How to take mouth-watering food photos

In front of delicious food, you will die if you don’t shoot. For senior foodies, eating and shooting have reached the same height. Taking a good photo is as satisfying as eating a delicious meal.

How to make the delicacies attractive? From the close-up of food raw materials to the panoramic picture of a rich buffet, you can take mouth-watering food photos with a little planning and attention to seize the opportunity.

1、 Preparations

To find the inspiration for shooting food, you can read more books and magazines related to cooking, and carefully observe the light consumption and shooting angle of food photos. Whether you plan to use photos to record a family recipe or add some beautiful fruit photos to your portfolio, you should carefully consider what visual elements are needed in the picture and find the necessary props, such as knives and forks, plates and tablecloths. White plates and fine tablecloths are usually good backgrounds because their low profile can highlight the delicacy of food.

Once the food is placed in the air for too long, it will lose its visual attraction, so the table should be arranged before shooting. Arrange props, light sources and cameras (including focusing, exposure and other settings), and temporarily fill the position of food with alternative plates or pictures. When the food is really served, take pictures of its delicious appearance as soon as possible. When family and friends are still waiting for a big meal, the action should be especially quick.

The food looks most attractive when it is fresh, especially when it is sprinkled with seasonings, such as the salad shot by Eric Wolfinger. He uses the natural side light that comes in through a door to create a sense of Zen, and then uses later software to create a faint effect to increase the mood of the picture.

2、 Specific picture

The basic ingredients that have not been cooked usually remain unchanged after being placed for a period of timeFood photographyFor example, they are ideal subjects for elementary practice. When you practice shooting complete eggs with shells, fresh fruits and vegetables, and other stable foods, you can slowly explore and try to shoot in different light and angles.

Angle has always been very important for photography, especially when shooting food. You can climb up the ladder to take a picture, and then take another picture at the height of the table. If you are ready to accept more challenging shooting tasks, try to bring an assistant or at least use the camera’s own self-timer. The sauce or other viscous liquid poured on the main dish can often produce a coveted picture, especially when the light is reversed. Similarly, ice cream that melts and drips from the cone will increase the dynamic and interesting of the picture.

This is the raw material of salad posed by Eric Wolfinger. In the picture, the soil from the vegetable garden tells the source of the ingredients. He used backlight photography to highlight the color of food; And use shallow depth of field to emphasize the details of flowers and leaves in the foreground.

3、 Tips

1. Focus

Manually focus to guide the audience’s vision and highlight the color and texture of food. Think carefully about the depth of field, and select a clear focus in the picture to make a clear transition between it and the soft and virtual background. If you want the whole picture to be clear, even clearer than shooting at the aperture value of f/22, you can try to use focus overlay. Take multiple photos at different focal points, and then combine them in post-processing.

2. High dynamic range imaging

Shooting high-contrast foods, such as chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream, is easy to lose the details of shadows and highlights. Take multiple photos under different exposure values by surrounding exposure, and then combine them in the image processing software to enhance the tone and image quality.

3. Light

When shooting food, the natural light from the window is the simplest and best light. You can put the plate containing food near the window, so that the food is covered in indirect sunlight. If the light coming through the window is direct, try to cover the window with a thin cloth or draw a white curtain.

4. White balance

If the final image makes people have no appetite, then it is meaningless to shoot delicious food. Use manual or custom white balance settings to more realistically reproduce the color of the food.

5. Lens

The fixed-focus macro lens is an ideal choice for shooting food, such as a 100mm or 50mm fixed-focus macro fast lens. The 100mm lens allows you to shoot when the distance between the camera and the food is long. This kind of lens is particularly useful when you climb the ladder to shoot. Use a fast lens with a maximum aperture value of f/2.8 or greater to obtain greater depth of field and more flexible shutter speed control.

6. Soft light box or soft light umbrella

Whether using external flash or studio light (continuous flash or strobe), you can use light control devices such as soft box and soft umbrella to diffuse light.