Complete Guide to Food Photography
How many times have you, as a customer, craved for a meal because of how it has been presented in the photos? I’m sure most of us have experienced it, and even ordered that dish or product. This is where Food Photography plays its major role.
To be able to market your products to your target audience and attract customers, giving them visual evidence of your product goes a long way. Psychological studies have shown that we are more drawn to something that looks appetising than smells appetising.
Good photography can attract more customers, resulting in more sales. Posting your food photography on e-commerce sites and social media can bring in evidently more traction and recognition for your business. If you are someone who is curious to learn and try food photography, here is an A to Z guide that will help you along every step of food photography!
Begin with observing and learning
Looking at different styles of food photography and observing helps a great deal in learning the art. Look for inspiration on websites, photographs in menu cards of restaurants, food packaging, social media posts, portfolios of food photographers and others. Given the variety, diversity and vividity of colours in Indian cuisine, food photography in India has a major role to play in attracting people from abroad as well as Indians from different regions.
Equipment used in food photography
While smartphones with good quality cameras work really well too, using a DSLR or other professional cameras can bring a huge difference to your photography. While many beginners use Cropped Sensor cameras, full-frame cameras are widely used and recommended in food photography. Both types of cameras are well-suited for food photography, with very few differences. Some of the best digital cameras for food photography are:
Sony A7R IV (full-frame)
Nikon Z7 II (full-frame)
Nikon D3400 (Cropped Sensor)
However, if you wish to go for a smaller budget, smartphones like iPhone, One Plus, Oppo, Samsung and Google Pixels have high resolution cameras that would give you pleasing photos.
Camera lenses for food photography
Prime lenses and fixed lenses provide wider apertures, thereby offering a greater control over depth of field. While using a full-frame digital camera, either a 50mm or an 80mm lens is highly recommended for food photography. In case of a cropped sensor camera, you will need to adjust your lens according to your camera’s crop factor. The crop factor refers to how much of your photo a camera is cropping as compared to a usual 35mm film camera. To have a calculated estimate, to achieve the effect of an 80mm lens for a cropped sensor camera with a crop factor of 1.6, you will need a 50mm lens.
To achieve your ideal close-up shots and detailed photos of the food product, having a macro-lens is widely suggested.
Make sure to have these equipment other than your cameras and lens.
Your camera and lens are incomplete for food photography without a tripod, artificial lighting and some props.
A tripod helps in providing stability to the camera, thereby giving you clear and still photos, instead of shaky ones that come due to the shaking of hands.
While food photography mostly comes out best in natural lighting, it can keep fluctuating and may not always suit your shoot time. Having some artificial lighting handy can help in more control and adjusting, in such cases. LED Studio lights, incandescent lighting, fluorescent, CFL curly bulbs and other studio lighting help in getting the perfect kind of ambience you’re looking for.
The side-kicks that play an important role? Props beautify and add more meaning to your photography. Bring in some leaves, flowers, cutlery that matches your shoot’s vibe, napkins, cutter boards etc. to add a touch of homeliness and elegance to your photos.
How do you place your food to make it look more appetising?
Once the camera, lighting and the props are ready, it is important to look at what kind of styling and staging of the food will make it look more appetising and pleasing to the eyes. As the saying goes, “You eat with your eyes first.” Food styling is often a very complex process, and there are dedicated professionals who work towards staging and styling the set-up for food photoshoots.
Your food has been in the studio for hours maybe, and it is important to make it look fresh even then. Spraying some water or greasing your dish with some oil will give it a fresh look. Splash some of that sauce on your plate, or make a stroke using a spoon or a brush; scatter some berries or olives, and some herbs alongside the food. While all these steps might enhance how your photo looks, it is also important that the scattering or splashing does not look very messy. Props can be cautiously placed here and there, and still made to look like they have been scattered around.
Through all the staging and propping, it is important to note that nothing outshines the food that you’re trying to show. After all, your food is king.
How to ensure that the food remains the king?
One way to do this is to use the depth of the field. In such cases, bringing your food to focus and slightly blurring the background and other props will help your viewers pay attention to the food and not other prop items.
Understand the strength of your food, what makes it stand out from the other? Is it the colour, the texture, size, or the presentation? Adjust your set-up according to the food’s strength and voila! you’ve found a way to shine the spotlight on your food.
Make sure to use the correct lighting that would show the texture of your food; adjust your backgrounds and their colour according to the colour of the food; identify the depth of the field to capture the right essence of the food’s size and depth.
Make sure to use some negative space, and not fill your photos completely. The viewer’s eyes need some space to breathe and comprehend your photos well. Instead of overcrowding a photo with extra add-ons, props etc., let it stand by itself and speak for itself. Sometimes, photos like that make more impact. Additionally, having enough negative space can also help in adding texts, bylines, price etc.
What camera angles work best?
It depends on the kind of food you’re photographing. While most photos work best with a top camera angle, placed perpendicular to the food, there might be some food items that would go best with the eye level placement of the camera. Some foods and props might have depth and layers, which may not get covered in a top angle photo. In such situations, going for a 25-degree and 75-degree angle might help you compare the best one. Using cutlery to form leading lines, providing texture using napkins and ceramics, creating layers with the food itself can give dimensions and depth to your photos, which will avoid them from looking flat.
Keeping this in mind, it is essential that the photographer is prepared with the angles in their head prior to the shoot, to avoid wasting time.
Lighting for your photography.
Food photography makes its best appearance in a diffused light. This reason makes natural lighting the most suitable and sometimes ideal for food photography. However, natural lighting can be too harsh or dull sometimes. Covering it up with a white cloth or a tissue paper can diffuse the harshness and work the best. You can even use a lightbox to have the best lighting and even make one yourself! Lots of Youtube videos and DIY articles on Google talk about making one’s own lightbox.
Editing and processing your photographs.
Understand the purpose of the photography and how the food is going to be used, to plan your editing and post-processing easily. If a food requires to be cut off from its background, make sure you photograph it against a white background.
Adobe’s Photoshop, Affinity Photo, and Luminar AI are some of the most used softwares used in photo editing and processing.
Some food photographers and bloggers you could follow:
- Francesco Tonelli: An Italian chef, food stylist and food photographer, Francesco’s portfolio includes cookbooks, magazine photography, restaurant photography and various food projects. He has worked with clients like Coca-Cola, Chipotle and Pure Leaf.
2. Joanie Simon: Simon is a food photographer and blogger from Arizona. She has worked with clients like Ocean’s Halo and Shamrock Farms. Simon teaches food styling as well. Check her work on her Youtube channel, The Bite Shot.
3. Mowie Kay: A food photographer based in London, Mowie Kay has done food photography for books, editorials, packaging and advertisements. He usually uses a black or grey background for his photos, so the vivid colours in his photos pop up. He has photographed for Harrods, Debenhams, Marks & Spencer, Tesco, KFC and Caffe Nero.
4. Carl Warner: Warner has a very unique style of presenting his food photography- through making landscapes out of foods! An illustrator-turned-photographer, Carl Warner clicks still life photos that are descriptive and unique, because the whole setting is made using food products. Dreaming of lands made of pizzas and everything you like? Carl Warner brings that dream to reality using his photos.
5. Isabella Cassini: An award winning still life and food photographer, Isabella’s photos speak a lot and are very dynamic. Her photographs include a lot of splashing and smashing. She has photographed for clients like Baileys, Galileo Foods and Goodwolf.
With the right preparation, knowledge, exposure and creativity, your food photography can bring the best in even the stalest of foods. Every photographer has a magic in their hands, it’s about time you put your magic out there and bring out the tastiest food photographs!
