Steve Hansen: A Creative Collaboration

When it comes to familiarizing the crew with his style and workflow, Seattle-based advertising photographer Steve Hansen doesn’t mess around. Recently, he put his crew of stylists and assistants to the test, working to create four highly conceptual images for his portfolio.

The images use four very different food/drink products: chocolate, popcorn, apples, and vodka. Steve enjoys “stretching himself as a food photographer by incorporating food into images that tell a story and have a strong concept and visual impact.”

The project took a large amount of pre-visualization and planning to ensure that the models (photographed in studio) would fit into the scene. This required lighting setups which accurately mimicked how the light was falling in the background images, in order to make the products more manageable in post-production.

Each image took nearly a week of work in Photoshop to combine all of the various elements into one cohesive image. View the images below, which are being used for Steve’s portfolio and self-promotion.

Chocolate:

Popcorn:

Apples:

Below is the most difficult, vodka, because of the ice sculpture that was delivered to the set with the arm as a separate piece. Steve created highlights in the ice as well as downward reflections of skin tone to aid in the final composite.

Here are some behind-the-scenes images:

Steve and his crew are also currently creating some BTS videos describing the process, which we will be sure to share when they come out!

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