Food Photography

I am lousy with technology. I can do basic stuff on the computer but I don’t particular like to work with it. My life has minimal electronic gadgets and my phone has no camera or music in it. Having said that, I know very little about cameras and photography and I struggle with my camera occasionally. I bought the Nikon D40x on a whim and then fell in love with taking photos of food and composing a shot. I’ve always been asked about the photography of the shot so here I’ll share a few simple tips to make your shots better. When I first started the blog, I had a simple Nikon Coolpix point and shoot and I enjoyed taking photos with that camera. But still, nothing can beat an SLR like many other food bloggers probably agree and have upgraded once they started spending more and more time on their blog. A good camera is a good investment but not absolutely necessary to produce a good shot.

 

1. Natural light

Food looks a lot better in daylight than any other light. The vibrancy of the color and the details seen is something you can’t get with any other light. If you are making something at night, which working women often do, I wrap it up and place it at the back of the fridge (to stop intruders from getting to it) and shoot it another day like during a weekend off or when I’m back early from work. I don’t take any shots at night.

 

2. Background

You can vary the background by taking the shots of food at different areas in your house. If the background is not particularly appealing, place something behind the food shot that is suitable with whatever you are shooting. This could be anything, sometimes I place a basket, sometimes a box, sometimes I drape a piece of fabric over a chair. Sometimes I puch a table against a plain wall.

 

3. Cutlery and tableware

I am obviously not a food stylist so I don’t have a room full of props or the great creative genius that goes with the work. So I make do with what I have. I also live with my parents so the cutlery and plates are not mine! My mom has all white tableware, meaning all white bowls and cups and plates and saucers. If you noticed all my plates are white! I try to vary this a little by not using conventional plates and bowls to place the food. Sometimes I put it on a doily on a coloured album or book. Somtimes in a basket or even a coaster if the item is small.

 

4. Fabric

A lot of time a little bit of cloth in the shot adds interest and texture. It would be great if you had a huge variety of linens and designer dish cloths. But if you don’t, do what I do, sometimes the cloth is a piece of scrap or remnant, other times its a pillowcase or a piece of clothing. Its ok, no one will know what the heck it actually is. Linens are nice, cotton prints add interest and knits or pieces of crocheted fabrics add texture. Ribbons tied or used to accent the tableware are great too.

 

5. Editing

I don’t have photoshop, I use Nikon PictureProject which came with the D40x. This allows minimal editing of lighting, contrast and sharpening. I mainly sharpen the image because I don’t have a steady hand and I don’t use a tripod. I find that I need to do minimal editing if the lighting is right. I like to crop images to get rid of all the background noise.

 

6. Preparing the food

Try to place the food on a clean plate or bowl or wipe up spills if there are any. Try to cut things neatly and in a way that looks visually appealing. Like cutting a wedge in a small cake or in half for a cupcake adds interest to the shot and lets people look at what it looks like inside. Beads of condensation from anything refridgerated doesn’t look very nice so you can choose to leave it out till it reaches room temperature and blot what you can or not refridgerate before photographing.

 

This page is still under construction. I appreciate any feedback or tips you’ll like to add.