Week Three: Repetition
Can you believe we are on week three already?! The weeks are flying by! This week, we will be talking about repetition…
What is Repetition?
Repetition is when a pattern or element is repeated throughout a photograph many times. There are two ways to use repetition in food photography: through ‘perfectly composed’ repetition and through ‘breaking the monotony’ repetition.
Let’s begin with the perfectly composed repetition:
This is usually portrayed as a flat lay image in which the same shape and food fills the scene. The elements in the photo are usually placed very intentionally to show off the patterns.
Here’s an example:
In the photo above, it uses all circles. However, in the photo below of a chocolate bar, the shapes used are all rectangles.
Repetition can also be used when styling a dish. For example, as a dessert photographer, I might place cherries in specific spots around the top of a cake. This would be repetition. Or, placing sliced tomatoes across avocado toast would be another use of patterns.
Repetition also ties into symmetry. A photo should usually feel balanced on both sides and repetition can help show this sense of balance and order. It creates a calm feeling in the photo because the viewer knows and understands the pattern. Repetition can also be helpful to create a sense of movement throughout a photograph. For instance, in the photo below.
Breaking the Monotony…
On the other hand, photos that look less composed, and more natural often stand out more than photos that are following a strict pattern. Take a look at the photo below.
This is the same chocolate bar as before, except in this photo I sliced the chocolate and added a few coconut flakes (since the chocolate was coconut flavoured). This adds another interesting element to the photo, and creates even more movement. There is much more for the eye to look at in this photo than there is in the first photo. Here is another example of ‘breaking the monotony’:
In my opinion this photo would have looked very boring if all of the muffin holes were filled with muffins facing up at the camera. With the muffin crumbs, blueberries sprinkled across the scene, and muffins facing different directions, this photo has much more movement and storytelling to it.
Here is just one more example of repetition and ‘breaking the monotony’. In this case, I used circles as the pattern being repeated. However, instead of placing more cookie dough at the bottom of the scene, I placed the cookie scoop. It is still following the circular pattern, but it is doing something unexpected which helps keep the viewer more interested in the photograph.
Repetition is a very useful and easy way to create a feeling of movement and balance within a photo. It can be used to create a ‘perfectly composed’ image; using the same shapes/foods to create a pattern. Or it can be used to create a photo that ‘breaks the monotony’; switching up the pattern and doing something unexpected.