Food photography is one of the most famous social media trending activities is now a day. It becomes a habit to upload photos of food items among foodie Instagrammers. Not only for Instagram, here you will learn the most important techniques in photographing foods for business and blogs also. It is a proven fact that restaurants sell more food items when their menus contain photographs of the foods because most of the customers decide the type of food they order by looking at the image of the food item. As it is one of the effective ways of advertising, knowing food photography correctly will help for the success of your business. This whole activity does not only depend on the photographer but also is a combined effort of chef and food stylists. Following these facts can ensure a successful food photography session and you can able to have an attractive gallery of food images.
Don't use a flash - Dish of foods should look delicious and yummy. But using a flashlight makes your dish look dull and boring.
Style the food - No matter how delicious your food is but if it doesn't look appetizing in the picture, no one will ever want to try it. Food photography is much more complex than just placing food on the plate and picking up the camera. You have to make your food dish look attractive and mouth-watering to the people. Garnishing and arranging the food will help to enhance the look of your photo and also it can make a dramatic difference to your food photographs. For example you can use fresh fruits pieces, different color sauces also can sprinkle chopped onion leaves or coriander leaves, gravy on the curries, edible flowers, nuts, etc.
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Photography timing - Behind every successful food photograph, there is a team effort between the chef, photographer, and food stylist. It is a challenge to click the photograph of fresh food before it dried out. So timing is important when it is coming to food photography.
Type of the dish - Dish is the way you present the food and it is one of the important things that a lot of food photographers don't care about. You can use plain plates, plain bowls, or else your frying pan or cooking utensils. It will imply freshness of the foods also. You can place spoons, chopsticks, forks, or knives as extras.
Correct lighting - Using the correct lighting will avoid the harsh shadows and make the food look more appetizing. Lighting can make all the difference when photographing foods because it will bring out the texture and details in the food. You can use soft or diffused light sources. Try your best to get natural light because it works well. If not you can use artificial lights reflected from large umbrellas to make your photograph look as fresh as possible.
Angle - The angle may be from the top, side, or any other angle. It depends on the type of food you wanna capture. Food such as a cup of coffee, a bowl of oatmeal, fruits, or soup is taken from the straight top angle while sandwich, burger, the cake is taken from the side. If you want to capture both the top and side of food, you can use a 45° angle.
There are three general categories of foods wet foods, dry foods, and fried foods. In food photography, you have to categorize foods into those categories. Then only you are able to have a nice photo of that food.
Wet foods
Wet foods are foods that look glossy and look moister. If there is sauce, it should not look watery, it should be "thicken". Glossy and thickness imply freshness and richness of the taste. Start the camera in manual mode and experiment from a shutter speed of 6 - 80. ISO speed should stay around general 100 - 400.
Dry foods
Dry foods should not look soggy, they must look solid. But you have to keep it's moist looking. As dry foods have a solid shape, photographers can get photos from different angles. Experiment with shutter speeds 6 - 80 and ISO 100 - 400. Calibrate your shutter speed first then do the minor adjustment with ISO later.
Fried foods
Fried foods are very dry. So, before taking the photo, it is a must to add any kind of sauce to the fried food or leave a cup of sauce nearby to increase the appetite of the person. Fried foods look yummy when it has a golden yellow color. You can enhance that look by getting more light on the dish. To get that look your shutter speed can not be set too fast.
After all those techniques, don't rush or hurry to get photos. To have a successful food photography session you have to practice your patience and must have a creative vision.