Food isn’t easy to photograph, lettuce wilts, meat changes colour and apples go brown. But with a little preparation, and some food photography tips, get ready to get great photos!
Set up
Use small quantities of food this looks better than towering masses of grub. Use simple crockery and cutlery, as this could distract from the food if there is too much going on.
Lighting
Treat the food like any other still life subject (but be quick!). Food looks best in natural light, therefore window light works best, though you may want to use a reflector, or even fill-flash to increase the amount of light.
Angle
The angle you choose is also important to the success of your image. Choose your angle depending on the subject, a flat sliced subject such as a sliced tomato would benefit from from being photographed from above, while a whole orange probably would not look great. Let the shape and texture of the food tell you how to photograph it.
Let the food Talk
Taking into account the above line, let the food’s shapes and textures tell you whether you need hard or soft lighting, and as said before, the angle.
Aperture
Use a shallow depth of field, by setting a small f/ number.
Be Quick
You have to be fast, because food melts, collapses, wilts or changes colour. You can set everything up beforehand, and prepare the food, and pop it into the setup as soon as it is ready to avoid collapse/melt/wilt/colour change.
Add Interest
You can use patterned and coloured paper to add interest to the shot. You can even try using
Dig in and Re Shoot
Once you have plenty of photos, dig in and enjoy, and take some more photos once the dish is partially demolished.
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