Colorful stacks of vegetables drizzled with rich sauces on a clean white plate with glistening table settings – you know the shots. Sometimes the photography is almost the true focus of the book with the recipes taking a secondary role.
photograph food and get such great results:
Lighting - Treat the food you’re photographing as you would any other still life subject and ensure that it is well lit.One of the best places to photograph food is by a window where there is plenty of natural light – perhaps supported with flash bounced off a ceiling or wall to give more balanced lighting that cuts out the shadows.
Props - Don’t clutter the photo with a full table setting but consider one or two extra elements such as a glass, fork, flower or napkin. These elements can often be placed in secondary positions in the foreground or background of your shot. Pay attention not only to the arrangement of the food itself but to the context that you put it in including the plate or bowl and any table settings around it.
Be Quick - Food doesn’t keep it’s appetizing looks for long so as a photographer you’ll need to be well prepared and able to shoot quickly after it’s been cooked before it melts, collapses, wilts and/or changes color.ne strategy that some use is to have the shot completely set up with props before the food is ready and then to substitute a stand-in plate to get your exposure right.
Style it - Pay attention to the balance of food in a shot (color, shapes etc) and leave a way into the shot (using leading lines and the rule of thirds to help guide your viewer’s eye into the dish). One of the best ways to learn is to get some cook books to see how the pros do it.
Enhance it - make it glisten in your shots.
Get Down Low - While this can work in some circumstances – in most cases you’ll get a more better shot by shooting from down close to plate level (or slightly above it).
Macro- Really focusing in upon just one part of the dish can be an effective way of highlighting the different elements of it then shots.
Steam - Having steam rising off your food can give it a ‘just cooked’ feel which some food photographers like.This is probably a little advance for most of us – however it was an interesting trick so I thought I’d include it.
