My Food Photography Experience
I've started my first experience in food photography and it has been a very appetizing experience! In fact, I belong to that place, Amritsar and it is famous for its rich and spicy food all over the world. I personally feel that a good photographer should have a good sense of the taste and flavor.
If you, like me, have a heightened interest in taking beautiful photos of food you may also, like me, not want to spend money on the hobby. There are a few techniques I've learned by trial and error that have helped me improve the images I get with just my camera body, a 50-105 mm lens, and sometimes a tripod — no fancy lighting equipment, expensive macro lenses, or other gear needed. I improved my photography with simple techniques.
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| Photo By Manjot Singh |
1) PICK THE FRESHEST INGREDIENTS -- Good Food photography need fresh ingredients and semi coocked food. When meats and vegetables are fully cooked they keep cooking after you remove them from the heat. So to keep them looking plump and juicy remove them from the stove or oven a bit early – take your photos, then put it back it to finish cooking before you eat it. This will keep things from looking shrivelled.
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| Photo By Manjot Singh |
2) Lightening is Important -- Backlight is key to texture and making it appetizing looking. This will also allow any steam to show up in the image. Steam or smoke will show up prominently when lit from behind. Notice how much more appetizing the corn and bean salad looks in the second image, and the only difference is the angle of light. The one that has the light skimming across it from behind makes the salad look crisp and fresh, the other one just seems flat and unappealing.
3) Place solid or simple patterned papers (available at a scrapbooking store) as a background. Figure out what works and does not work in terms of contrast and similarity. Also, make sure that you have enough paper to completely cover the entire field of view.
4) Take advantage of the fact that your subjects won’t walk away. While a lot of food stylists say that you only have a short time to work with food after it’s served, that hasn’t been my experience (ice cream being the exception). I always feel that I can walk around, zoom, hover, and poke and prod to get the shots I need.
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| Photo By Manjot Singh |
5) Take out stuff you don’t need. Take out things on the table that are distracting and pair down to just one plate of food. If the food once cooked only unattractive shows a portion of it. Brown soup doesn’t really seem visually stimulating but if you have to do something with it, get creative with props and cropping and when in doubt follow the “more is less” rule of thumb.
6) Vary different angles of view when shooting your food items from directly overhead, tilted, shooting into the edge of the plate or table, and so on. Get creative and try to show it in a different way than most people would see it.
