• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Noodles

Recipes For Life

  • Home
  • About Noodles
  • Health & Beauty
  • Entertainment & Leisure
  • Love & Relationships
  • Spirituality & Values

Beginner's guide to taking great food shots

February 26, 2011 by JSam 4 Comments

Do you run a food blog? Or do you enjoy sharing pictures of your foodie adventures in your Facebook? Maybe you’re thinking of starting a home-based baking business and would like to upload photos of your creations to your website or Multiply account.

This article can help even amateur photographers take impressive food photos. You don’t need a buy essay online cheap high-tech camera. It’s all in knowing how to frame your shot, and adjust the settings of your camera. Don’t worry, it’s easy! Read on for our simple explanation.

Composition

We eat with our eyes first. That’s why, when we take photos of

cheap cialis

food, we need to capture the color, texture and presentation. Sometimes, zooming in too close will crop out all the details that could add personality to your photo. For example, the roughness of a clay pot of an authentic curry, or the rough grain of your wooden picnic table are part of the ‘story’ of your dish. But if the dish is already colorful, or has interesting texture, then by all means go up close and crop or blur out any distracting elements around the plate. Experiment with different zoom settings to see what effects you get, and study the food shots in cookbooks and food magazines to see how professional photographers tackle the art of composition.

Blurring 101

Let’s say you want to blur the background of the photo. How do you do that? Adjust the aperture or F/stop of your camera. The ideal F/stop is 1.6 to 2.8. And if you can, change your camera mode to Aperture Priority. That means if you set the aperture to its lowest setting, your camera will automatically adjust all the other settings.

Work with the light

You don’t need to spend a fortune on fancy lights. Mother Nature still has the best lights – just use it to your advantage. Shoot in what photographers call ‘available light’ or natural light. Bring the food next to the window, or shoot it outdoors on a makeshift table. Most photographers recommend using light-colored table cloth which will add to the sense of brightness.

Play with the background

If you can’t blur the background, consider removing distracting elements or changing your position or the angle of the camera, so you fill the frame with the food and avoid taking pictures of, say, the ugly signage or the people at the next table. Try tilting your camera, or standing up and taking a shoot from the top (if you’re at home, you can try standing on a stable chair).

Experiment with food styling

If you’re shooting your own dishes at home, then you have the freedom to manipulate the food presentation. Will the chocolate cupcakes look better if they’re on a colorful plate? Or maybe you can add steamed vegetables to add some texture and color to your roast chicken. Or you can go thematic. If you’ve prepared a romantic dinner for two, scatter rose petals or position a rosebud near the plates, to help tell the story of the dish.

Photo from businesspundit.com

Photo

Filed Under: Popular Tagged With: blog, entrepreneur, hobby, home business, photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. MomDine says

    March 4, 2011 at 2:19 am

    Great tips! I’d love to try them when I take pictures of the food I eat at the restaurant.

Trackbacks

  1. » Tips on taking street photos o5 Recipes for Life says:
    March 26, 2011 at 11:54 am

    […] Read more on taking good action photos and food photos. […]

  2. » Tips on taking photos in low-light conditions o5 Recipes for Life says:
    March 26, 2011 at 1:02 pm

    […] more tips, read about how to take great food photos, street photos and action […]

  3. » Creative ways to use your best food shots o5 Recipes for Life says:
    March 13, 2013 at 5:54 am

    […] you’ve learned how to take amazing food shots, you’ll discover that there are so many things you can do with them aside from posting them on […]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Categories

  • Books & Film
  • Business & Investment
  • Careers & Jobs
  • Debt & Retirement
  • Diet & Fitness
  • Entertainment & Leisure
  • Family & Friends
  • Family & Home
  • Featured
  • Featured Slider
  • Finances & Credit
  • Food & Drink
  • Games & Hobbies
  • Green Living & DIY
  • Health & Beauty
  • Holistic & Anti-Aging
  • House & Garden
  • Legal
  • Love & Relationships
  • Love & Sex
  • Marriage & Divorce
  • Parenting & Education
  • Pets & Crafts
  • Popular
  • Pregnancy & Baby
  • Questions & Answers
  • Shopping & Technology
  • Singles & Dating
  • Skin Care & Your Body
  • Spirituality & Values
  • Stress & Management
  • Style & Fashion
  • Travel & Sports
  • Wellness & Kids Health
  • Work & Money

Recent Posts

  • Leaps and Bounds Beyond the Corporate Ladder: The Truth About Job Hopping
  • 10 Ways to Spend Less on your Nights Out
  • 5 Powerful Reasons to Take Food Supplements
  • Sleep: The Often Overlooked Factor in Healthy Living
  • 4 Parenting Behaviors that Are Harmful for Your Children

Copyright © 2022