Tip of the Week – Six Tips for Hunger-Inducing Food Photography
- Select ingredients that will photograph well. Be on the lookout for food that is bruised, wrinkly, or otherwise damaged.
- Less is more – keep your compositions simple, and use less food on the plate than you normally would.
- While clean compositions are usually preferred, don’t shy away from an imperfect plate. A plate of half-eaten cookies can be just as tantalizing as a plate of freshly-baked ones!
- Inserting a human element into food images can give it a more personal touch. Try incorporating hands or fingers to see how it gives your images more personality.
- Use depth of field creatively. Some shots will need a shallow depth while others will benefit from a deeper field of view.
Food photography is perhaps one of the most underappreciated genres in photography. After all, it’s usually not sexy like portraiture, nor highly popular like landscapes. But food photography is absolutely all around us, from magazines and cookbooks to billboards and social media.
This week’s Tip of the Week explores six can’t-miss tips for improving your food photography images. Whether you’re an amateur just playing around or an enthusiast who wants to expand your photographic horizons, give these tips a try for some truly stunning images of food.
Pick Good Subjects
It goes without saying that one of the critical aspects of your success as a food photographer will be the ingredients you choose to photograph. You’ll be working very up close with many food ingredients, so any imperfections will be on full display.
But when you’re dealing with a bowl of fruit, an entire table full of ingredients, or an array of completed dishes, it’s easy to miss items that are scarred, wrinkled, or otherwise damaged. So, have a critical eye not just when you’re selecting your subjects to ensure they are of the best quality, but also take time to survey your ingredients when you’re styling the shot. For example, if you’ve got a strawberry that looks a little gross on one side, either remove it from the shot or turn it over to mask the unsavory areas.
Keep It Simple
Just like any other kind of photograph, images of food benefit from simplicity. But with food photography, it’s much easier to compose a cluttered shot because of all the possible ingredients, cookware, table settings, and the like, so being vigilant is a must. Eliminate elements that aren’t essential, and when photographing a larger scene, like a dinner table, ensure that the glasses, tableware, and table settings are simple and uncluttered as well. Less is definitely more!
Use Less Food
The mantra of keeping it simple applies to what goes on the plate as well. For example, slapping a huge T-bone steak on a plate will leave little, if any, room to see the plate itself, let alone whatever other food, like vegetables, is supposed to be on the plate with the steak.
Instead, when plating, pare down the size of the helping so there’s plenty of real estate for all the dish’s elements. Also strive to leave the outer portion of the plate empty so that there is a nice boundary between the plate and the background.
Clean is Usually the Best, But Sometimes Messy Makes a Point!
People eat with their eyes, so it’s critical that the first impression you make with your images of food is a good one. This means paying attention not just to how the image is composed, but also to how clean and tidy the elements in the image appear. One kernel of corn, a single breadcrumb, or one blob of cake frosting that’s out of place can easily distract a viewer’s attention and give your perfect image a sloppy look. Remember – you’ll often be working up close and filling the frame with your subjects, so any imperfections will be obvious. Clean up any drips or spills, and be sure any plates, flatware, or glasses are free of spots and fingerprints.
Then again, there are times when an imperfect plate of food does a much better job of inducing a feeling or invoking pangs of hunger. Take a bite out of the hamburger you’re photographing or arrange a crumbling cookie on a plate next to a half-empty glass of milk. The point is that photos of food that’s already been enjoyed can convey in a much more salient manner that the viewer can enjoy that kind of food as well. Just be careful when creating an imperfect scene – if it’s not messy enough, it will look sloppy and accidental, but if it’s overdone it can be highly distracting.
Don’t Be Afraid of Hands
Food doesn’t prepare itself, so don’t by shy about including a human element in your food photography. A hand stirring a pot, a finger dipping into a bowl of frosting, or even the cook smelling their wonderful food can really warm up a photo and make it much more personal for the people viewing it.
Mind Your Depth of Field
When you’ve got a huge array of the same element, say, several plates of cookies, having a shallow depth of field is a great way to add some dreaminess to the shot, and the blurry cookie shapes in the background will still be recognizable as cookies. In situations like this, don’t be afraid to open up your lens and shoot at f/2.8 or f/1.8.
However, when you’re photographing a dinner table in which there are all sorts of different elements present, think about closing down your aperture to get a deeper depth of field. Doing so will give your viewers a better understanding of what’s happening in the background because more of the scene will be in sharp focus.
Conclusion
Many photographers have ventured into the realm of food photography thinking that it’s simple enough because we have so much experience preparing and eating food on a daily basis. But just like any other type of photography, food photography can be frustrating if not approached in a methodical manner. Picking beautiful subjects, keeping your compositions and your plates simple, and balancing the need for clean and imperfect plates will give you the tools you need to create beautiful images. Incorporating human elements and using depth of field in a purposeful manner will enhance your ability to create incredible food images as well.