Food Photography: How to Get the Most Mouth Watering Images of Your Favorite Food?
Did you know that there are at least 244 million pictures on Instagram falling under the #foodporn and #food trends categories?
People love their food and even more than that, they love showing it to the world. Food is an essential. Whether you consider it in terms of health or culture – it is always there in your life – for celebration, nutrition or just comfort.
This is why you can find images of food everywhere. It’s like food photography has taken over every type of media there is. You see it in advertisements on TV, in recipe blogs and lifestyle magazines; and then there are the personal social media profiles of people who can’t imagine their life without food.
You don’t necessarily have to be a foodie or a photography enthusiast to take delectable photographs of your food. What you do need, is a comprehensive set of tips that can help you make even everyday food as the most mouth watering grub on the planet!
Here are some to begin with:
Figure Out the Lighting
Natural light works best, but we’re not talking about harsh sunlight falling on the food through the window. It’s more of the soft light natural light that fills up the space and brightens everything up. Food photography works best in this light. Find a spot where this light is at its best, even if it means going out of your kitchen or asking for the window seat at the restaurant.
Find Your Inspiration
There are tons of excellent food images available online and in food magazines – images that make you drool. Do you want to capture something like that? Take a close look at the composition, colors, lighting, and props used in the images that appeal to you most and then try working all that into your photography.
Create an Ambience
For that, you need to sort of control the light – even if it’s natural light. There are a number of ways you can do that. Using sheers on the windows will create a soft look, mirrors would reflect the light into areas you most want them in, and dark fabric and/or paper can be used to block the light when it’s too much. See what works best for you and get going.
Break the Shake
You need to keep the camera still to avoid blurred images. The best way about it is to use a tripod – it eliminates the possibility of shaky images. Also, once your camera is stable, you can capture food images at longer exposures, especially when working in low lighting conditions. You can even set your desired aperture without the need for artificial light.
Presentation is Key
This is probably the most time consuming part of taking lip smacking pictures of food. You’ve got to get the presentation right. If it doesn’t look delicious in real, the image will never be one that makes people’s mouth water. So pay attention to the placement, props, garnish, and the location of food to capture them best.
Play Around
Not literally, but with perspectives and angles. Experiment with the different angles you can view the food from – it rarely looks its best from all angles. So, you need to see which angles – the one at plate level or the one you capture while kneeling down – reflects the real face and beauty of your food. Keep trying till you find the one that is just perfect.
Have Fun
This is important. The best pictures of food are ones that are creative and well-composed. You need to have fun with the whole process. Use interesting backgrounds and dishes, work in some props, make a story, pay attention to the colors, and simply enjoy photographing it as much as you enjoy eating.
7 simple tips and you just might be able to capture the best image of your food you’ve ever taken. Try them out and let us know how it worked for you!
Did we miss any? Leave them in the comments below.
