What You Need to Know
You don’t just need good images, but you need cool images; that is the power of food photography. It’s a skill you learn on the job.
No school will teach you food photography as a unit. It’s upon you to equip yourself with a few hacks and tips to get the best out of your camera.
The mouth-watering dishes you see on websites and blogs may not be the exact meal on the ground. There are a lot of camera tricks behind the scenes.
Human nature dictates that you follow your taste. Even if you haven’t had a chance to have its feel, its sight alone is enough to make you go for that trip which is miles away to have a chance to sample the food at the restaurant.
Taking photos of food is a profession. Your random photos you take while having a meal in your restaurant is for your consumption.
When you now want to use it for commercial purposes them follow the following tips and tricks
- Humanize the photo
Food is for human consumption unless you are taking a photo of animal feeds. If it’s for humans, include a human element on the image to add a sense of reality.
The human element here includes the arms, hands, elbow and even the mouth. Make it as real as possible.
A viewer shouldn’t notice it’s a Photoshop. Instead, he/she should wonder how they managed to capture the person holding a cup of coffee.
- Slice fruits and vegetables in attractive geometrical shapes
There should be a difference between an image from a grocery store and one from a kitchen. The difference lies in the slices.
As you take the images, let people have a few of the inside part of your fruits. Don’t just slice them but slice them into attractive shapes to act as a focal point for the viewer.
Your goal is to make sure an observer has many questions than answers to the image.
- Use colour to bring attention
How do you love your food served? Do you know the presentation on your food determines the quantity of the meal you consume?
Colour is a visual element with a magic effect on human psychology. It’s a professional food image.
Make good use of colour to bring more attention to the food rather than deviate to the background of the photo.
Look at a naked cake and a decorated cake with many colours, which one draws more of your attention?
Of course, the decorated one.
That’s the visual impression that colour brings in food art.
If it’s a vegan diet, choose the foods to display wisely, colour diversity does wonders to the physical outlook.
- Capture images while cooking to make it live
If people are to believe in your food, they make it live. When talking of smoked dishes, take an image of the meal being prepared in the original wood fire from the traditional grill.
When advertising for the Traeger grillers, open the grill and capture an image of the food in the process of grilling.
For this reason, you have to ensure you capture an image from the smoker. With the policy guidelines, if possible, let the image capture the brand name.
At this point, you need to take care to prevent misinformation. The trick here is getting the best shot by choosing the right one that you need your viewers to see.
The aspect of smoke comes in handy. The technicality in taking this photo is the high heat intensity. With digital technologies, it’s something you can edit using modern applications to have the best portfolio.
- Use commercial skill to take the snapshots
Depending on the purpose of the image; it’s wise to consider the commercial front of the photograph.
If it’s a bakery, then take images of a variety of cakes displayed on the shelves for customers to choose what they need even before they taste.
If it’s for a grocery store, then let it be on site. The one for domestic use, then the kitchen is the best place for your shot.
Whatever the purpose consider your background. Ask yourself the following questions.
- Is it appealing to the viewer?
- Does it have a sense of noise- too much clutter?
- Who is your audience?
- What do people think of what they see apart from the food- is it related?
- Create a visual impression using fresh snapshots
All food is better served when fresh. From a photograph, you can depict whether the food is fresh or not, however much you use technology.
To prevent a lot of commercialization, always take your photographs when the food is fresh. In case it’s a cooked meal, take the shot when it’s just from the cooking pot with some smoke.
If it’s white ice cream, let the colour white come out clearly.
- Take shots from the upper part
Have you heard of flat images? Unlike other types of photography; food photography requires flat images.
You can only achieve this from taking the image with the camera slightly above the food in a 90-degree angle.
A tripod stand comes in handy to get this visual effect. It creates a sense of flexibility and durability of the images. Moreover, it creates the anticipating sense of a mouth-watering dish.
Whether you are a novice or an expert in food photography; these tips, tricks and facts come in handy to enhance your career for the right shot of all meals.