Food photography is one of the more difficult things to capture. Whether you’re a restaurant putting your delectable dishes up on your menu or maybe you’re a food blogger hoping to capture your foodie journey. Either way we are here to help you with some of our best tips and tricks for food photography.
Food photography vs product photography
Before we dive in, let’s get started on the difference between food photography and product photography. Products come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. There are numerous ways to capture your products: seamless backdrops, with and without props, lifestyle scenes, incorporating models, and even outdoor shots. The possibilities are endless.
Food, on the other hand, has other needs. Regardless of whether it steams, glistens, or jiggles, your food needs to come across as delicious as it is if it’s going to sell itself.
Successful food photographers can capture a sense of what a dish smells and even tastes like. Don’t let this intimidate you because there are some easy steps you can take!
Focus on the food
Your food needs to be the star of your shots. This doesn’t mean you need to center it in the frame, but if it’s surrounded by too many knick-knacks or a distracting background your viewers aren’t going to be captivated by the fabulous feast you’ve prepared.
Color is key
Regardless of whether you’re presenting a chocolaty dessert covered in raspberry sauce or roasted brussels sprouts sprinkled with bacon bits, those colors need to pop! Work in fresh and seasonal ingredients into your shots to make sure those colors naturally come forward.
The hues of your food will bring it to life in the visual medium and make your audience drool at the thought of taking a bite. You can use slight color correction to enhance the tones you have and even add contrast to bring out details or textures.
Our recommendation is to choose natural backgrounds (think marble, wood, etc.) or neutral seamless backdrops to make your dishes stand out.
Arrange arrange arrange
Snapping shots of a Thanksgiving roast? Then it’d be a good idea to pair that turkey with some side dishes. Complimenting your main food item with additional products can enhance the overall sense of your cooking prowess.
To add some context to your photos, add props and line techniques to your shots. A well-placed fork or spoon can frame a roasted peach to draw in your viewer’s eye. This way, the props contribute to your shot and keep your food from having to do all the heavy lifting.
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It’s okay to cut in
For a lot of food products, keep your dish whole for a few shots. Then, dig in to show the people what they want! A gorgeous and perfectly intact cake is a work of art. But, when you cut into it, you can show off the layers to titillate your audience's taste buds.
Modify natural light
Lighting is king. Poor lighting won’t be able to capture the nuanced textures of your food, and texture is a BIG deal. Control the light and you’ll bring your food shots to life.
Direct light creates hard shadows and bright highlights that can be distracting.
This can involve setting your food up near a window to get as much natural light streaming in and then using a diffuser to prevent over-exposing the fine details.
You can also use white and black cards to fine-tune the light and shadows and make that food pop.
Angles
Picking the angle to shoot your food depends on the story you’re trying to tell. You can look directly at your food or shoot it from overhead to get a bird’s eye view. The typical range of angles goes from – 45° to 90°.
Just know that focal length plays an important role in the kind of shots you’re going to be able to get. You’ll get the hang of it as you experiment more and gain access to more equipment options.
Now we’ll go into some of our favorite shots that use a variety of different shooting angles.
Overhead Shot
The best way to see your main dish loaded with props, side dishes, and ingredients is to capture it with an overhead angle.
Picture this: dips, salsas, limes, and a cool summer drink. It feels like you’re in a park spending time with friends at a picnic. So you pull out a linen cloth. Then imagine it all lit by the sun slowly going down. That’s the magic of creating an overhead scene. And, yeah, we’re hungry too.
Low-over-table Shot
Sometimes this is called a straight-on shot. It puts the food at eye level while allowing for the inclusion of props and some of the room that your shoot is taking place.
These shots require more prep work and a clean area, to begin with. You don’t want any unsightly stains on the pockmarked window frames, so make sure all the surfaces or anything in frame have a good wipe down.
A great example of utilizing this shot well would be to use a tiled kitchen backdrop with a clean, wooden plating surface. Serving utensils, paired with complementary ingredients and even a hand model can add great dimension. Showing off textures is key!
