Food photography means combining delicacy and creativity in one frame. It can be very fun! But, sometimes it can be one of the most challenging types of photography, even for a professional photographer. You have to construct the photo until you get a perfect balance. Food photography can serve as the differentiator in the industry. It can be the reason for people to decide to order from your place. So how to create mouth-watering food photography?
Food Photography Tips For You
You want to tell a story from any food photos you take, either cocktail, homemade pasta, or roasted chicken. It’s all sounds simple, but when it comes to technicality, it’s a more complicated story than others. A chef can make great food, but it’s your job to create a mouth-watering and great visual appeal photo for your food photography. Also, you might want to be a food photography resources for some platform that can give you some side hustle money. Here are some simple tips from us to creating strong food photography for your brand or restaurant like some professional food photographers. And maybe you can share some on social media or your own food blog.
1. Choose the Right Angle and Background
The angle from food photography will affect the type of story you want to tell. There are only a few angles in food photography. So, think wisely about it. You can decide it based on the food size, shape, height, and what is unique about it. Choosing the right camera angles can make your “hero item” or the main subject stand out more.
Choosing a background is also important. Neutral background like dark or a light background usually looks good for food photography. Or maybe a wooden table can be a great background, particularly if it’s near a window. After you got the perfect angle and background, adding a little property might help you to make your food photography looks stronger and eye catching.
2. Shoot in Natural Light (and take control of the shadows)
Shoot your food photograph with artificial lighting like your studio light, which is likely to create an ugly shadow in your photo. It will ruin your story and immediately turn off your audience. Although light is really important to help you in creating beautiful still photos, you can use natural daylight for your food photography. Make sure your lighting source doesn’t distract the delicacy of the food! These food photography tips can make a huge difference in your food photo.
When you feel that natural light can really help you to create a strong story from your food photos, here is a little secret that can make your life much easier. You can do it near the window, and let the window light your object. Or just directly in your garden. The diffuser will help you to greatly improve the quality of light. Softening those hard, dark shadows and bright highlights caused by direct sunlight. Soft shadows are much more flattering to the subject, without dominating the scene.
3. Combining Several Menus or Ingredients
Another food photography tips are composition. Your delicious food and background are both vital elements. Make your photos more interesting. The way you arrange your food will give you a big impact on the final result. As we told before, the composition is the key! Don’t be afraid to play with some ingredients or another menu that will help to strengthen your image. A plate of food can be improved by adding another side dish or another garnish. Your food images will look great, and the frame will feel more lively.
Or a bunch of white plates with a lot of food can also be combined with a wooden table or nice table cloth to create more creative food photographs. Just pour your creativity here and apply some food styling techniques too.
4. Set the Best Exposure Level
When you got the best composition, angle, and perfect lighting source for your scene, you have to adjust the camera’s exposure level. It simply refers to the brightness of your final image.
Over-exposure will cover up the details in every piece of your food, and of course, there is no delicacy on the frame. To avoid it, you have to expose the highlights. Set the best exposure levels, so you can see the details in the areas of the scene. When you follow these food photography tips, you can also adjust the shutter speed and the aperture or choose a good lens, and adding a little bit depth of field can also make a good food photo.
5. Use Human Element
Using your hand on frames can help you to create a sense of movement in the frame otherwise, the frame will look just like a static scene, but if you do photoshoot all by yourself, then this thing will need extra care to keep your camera steady when you press the shutter button. And if you’re shooting a close-ups food photography, you don’t tend to use any additional decorations in the scene. But, don’t forget you have to use a great combination of the color palette on a frame. It can create good food pictures.
Photo Editor Can Improve Your Food Photography Result
You can use any DSLR professional camera like any professional photographers use or by using your smartphone to create mouth-watering food photography. Take a look at your food photo, is there anything that can be improved? You can use editing software like photoshop or lightroom to do some retouching like adjusting the white balance or do any color correction if you don’t like it to stay in the raw format. Once you understand the fundamentals of food photography, then all you need is practice and applying these food photography tips and rules. Keep in mind, practice makes perfect, and sees the result in your great food photo. You can be a food photographer in no time!
But if the process of photo editing is not your forte, you can use a photo editor services or professional image and photo retouching services like Dropicts. We can help to make your photo looks like professional food photos.
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