Top 8 Food Photography Tips For Beginners

Whenever we enter a restaurant, we’re given a menu with the names and photos of different food items. We often place our orders based on the appearance of the food on the menu. Whether consciously or unconsciously, we’re estimating the taste of the food based on its looks. Not only that, you’ll often observe highly qualified chefs putting a lot of time and effort into garnishing a dish and making it look clean, elegant, and mouthwatering. All this proves the importance of the visual appeal of a food item. And what screams louder about visual appeals than a well captured photo of food? Food photographs, whether taken for passion or professional purposes, bring great joy to both the photographer and the viewer

“Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.”

Auguste Escoffier, French Chef

Foods are one of the basic necessities in order for us to keep being alive. But are the roles of food only limited to that? Delicious food can be a primary motivator for many people as they bring joy in our eyes and peace to our heart. Photographing food lets you play with the ingredients and design the setting that would be most appealing to you. Here you have an all-in-one role as chef, photographer and decorator. So everything you do is within your own control. While it provides immense freedom, properly capturing the desirable angle to make the food appeal to all is not an easy task. The tips to do that is what we’ll be enlightening you with here. These tips will help you, regardless of whether you are an amateur or a pro-chef.

Top Strategies for Food Photography

Be inspired to inspire others

Although food photography is a relatively new genre of photography, it’s evolved quite fast due to people’s love for delicious food. You’ll find many food photographers online with their regular blog posts or Instagram feeds and realize what an elegant and yet delicious an art form it is slowly becoming. All you need to do is visit their pages/feed regularly, see, read and observe the techniques they’re putting into the photographs. Regular monitoring and studying as such will inspire you to be more creative and keep you up to date as well.

Consider Collaborations

Food photography can be quite tricky at times as it requires you do a handful of tasks all by yourself. What if you could delegate all these works to others? Try to collaborate with Chefs and stylists who can provide an expert level insight into your works. This will bring your workload to a minimum and you’ll be able to specialize just on the photography bit.

Photo Composition

The photos you click, no matter the genre, have to be placed in a way that draws the viewer’s attention. Be careful not to crowd the photo with too many tools, decorations or side dishes. Your primary subject should appear as the hero of the photo and a mere glace should be enough for your viewer to recognize it. You can implement the rule of thirds here where you divide the whole frame into nine equal parts and the core focus remains on keeping the subject on these lines or at their intersections.

Take experimental pictures to figure out the best angles for photographing the particular food. For example- if it’s something round shaped like- a pizza or gravy on a china bowl, all items will seem more vibrant if the pictures are taken from above. On the other hand, if you want to flaunt the layers of burger, cake or ice cream, a side angle may be more appropriate.

Pick a background that speaks to you

The primary goal of food photography is to make the viewers crave for it. They should be able to picture themselves eating that food in the setting you designed! This is why, backgrounds are particularly important in food photography. For example- even two to-go coffee cups on a park bench may challenge nostalgia in its viewers or food in an intentionally messy kitchen counter setup may seem more relatable and therefore attractive.

Creativity is key

You can do everything according to the rulebook and yet have a food photograph that doesn’t speak to its viewers. Look at the two pictures carefully, which one seems more appealing? Obviously, the one on the right seems far juicier and more attractive due to the shiny light brown color, the side angle that captured all the layers and the black background that shifts your full focus on the burger. The one on the left, on the other hand, seems more flat and dull. You need to make sure you’re working with bright color foods, styling it properly to get a picture that makes people crave for it.

Lights, camera, food!

Food calms us down, makes us feel full and in peace. Keeping that in mind, the lighting for food photography needs to be soft, eye soothing and shouldn’t distract attention in any way. It’s best to go for natural lighting. Pick a spot near a large window, place your dish on a table and conduct the shoot during the golden hour (the short vibrant time after sunrise or before sunset). Other than that, you can go for artificial options such as–?Softbox?with a golden lighting to be reflected all over. Make sure the lights are coming from a slight angle and not directly behind the food. Also refrain from using harsh lighting such as- direct sunlight or in-camera flashes that may distort the original color of your dish.

Use props

Props are like friends or companions to the main dish. They provide support to the main subject by enhancing its beauty and are normally either related to the ingredients or crockeries used in cooking or presenting the dish. Do remember that props are enhancing elements, they shouldn’t stand out more than the main dish or distract viewers in any way. Although the dish itself is good enough to stand out in the first picture, the spices added in the second pictures makes it look more fulfilled and vibrant that before- thus illustrating the magic props can bring to a food photograph.

Fresh food for fresh photos

A freshly cooked meal with smoke still coming out of it looks more attractive than anything. The aroma, the vibrant color speaks to us all. As time goes by, the color becomes dull, food becomes soggy and dint or spots can start appearing as well. Never let food sit for too long before photographing it. No amount of light or editing can provide the vibrancy a freshly cooked meal can. If you’re working with vegetables or fruits, it’s best to buy them the day before the shoot. If that’s not possible and you have to buy them beforehand, cover them with a wet napkin before storing it in the fridge. That way, the water will protect the food from getting dinted.

While photographing delicious looking food is one of the most fun things you’ll ever do, it also requires you to be skilled enough to breathe soul into it. But do not worry. By patiently following the recommended steps, you can embark on a bright and fun adventure of food photography and become an expert in it as well. Surely, practice leads to perfection and the same applies in case of food photography as well.

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