How to take pictures of food

Preparation

To find inspiration for photographing food, look at books and magazines related to cooking, and scrutinize the lighting and camera angles used in food photos. Whether you're planning to document a family heirloom or add a few beautiful fruit shots to your portfolio, think carefully about what visual elements you want in your images and find the necessary props, such as knives, forks, plates, and tablecloths. White plates and finely textured tablecloths usually make good backgrounds, as their low profile emphasizes the deliciousness of the food.

Food loses its visual appeal once it sits in the air for too long, so set up the table well in advance of the shoot. Arrange props, light sources, and cameras (including focus, exposure, and other settings), and use alternative plates or drawings to temporarily fill in the food's place. When the food is actually served, take pictures of how delicious it looks as soon as possible, and move especially quickly when family and friends are still waiting to chow down.

Food looks most appetizing when it's fresh, especially when it's sprinkled with dressing, as in Eric K. Wolfinger's shot of a salad. Wolfinger's shot of a salad. He used natural sidelight coming in through a door to create a Zen-like feel, and then used post-production software to create a vignetting effect that adds to the mood of the image.

Specific Images

Basic, uncooked ingredients, which often remain in their original state after sitting for some time, are ideal for food photography as a beginner's exercise. As you practice photographing whole eggs in their shells, fresh fruits and vegetables, and other foods in stable condition, you can take your time to explore and experiment with different lighting and angles.

Angles are always important in photography, and this is especially true when photographing food. You can start by climbing up a ladder to take a top shot, then take another one at table height. If you're up for a more challenging assignment, try bringing an assistant or at least using the camera's own self-timer. Sauces or other sticky liquids poured onto entrees often make for mouthwatering shots, especially when backlit. Similarly, ice cream melting and dripping off a cone adds movement and interest to the image.

Three Tips and Tricks

1. Focus

Manually focus to direct the viewer's eye and highlight the colors and textures of the food. Think carefully about depth of field, and choose a sharp focus point in the frame so that there is a clear transition between it and the softly defocused background. If you want the entire image to be sharp, even more so than if you were shooting at an aperture of f/22, try using focus stacking. Take multiple shots at different focus points, then combine them in post-processing.

2. High Dynamic Range Imaging

Photographing high-contrast food, such as chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream, makes it easy to lose detail in the shadows and highlights. Use bracketing to take multiple photos at different exposure values, and then composite them together later in image processing software to enhance color tone and image quality.

3. Light

When photographing food, natural light from a window is the easiest and best light to use. You can place a plate with food on it near a window so that the food is enveloped in non-direct daylight. If the light coming through the window is direct, then try covering the window with a thin layer of cloth or drawing white curtains.

4. White balance

There's no point in photographing food if the final image is unappetizing. Use manual or custom white balance settings to more realistically reproduce the colors of your food.

5. Lenses

Fixed-focus macro lenses, such as the 100mm or 50mm fixed-focus macro speed lenses, are ideal for photographing food. 100mm lenses allow you to shoot at longer distances from the camera to the food, and are especially useful when climbing up a ladder to shoot overhead. Use a fast lens with a maximum aperture value of f/2.8 or greater for greater depth of field and more flexible shutter speed control.

6, softbox or soft umbrella

Whether using an external flash, or studio lights (continuous flash or strobe), you can use softboxes, soft umbrellas and other light control devices to diffuse the light.