How to Create The Perfect Food Photography

There is no question that food photography has taken the internet by storm. It seems like everywhere you look, there is another mouth-watering food photograph just begging to be clicked. So what is the secret to creating the perfect food photograph?

In this article, we will walk you through the process of creating a food photograph that will make your taste buds water.

1. Pick Your Food

The most important part to making a food photography is picking your food.

If you don't like your food, or if you can't find anything interesting about it, it becomes hard to capture every tiny detail on film.

When I first started shooting food, my ideas for my work were limited and I would spend hours agonizing over every frame of a shot which lead to lackluster work.

After trying hundreds of different shots, I ended up with breathtaking food and my work started to get better, naturally.

Anybody can shoot food. The secret is to find the food that is interesting to you, and shoot it exactly as you would for other subjects.

2. Add Food Elements

One of the greatest challenges faced by food photographers is that of finding dishes that look their best. Unfortunately, there is no one secret formula to achieving this, and in this post we will be looking at key food elements that greatly impact how food shots look. So let's get started.

The colors. How can you unleash your creativity and not let the colors come to define what your shot is representing? Warm tones can really sell the dish coming to life. So if you are vegetarian, pay attention to colors complements to red and orange. If you are a meat eater, I would recommend similar middle tones such as purple (maroon). And if you have a dessert plate, be careful with reds as they make foods look too "metallic."

Meanwhile, gold can make everything come off as tombstone-desolation, and I'm sure you want to avoid this. Instead, go with silver.

The colour of the plate. This one might surprise ya, but depending on the dish, darker plates can make dishes more appetizing, and getting a darker plate for your food shot is a good idea. So we are left with a silver/gold balance.

But why is the plate closest to the camera being darker? While your plate can take up space, it actually also gives your food a way of lifting off the plate in your food photograph, and this is something that looks nice.

3. Cauptre Picture

Food photography can be tricky. You first need to decide on the direction of the food. What is the feel that you want to create and what are their ingredients? The key to capturing a perfect food photograph is capturing it in the right direction. If you want a portrait, capture the food from the side. If you want to create a bowl or plate shot, capture it from the front.

Capture in the right direction.

However, if you have never done food photography before, you would need to research through books or tutorials to perfect your technique.

Things to Consider:

Keep A Budget In Mind All Zoom lens come with a 35 mm f/1.4 crop factor whereas a full format camera would be a 70-300 mm f/4.5-5.6.

4. Set Up

Before you step One, you should start thinking critically about the image you want to create.

The first consideration should be the mood that you want to portray. Are you going for a gritty and modern scene or a romantic, bright and upbeat image?

Then, you should do your research.

You should hear the different way people speak and see what they are eating. Does they have landed on a restaurant that oozes decadence or race through the aisles of a grocery store grabbing what he wants in a hurry?

You should also think about picking the absolute best space to record. Make sure you have the perfect light, you are not in the way, and you are facing the right direction.

The best camera is the one that's closest to the food.

Look at different photos on Yelp, Nat Geo, and any other sites to see the quality of light in different locations.

With so many different types of foods, you will want to be sure you have a variety of lighting both day and night.

For example, if you are selling pasta, you can have a great looking photograph taken by an assistant at night while you are having dinner with your friends.

Or, you can have a semi-shabbier look of parmesan or regular cheese at lunch.

It is just a matter of finding the right spot.

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