How to photograph a tin of Heinz Baked beans – different ways of capturing the same thing

Give 4 professional fulltime photographers the same task – “ Rules are to create one image, it is to include a tin of Heinz baked beans but you can capture it as you wish”

When teaching my photography students, I have always told them that it should be possible to capture most things in an interesting way but that you have to think about your viewpoint, backdrop etc. 

I normally follow up with that I believe if you give 10 people the same thing to photograph, they will each see it in a different way, and you will end up with ten likely different images.  So, to put it to the test I recently contacted three other local photographers to see if they wanted to join in and they did! 

It’s always lovely to have a little project to do and the chance to get creative and you can normally tell a photographer’s style from the way they shoot.  So quite often I get told that when an image pops up on social media, they know it’s one of mine.  The same can also be said for my three talented colleagues – - all of us are Essex based photographers -  come and meet them

Ross Willsher Photography - relaxed, stress-free and centred on real emotions and family connections. Modern traditional

Louise from Trebor Photography - relaxed, modern, natural and fun photos of family, babies and children, plus pet portraits in the studio 

Vicky Holmes - relaxed, fun, family photographer – joyful photography for warm hearted families.   

And me – Tracy Williams – Natural happy relaxed photography for you and your family

So from all 4 of our bio’s you can see the same thing – natural, relaxed – so what does that mean for our images?  Four similar images or completely different interpretations?

Two of us took the task as a literal photograph a tin of beans! But quite different approaches. The other two incorporated the tin within the shot – making it the focal point but in separate ways.