B.T.S. Breakfast Favorites Creative Shoot!

Breakfast is such a versatile meal. It can be sweet or savory, but always filling! How can you capture some of the simplest breakfast options like cereal or yogurt and take them to the next level? Working with a creative and collaborative team of stylists. For this test shoot I got to work with food stylist Hadley Sui and prop stylist Alya Hameedi. We laid out some colorful ideas to capture iconic yogurt brands and cereal with our own creative take on them. In a crowded market it’s important to not just help a brand make amazing photos, but make them unique to their identity and stand above the other competitors! A big part of being successful with this is planning ahead. So much can be figured out ahead of the shoot to allow the actual day of the job to run smoothly and leave room for creative spontaneity. Reach out to discuss your next project and how we can bring it to life!

Photo Shoot Diner Series

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and what better way to showcase that amongst other fun foods than recreating a diner! My dream team, food stylist Janine Kalesis and prop stylist Penelope Bouklas put our minds together to come up with fun diner environments with different diner foods to highlight including an early morning breakfast. I loved the challenge of lighting the scenes and making them feel like different times of the day. Also I was able to capture different angles and mini silhouettes of the scenes. Lots of fun props to help tell the story. Can’t wait till the next shoot!!

Check Instagram for more shots from the shoot!

@perrettiphoto

@foodstylistnewyorkcity

@penelope_props

B.T.S. Nepresso Photo Shoot

What a fun coffee project. The team at Weber Shandwick, and Nepresso came up with really creative concepts to showcase Hispanic Heritage Month. They chose beautiful Nepresso coffee recipes and were paired with custom illustrations that were added to the coasters we photographed. The props were minimal and really allowed the Nepresso drinks, glassware, and illustrated coasters shine through. These images were shared on Nepresso’s Instagram account during the months of September and October. Each image had a story to tell and was beautifully featured. Really proud of this work my team and I were able to create!

Drink Stylist: Takako Kuniyuki https://tkuniyuki.com/

Prop Stylist: Maya Rossi http://www.mayarossi.com/

Studio: Space28 https://www.space28.com/

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Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!

Zoom Communications: Food Backgrounds For Your Meeting!

What a crazy moment we are living through of moving virtually only and social distancing. The process doesn’t have to be ugly, but an opportunity to be creative! I’ve used Zoom myself and was excited to learn I could change my background. This little tip puts a smile on my face and brings some personality to the online meeting that can only be felt in person. I express myself creatively through photography and I feel others should be able to do the same.

I’ve pulled just a few of my favorite foodie images together that you might enjoy for your next Zoom meeting. Just let me know and I can send it over! Bell Well!! -Felicia

Food Photography by Food Photographer Felicia Perretti, New York, Chicago

Food Photography by Food Photographer Felicia Perretti, New York, Philadelphia

Food Photography by Food Photographer Felicia Perretti, New York, Chicago

Food Photography by Food Photographer Felicia Perretti, New York, Chicago

Food Photography by Food Photographer Felicia Perretti, New York, Chicago

Food Photography by Food Photographer Felicia Perretti, New York, Chicago

Food Photography by Food Photographer Felicia Perretti, New York, Chicago

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Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!

Conceptual Series: Pop Art!

This was a fun series to shoot because popcorn, as simple of a product it is every piece popped has unique traits you cannot repeat twice. I’m a fan of popcorn and being in the food business, why not?! I wanted to challenge my technical capabilities in this series with use of macro photography, lighting, and focus stacking; things I would apply to my other commercial work.

The results were so fascinating and fun to see unfold in the stacking process. You might sort through bags of popcorn and hold a piece that looks interesting but once it’s in the light it’s not, and vice versus. Focus stacking allowed me to showcase the depth in the miniature scale of the food and make it feel much bigger when fully in focus. Also allowing the popcorn to be shot on black by itself removes the illusion of the scale of real popcorn and lets your imagination take over.

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Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!

B.T.S. Video Shoot Brooklyn Bagel and Coffee Company

If there’s something I’m really passionate about in New York City it’s a good bagel! Once I came upon B.B.C.C. I knew I was hooked. I’ve had my fair share of bagels and hit up the “hot” spots but a true kettle boiled bagel was the answer. NYC knows that’s the only way to make a bagel and anyone that has had a bagel this was they wouldn’t forget it. Here’s a couple brief articles about the science of it:

https://www.thekitchn.com/food-science-why-bagels-are-bo-86711

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/05/21/405190434/chew-on-this-the-science-of-great-nyc-bagels-its-not-the-water

I really am writing this because it was so exciting to work with them to create a amazing bagel piece I could use for my portfolio but something they could also use for their advertising. I arrived ahead of the shoot to sit down with the owner to discuss my idea and vision and to make sure he was on board. Once that was settled I had some interview style questions to ask that would be sliced over the visuals in the end. When we agreed on a date my team and I shot for the good first half of their shop being open capturing the beautiful kettle boil process, their coffee being made, some of their signature sandwiches, and of course the happy customers. It was all about the beauty in the food so we had our cine prime lens on the entire time. In addition to that we had a tungsten light back lighting the steam and certain shots. Also we staged some shots at the front of the store and incorporated the natural light coming in. It was a fun day and flew by! The final product came out great, see it in my motion portfolio

Beverage Photography: Getting That Splash

With beverage work comes pours and splashes. I’ve found I was lacking some of that in my portfolio and have lost out on projects because I didn’t have that aspect. Getting this integrated into my work was no easy task and there is a lot of trial and error in getting that perfect pour or splash. There are ways to accomplish this type of photography with sound and laser triggers getting it exactly where you want it when you throw your liquid into the air. For my first time I was concentrating on using the right strobe equipment and keeping my setups simple but conceptual that still showcased my creativity but showed an understanding how to get that shot. If you want your pours midair with little to know ghosting on your shots using the Broncolor Scoro’s were the way to go. I used 2-3 heads per shot giving a nice fill light without washing out the clear liquids. Water was the most efficient way to practice and get neat shots midair. I really enjoyed how the final image came out after post processing. The other great thing with Broncolor was I was able to use the Profoto modifiers (personally are better than Broncolors) on Broncolor heads. They had speed rings that could adapt to Profoto softboxes. If you plan to try and capture pours or splashes I’d advise buying tarps from Home Depot and having extra towels because you will make a mess.

Wine & Spirits Cover Shoot

This was an amazing opportunity to work with Mike at Wine & Spirits magazine. It was timing and creativeness that we were able to come up with this cover shot!

http://www.wineandspiritsmagazine.com/S=0/subscriptions/entry/december-2015

Travel Plans: Italy

I've been enjoying the end of the summer and just getting ready for my trip to Italy. My boyfriend (whose is also a commercial photographer: www.josephmkitchen.com) and myself will be leaving first week in September traveling to Venice and Rome! I feel you should really do international travel at least once in your life and while your younger. Traveling through the states I plan on doing when I'm older.

I enjoy traveling because it gives me time to explore new cultures and recharge my creative process. Seeing the world differently where you cannot always get that in your own country. I look forward to hearing new languages and trying to speak them too ;) French and Italian are certainly on my list of languages to learn. I can speak a little of both but nothing fluent... yet!

Stay Inspired!