The Classic 45 Shot
It’s popular for a reason! It is versatile and looks great for most dishes, regardless of whether they’re sweet or savory. This shot uses a 45-degree angle and opens up a lot of lighting possibilities. Food with more clear lines, such as a square cake, can create pleasing optics, as long as your props and serving dish have more curves to them.
The Classic 45 also lends itself well to pretty much any color palette but is most effective when your food and your backdrop/surface are in contrast with each other. Trying to capture the playfulness of a cluster of fruit tarts? Use a mildly darker-hued colorful background, like deep blue or forest green, paired with a square serving dish, and leave a few berries next to a fork off to the side.
Close up Shot
Ahhhh, the close up. This shot is perhaps one of the easiest to set up, as most of the frame will be taken up by your food. Lighting is key here because if it’s too direct you might see unwanted details of your dish.
Close-ups allow you to play with depth of field and it’s a pretty good rule of thumb to keep at least 40% of your food in focus. Pro tip: make sure your camera is angled so as not to have too much light reflected into your lens and thus eliminating some of the details from your dish.
Under-the-table Shot
If you’ve just assembled the beefiest burger in town and want to show it off, this shot might be for you. It involves positioning the camera below the surface of whatever is holding up your food. It’s used to project a sense of power from your dish, essentially making it look larger than it is. This is great for any recipe you’ve made that you want to show off in all its glory.
Also your serving dish is out of shot, so besides your food, you only need to focus on lighting and background. For example, a dark backdrop with side lighting can create dramatics, while a light backdrop with overhead lighting can generate an angelic effect for your food. Playing around with the lighting in this type of shot can affect the mood, so choose wisely.
soona ❤s Food Photography
We know how to showcase your products in the best way possible so that shoppers can’t help but add them to their carts. Our team of professionals will produce high-quality photos for your products that are edited and ready to upload to your storefront and all your other ecommerce channels.
Visit soona.co and start building your perfect food photography shoot!
Food photography is one of the more difficult things to capture. Whether you’re a restaurant putting your delectable dishes up on your menu or maybe you’re a food blogger hoping to capture your foodie journey. Either way we are here to help you with some of our best tips and tricks for food photography.
Food photography vs product photography
Before we dive in, let’s get started on the difference between food photography and product photography. Products come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. There are numerous ways to capture your products: seamless backdrops, with and without props, lifestyle scenes, incorporating models, and even outdoor shots. The possibilities are endless.
Food, on the other hand, has other needs. Regardless of whether it steams, glistens, or jiggles, your food needs to come across as delicious as it is if it’s going to sell itself.
Successful food photographers can capture a sense of what a dish smells and even tastes like. Don’t let this intimidate you because there are some easy steps you can take!
Focus on the food
Your food needs to be the star of your shots. This doesn’t mean you need to center it in the frame, but if it’s surrounded by too many knick-knacks or a distracting background your viewers aren’t going to be captivated by the fabulous feast you’ve prepared.
Color is key
Regardless of whether you’re presenting a chocolaty dessert covered in raspberry sauce or roasted brussels sprouts sprinkled with bacon bits, those colors need to pop! Work in fresh and seasonal ingredients into your shots to make sure those colors naturally come forward.
The hues of your food will bring it to life in the visual medium and make your audience drool at the thought of taking a bite. You can use slight color correction to enhance the tones you have and even add contrast to bring out details or textures.
Our recommendation is to choose natural backgrounds (think marble, wood, etc.) or neutral seamless backdrops to make your dishes stand out.
Arrange arrange arrange
Snapping shots of a Thanksgiving roast? Then it’d be a good idea to pair that turkey with some side dishes. Complimenting your main food item with additional products can enhance the overall sense of your cooking prowess.
To add some context to your photos, add props and line techniques to your shots. A well-placed fork or spoon can frame a roasted peach to draw in your viewer’s eye. This way, the props contribute to your shot and keep your food from having to do all the heavy lifting.
