It’s no secret that I love a great meal. And I love to take photos of food, especially the awesome food that my husband Todd cooks at home. I have countless photos of food on my blog! And I’ve also made a recipe book as a Christmas gift, which requires many food photos of our dishes. You don’t need an expensive DSLR to take great food photos. Most of my out-and-about food photos are taken with my little point-and-shoot camera. I will give you some tips on how to take great food photos. :)
Tip #1: Avoid using the flash and use natural lighting. This isn’t always possible when in dark restaurants, but natural light makes the food look a lot more dimensional and less flat.
Tip #2: When I’m on vacation or have a special meal such as a Thanksgiving meal, I like to take a bird’s eye view of the whole meal first, before taking close-ups of individual dishes.
Bird’s eye view of our Marukame Udon meal in Hawaii.
Close-up of my husband’s curry udon noodles.
Tip #3: Get up close and use the macro setting on the camera.
Most cameras (point-and-shoot AND DSLR) have a dial or button that looks like a flower. That is called macro mode. It allows you to take close-up photos without it looking blurry. I use it all the time to take close-up photos of food.
Tip #4: Vary the angle and composition of the photos to create more interest.
For this pizza photo I shot it from a side angle so that parts of the pizza is out of focus. The focus is in the middle part of the pizza where the toppings are.
For this homemade raspberry chocolate ice cream photo, I purposefully didn’t center the bowl in the photo so that it’s more interesting to the eye.
And don’t forget about vertical photos, which also creates more interest.
Tip #5: Style your food so that it is colorful and appetizing.
For this shrimp stir-fry, I made sure there was green beans, red peppers, and shrimps in the space that my camera is focused on. Using white plates is always a great idea, because it provides the perfect blank backdrop for your food!
And guess what? My shrimp stir fry ended up being featured on America’s Test Kitchen Twitter Photos Of the Week! :)
Food is an integral part of our collective memories and our daily lives, so why not take photos of all the yummy things that we eat? Oh and one last tip: include people too! My husband Todd loves to ham it up for the camera, in what is now being referred to as “The Todd Shot”!
Happy food-photo taking!
Polly Christine (listgirl)
Debra says
Awesome post Christine!!
I need to get some white plates for sure!! It makes a huge difference for the photos!
I love all your food posts and photos!!
sasha farina says
such beautiful photos!!