6 Food Photography Tips to Make Your Food Look Amazing
Photographing food is something that isn’t so easy to master, but most photographers will have to take a photograph of a meal at some point. It’s often difficult to make food look as appetising on a photograph as it is in person and you’ll be against the clock to take the photograph while the food is freshly cooked. Here are a few tips to help you with your food photography.
Choose the freshest ingredients
Meals that are cooked with fresh food look far more appealing than meals cooked with withered or wrinkled food. To make the food look as delicious as you can, always use vegetables and meat that are very fresh, or at least look very fresh. When you are photographing food, it is often up close so even the tiniest bit of damage will show up. That being said, if you can cover up the bad bits and make it look good then it will work fine!
Lighting
You can change a lot about how the food looks simply by using the right lighting for the job. Using a back light will make the food look more fresh, tasty and will make steam look more pronounced. When you don’t use lighting, the food will tend to look flat; not at all delicious. You don’t need professional photography lighting; experiment with different lights at different angles to see what makes your food look more delicious.
Props
Using props in a photo can make it look a bit more interesting than just a bowl of food. A great idea is to use the raw ingredients around the meal. Make sure that you are using non-patterned plates to make the food stand out, and always use the correct plate for the food. If you serve the food up as if you were plating-up food in a restaurant then you should be fine.
Before and after
It is often more interesting to take at least one photo while the food is cooking and one of the finished meal. This is great if you are taking your photograph for a cookbook, as it helps show the process. This is an especially good idea for meals that look better when they are cooking than when they are cooked; most soups are an example of this. If you want to add a human element to a photograph you can have a hand holding the utensil in the photo.
Don’t cook completely
Although it seems more natural to completely cook the food and take a photograph of the finished meal, this is not a good idea as the food will continue to cook after you have finished cooking it. If you stopped cooking the food when it was ready, by the time you may have taken a photograph the food may have gone soft. It is often a good idea to serve the food just before it is ready to ensure it looks fresh in the photograph.
Brush on oil or mist with water
This is a brilliant tip to make your food look fresh. Brush on a little oil or mist vegetables with water and the light will shine off in a way that makes the dish look very fresh. Make sure you don’t go overboard with either or you may end up with wet or greasy looking vegetables!
If you are looking to upgrade your camera, our camera exchange services can help you get money for your old model, making it easier and more affordable to get a new camera. For more information, contact us today on 0208 371 4179 and we’ll get a quote to you within two hours.
