1. Lighting
Treat the food you’re photographing as you would any other
still life subject and ensure that it is well lit. One of the best places to
photograph food is by a window where there is plenty of natural light – perhaps
supported with flash bounced off a ceiling or wall to give more balanced
lighting that cuts out the shadows. This daylight helps to keep the food
looking much more natural.
2. Props
Pay attention not only to the arrangement of the food itself
but to the context that you put it in including the plate or bowl and any table
settings around it. Don’t clutter the photo with a full table setting but
consider one or two extra elements such as a glass, fork, flower or napkin.
These elements can often be placed in secondary positions in the foreground or
background of your shot.
3. Be Quick
Food doesn’t keep it’s appetizing looks for long so as a
photographer you’ll need to be well prepared and able to shoot quickly after
it’s been cooked before it melts, collapses, wilts and/or changes color. This
means being prepared and knowing what you want to achieve before the food
arrives.
4. Style it
The way food is set out on the plate is as important as the
way you photograph it. Pay attention to the balance of food in a shot (color,
shapes etc) and leave a way into the shot (using leading lines and the rule of
thirds to help guide your viewer’s eye into the dish). One of the best ways to
learn is to get some cook books to see how the pros do it.
5. Enhance it
One tip that a photographer gave me last week when I said I
was writing this was to have some vegetable oil on hand and to brush it over
food to make it glisten in your shots.
6. Get Down Low
A mistake that many beginner food photographers make is
taking shots that look down on a plate from directly above. While this can work
in some circumstances – in most cases you’ll get a more better shot by shooting
from down close to plate level (or slightly above it).
7. Macro
Really focusing in upon just one part of the dish can be an
effective way of highlighting the different elements of it.
8. Steam
Having steam rising off your food can give it a ‘just
cooked’ feel which some food photographers like. Of course this can be
difficult to achieve naturally. I spoke with one food stylist a few years back
who told me that they added steam with a number of artificial strategies
including microwaving water soaked cotton balls and placing them behind food.
These tips will help when shooting my food photographs.
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