{{studio-ad="/external-components"}}
It’s okay to cut in
For a lot of food products, keep your dish whole for a few shots. Then, dig in to show the people what they want! A gorgeous and perfectly intact cake is a work of art. But, when you cut into it, you can show off the layers to titillate your audience's taste buds.
Modify natural light
Lighting is king. Poor lighting won’t be able to capture the nuanced textures of your food, and texture is a BIG deal. Control the light and you’ll bring your food shots to life.
Direct light creates hard shadows and bright highlights that can be distracting.
This can involve setting your food up near a window to get as much natural light streaming in and then using a diffuser to prevent over-exposing the fine details.
You can also use white and black cards to fine-tune the light and shadows and make that food pop.
Angles
Picking the angle to shoot your food depends on the story you’re trying to tell. You can look directly at your food or shoot it from overhead to get a bird’s eye view. The typical range of angles goes from – 45° to 90°.
Just know that focal length plays an important role in the kind of shots you’re going to be able to get. You’ll get the hang of it as you experiment more and gain access to more equipment options.
Now we’ll go into some of our favorite shots that use a variety of different shooting angles.
Overhead Shot
The best way to see your main dish loaded with props, side dishes, and ingredients is to capture it with an overhead angle.
Picture this: dips, salsas, limes, and a cool summer drink. It feels like you’re in a park spending time with friends at a picnic. So you pull out a linen cloth. Then imagine it all lit by the sun slowly going down. That’s the magic of creating an overhead scene. And, yeah, we’re hungry too.
Low-over-table Shot
Sometimes this is called a straight-on shot. It puts the food at eye level while allowing for the inclusion of props and some of the room that your shoot is taking place.
These shots require more prep work and a clean area, to begin with. You don’t want any unsightly stains on the pockmarked window frames, so make sure all the surfaces or anything in frame have a good wipe down.
A great example of utilizing this shot well would be to use a tiled kitchen backdrop with a clean, wooden plating surface. Serving utensils, paired with complementary ingredients and even a hand model can add great dimension. Showing off textures is key!
The Classic 45 Shot
It’s popular for a reason! It is versatile and looks great for most dishes, regardless of whether they’re sweet or savory. This shot uses a 45-degree angle and opens up a lot of lighting possibilities. Food with more clear lines, such as a square cake, can create pleasing optics, as long as your props and serving dish have more curves to them.
The Classic 45 also lends itself well to pretty much any color palette but is most effective when your food and your backdrop/surface are in contrast with each other. Trying to capture the playfulness of a cluster of fruit tarts? Use a mildly darker-hued colorful background, like deep blue or forest green, paired with a square serving dish, and leave a few berries next to a fork off to the side.
Close up Shot
Ahhhh, the close up. This shot is perhaps one of the easiest to set up, as most of the frame will be taken up by your food. Lighting is key here because if it’s too direct you might see unwanted details of your dish.
Close-ups allow you to play with depth of field and it’s a pretty good rule of thumb to keep at least 40% of your food in focus. Pro tip: make sure your camera is angled so as not to have too much light reflected into your lens and thus eliminating some of the details from your dish.
Under-the-table Shot
If you’ve just assembled the beefiest burger in town and want to show it off, this shot might be for you. It involves positioning the camera below the surface of whatever is holding up your food. It’s used to project a sense of power from your dish, essentially making it look larger than it is. This is great for any recipe you’ve made that you want to show off in all its glory.
Also your serving dish is out of shot, so besides your food, you only need to focus on lighting and background. For example, a dark backdrop with side lighting can create dramatics, while a light backdrop with overhead lighting can generate an angelic effect for your food. Playing around with the lighting in this type of shot can affect the mood, so choose wisely.
soona ❤s Food Photography
We know how to showcase your products in the best way possible so that shoppers can’t help but add them to their carts. Our team of professionals will produce high-quality photos for your products that are edited and ready to upload to your storefront and all your other ecommerce channels.
Visit soona.co and start building your perfect food photography shoot!
