What is Food Photography ? Know Some Tips for Food-Photography Techniques

You would have seen stills of food palates or food items being clicked by your friends and shared on their Insta pages or Facebook feeds or other social media channels. In fact, you might have been doing this for your love of sharing scrumptious food delicacies through your social channels. Well, this is not something new but has really grown on to become a trend in the present times owing to smartphone accessibility and a plethora of social media platforms allowing you to share what you are up to.

In essence, this is what food photography is. However, it is not related to personal feed share only but has been a trend that professional photographers, as well as food outlets, have been doing for decades. Here, we are going to discuss this in detail and guide you on how you can become a pro in this genre and how you can leverage this photo-capturing art for your food business as well.

What is Food Photography?

By definition, food photography is a still-life photography technique that is used to capture and create attractive still-life shots of food. While many individuals do this as a hobby but this genre is a commercial photography specialization wherein the photographs are used for multi-purposes like menu and cookbooks printing, food item packaging, for magazines, for websites and apps of food businesses or delivery operations, and for advertising campaigns.

Food is something that is basic for every life form, and thus it makes the food items an excellent choice as a photography subject. Herein, the varieties are endless and the forms of photographs that one can capture are limitless which results in astonishingly end-products.

Anything that is edible or being consumed can be captured under this still-life photography technique that includes food along with processed food items, raw food materials, spices, beverages, as well as ingredients.

The main purpose of food photography is to capture the food in such a way that makes it more delicious and appealing to the viewer.

Key Tips for Food Photography Techniques

Now you would have a basic idea of what food photography is. However, don’t get to assume that it is only about snapping ‘what is present on the plate’ just for your social feed share. In fact, when you want to master this form of art or want to pursue this professionally, then you need to follow certain rules and techniques of food photography.

Tip #1 – Do Not Deviate from the Plate Basics

Your food and plate are the subjects of your photo and therefore that should be the central focus in your images. One aspect that you must follow is to show less than you will presumably eat. The overcrowded the plate is, the less appetizing and appealing it becomes. Add a visual element with props like baking paper, and ensure to manage the white space as well.

Tip #2 – Bring Out the Natural Beauty

The natural your plate looks, the better it is considered for all means in the food photography technique. First consider what is unique about the food on the plate, what is will make the photo more enticing and thereby showcase all such elements. When you emphasize the natural beauty of the beauty, more effectively it is able to communicate with the viewer’s sense of taste.

Tip #3 - Find the Correct Exposure

Right exposure is essential for any photography type and this holds true for food photography as well. For this, you have to ensure that the brightness is ideal. And one this that you have to take into account is that clean white plates and the backgrounds matching to that don’t overexpose may lead to making the visible details too bright. So, work with your camera’s exposure level to find what level exposes the food highlight rightfully.

Tip #4 - Factor in Lighting

As with any other photography type you should ensure to make use of natural lighting to the maximum and use artificial lighting only when it becomes critical to use. Artificial lights bring out unsightly tones which is not the issue with natural lighting. The better use of lighting, the better drool-worthy photos you are able to capture.

In food photography, light is king and to make flattering your images you should know how to control the light, which will definitely turn up the food shots to the next level.

Tip #5 - Tell a Story from the Right Angle

Consider a photo captured by a professional and one captured by a non-pro, and you will see the difference in pattern. This is where professional food photography stands out to tell a story. And all this because they are able to capture the image from an angle that brings out a story. An above angle flat-lay shot, side angle low-over-the-table shot and as such there are many more angles that you can use.

Apart from the above-mentioned tips, make sure to limit the color to simplify the composition, find the right texture, and use lines and layers to create the best composition for the ideal end result.

How to Edit Food Photography?

The first and foremost thing to do for editing food photography is to make use of the best editing software or program.

• Crop the Photo

Keep the focus on the food and what is important in your photo and crop out any distracting elements. This feature is easy to use for everyone.

• Enhance the Lighting

Lighting is the most important element of your food capture. Brighten up your photo, adjust the contrast, shadows, and highlights of your photo.

• Look for Colour Texture

If the colors aren’t true to life then make sure to white balance the photo colors to fix it. The proper white balance, the more live colors will appear to be. Apart from that, adjusting the color saturation is also critical.

• Minimize the Clutter

When you edit the photo then you may find elements that don’t add up to create the composition. Make sure to crop out or remove those unnecessary elements.

• Make the Photo Crystal Clear

Adjust the clarity, remove any unwanted murkiness, amp up the texture of the image. All this should be done by leveraging the different features that boost the image elements.

• Try Some Photo Retouching

You can enhance your food photos or images with various photo clipping techniques or you can get help from some photo retouching service provider.

Food photography is something that you can take too easily but is one aspect that with continuous learning and skill development you will master professionally.