What I Ate Today

I guess we’ve all heard the stories about the extreme lengths some professional food photographers/stylists go to make us drawl over their photos. Creating steam with cool air nebulisers, using special browning agents to colour meat, or using toothpicks to hold food in place is more than a step too far for the amateur food photographer. Often it’s enough of a challenge just to make photos of your own food taste appealing let alone. Although I’m no expert when it comes to photography, especially with food here are 5 quick tips to help improve your shots:

#1 Presentation

Even if your food looks stunning, the first place to start is making sure you set the scene in a way to emphasis the food. Make sure you’ve got as little clutter around as possible (which is tricky if you want to eat your food whilst it’s still warm). Try to sort out a setting where you intend to take the photo before the food is ready to plate up. A plain background helps food stand out. The colour of your setting is important too – Sunday Roast on an orange floral plate isn’t going to make it stand out. The easy solution is to use white/pale plain crockery or chopping boards.

#2 Framing

So now you’ve got you food beautifully plated, make sure you get the right composition. The current trend seems to be to take extreme close-ups of your food at a slight angle. This way you tend to get more depth to the shot. Don’t be afraid of not being able to see the entire plate or the whole dish. When you’re starting out, try and take as many shots as possible until you get a feel for what works well.

Poorly Framed Composition - Too Wide and Flat. Little Detail

Nicely Framed Composition - Good Depth and Detail

#3 Focus

If you’ve got the right composition, there is still a lot more that can be done to enhance the final photo. The focal point is extremely important, it’s where your attention is immediately drawn and helps your dish stand out. With the majority of cameras you can change which point is in-focus. As with other types of photography, I tend to find focusing on an area 1/3rd of a way into the main subject area. Often using the camera’s macro setting is great for close up photography. The button usually looks like this:

How to focus

Generally can set your focal point by centering your image on the point you’d like to be in focus. If you press and hold the shutter button half way down the focus will lock on that point. You can now reframe your shot (without changing the distance for your focal point) to change the composition.

Depth of focus

In a significant number of modern food photographs you’ll notice that some of the image is blurry whilst only a section is in focus giving depth to the image. This affect is known as the depth of focus. More advanced cameras allow you to change how much is in focus – that is, how far behind and infront of your focal point is in focus. Keep an eye out for an aperture setting:

• Higher the f-stop, smaller the aperture, wide focus range, slower shutter (may blur)
• Lower the f-stop, larger the aperture, narrow focus range, fast shutter

Harsh Depth of Field - Too Much Detail

Nice Depth of Field - Helps Food Stand Out

#4 Stability

Even using a low f-stop with a fast shutter for a nice depth of focus may cause your image to appear blurry. The best solution for this, without compromising the quality of the image is to use a tripod (or something stable to rest on). Try using the timer setting on the camera too (or a remote shutter). For food photography i find a mini tripod quite handy, you can just place them on a work surface alongside the food. Take a few shots just incase you get some shake.

#5 Colour Balance

The colour of what you snap is rarely accurate and often makes food unappealing. The main cause is the colour of the light in the setting where you’re taken the photo. Try to take photos in natural light if possible, making sure not to get in the way between the light and what you’re photographing. Don’t be tempted to use a flash, it will bleach out your shots – use a tripod instead. Most cameras have some sort of colour adaptation. Look for a white balance setting like this:

You don’t always need to chose the setting that matches the lighting. I’ll often use a cloudy or daylight setting to add warmth to things like baked goods. If you don’t get it quite right when you’ve taken the photo you can often adjust the colour balance afterwards. Something like Photoshop is ideal, but a free option like Picasa can still work. If you have a digital SLR, shooting in RAW format will give you far more control.

Poor Colour Balance - Too Cold

Good Colour Balance - Adds Warmth