, I actually ended up using google slides to upload the pasta photo, then layer the rest on top. I went into the website www.remove.bg to cut out the background from the other photos. To be honest, I would not recommend doing this if you want to get a high quality and good resolution photo, but this is just what I chose to do.
Once all of the food was in one photo, I took this photo and put it into the app Procreate. Then, I used the painting and drawing tools to create the swirls and the bokeh effect that is seen in the movie.
So, after using more than four different apps and websites to create this photo, it was finished! Here’s the final product:
Hopefully, learning about all of this was interesting and helpful to you! Let me know which movie I should do a photography series for next!