Every day many of you, our esteemed readers, during breakfast, lunch or dinner, taking out your camera or smartphone, actually turn from ordinary people into food photographers. Let’s try to discover food photography, because it’s a whole world in which the curve of a napkin, the foam on a coffee or a leaf on a salad play an important role.
Compared to all other genres of photography, food photography is probably the closest you can get to the “do-it-yourself” category. This applies to many aspects, from lighting, to composition, to styling, to the shoot itself. Food photography is always a creative process. But whether you’re photographing food for leading publications or for your own recipe blog, the creation process remains similar.
One of the main tasks of a food photographer is not only to shoot breakfast with normal light and composition, but also to make the viewer want to eat it. What flavor associations does the cake evoke for you? What flavor do you imagine when you talk about coffee or spices? What do you think of cognac? What do you feel when you hear a fish steak being fried? A food photographer has to understand all these things and play on human feelings in the most brutal way.
There are graphic and emotional components to food photography. These two aspects are related and complement each other. The graphic component is lines, shape, texture, color, space and light. Each of us reacts to these things differently, but there is something we have in common.
One of the basic rules: composition really matters. The same diagonals, the familiar spiral, and the Golden Ratio apply here. Which rule to use is up to you. Over time, you’ll develop a feel for the right color and composition: everything will work on automatic. It is more convenient to build a composition in the frame if you display the image on the computer screen or tablet.
What equipment will you need? First of all, choose a lens. The most popular focal lengths for food photography are 50 mm (overhead) and longer distances. Photographers often use macro lenses with focal lengths starting at 100 mm. Wide-angle optics are used very rarely and are not acceptable for most scenes. Regarding angles, flat subjects are better shot from above, while vertical subjects such as jugs and bottles are better read from a frontal angle. Remember, even a slight shift of the camera and shooting point can result in a dramatic improvement in picture perception.
Many people have a tendency to shoot at maximum open apertures. An aperture of f/2.8 or f/1.8 will certainly create a soft, foggy background, but in many situations when shooting food it is more correct to keep more detail in the focus area. Agreed, in such cases a shallow depth of field is not the best choice. Also keep in mind that the DOF extends not only from the foreground to the background, but also from side to side.
It is generally accepted that salads are good to shoot from the bottom of the frontal view, meat from three-quarters, and desserts from higher angles. Of course, all this is relative and these recommendations do not always apply. Along with perspective and composition, light is the third most important element of good food photography. It should not draw too much emphasis in the picture, because the main character in the picture is food. The light should harmoniously complement and complete the story, but at the same time look as unobtrusive as possible.
Direct diffused light is one of the most universal and at the same time simple options for lighting during food photography. The source of this light could be a window or a flash with a large softbox. Good and competent light and shade pattern makes the picture three-dimensional, improves the perception of the composition. Bad light nullifies all the benefits of the image, making it flat and unattractive. Hard light, imitating the bright midday sun, is not applicable to all subjects, but is also often used by food photographers.
In food photography, you have to be careful with color correction and not get carried away with toning, otherwise the food will turn from delicious and appetizing into something completely inedible.
Recently in food-photography one of the most popular stylistic trends is the so-called rustic-style. From the French word translated as “rural”, that is, simple, natural, uncomplicated. Eternal symbols of “rustic” or “rustic” – old boards, textured fabrics, wooden spoons – everything you can find in your grandmother’s kitchen. For a rustic shoot, keep props as simple as possible. For example, an old wooden table, textured boards, a large piece of plywood or metal, paper of different colors with interesting textures can serve as a background or backing. Even in the simplest scene, the background can play one of the key roles. It allows you to emphasize the accents of the composition and give the picture a mood.