Tips on Food Photography

   
     I know I've said this before, I started this blog to inspire myself to bake more often and take better pictures. I have a passionate affair with beautiful photographs of food. The styling, lighting, and composition just fascinates me to bits.

     In the almost one year since I've purchased my first Nikon dSLR I've learned a thing or two about food photography through trial and error.

 

  If there are a few things I can share that I think you'll find valuable, these are:

1. Clean up. 
     Before you start taking pictures of your creation, clean up the mess you made. Clear the counter and put away unused ingredients and utensils. Nothing spoils a photo more than dirty dishes and pots or open jars and rags in the background.

2. Use natural light.
     Natural light is the best light source for food photography. Not direct sun as it casts harsh shadows on the food and you will lose a lot of those precious textures. Soft indirect light streaming from a window or a door frame is enough to illuminate a dish from behind or on the side.

3. Turn  off your camera flash.
     If it can't be helped that you have to use artificial light for your food shot, make necessary adjustments to your ISO, shutter speed and white balance so you can avoid using your camera's flash. Flash photography produces harsh shadows and washed out pictures of food.

4. Use white plates and neutral-colored  accessories.
     Food also looks good on a clean white plate or a fairly new chopping board. You can dress up your composition a bit by using a nice white or cream colored napkin or placemat.  Try to avoid plates and tablecloths with lots of busy patterns and colors.

5. Take lots of pictures of your food.
     Grab every opportunity to take photos of food. When shooting a dish, take more pictures than you think you'll need. Vary the angles and change the perspective. Who cares if you end up with more photos than necessary. Choose your favorite and post that. Pretty soon you will have found a look that is distinctly your own.

     But no worries, that's about the extent of my ramblings. I will stop pretending to be knowledgeable enough to write an article about my findings and leave the teaching to the pros.

     If you are seriously considering starting your own blog or simply want to chronicle the fruits of your labor, might I suggest a few articles from some professional photographers and food bloggers that I found quite informative and packed with helpful tips for amateurs like myself.

     A couple of articles I found very informative is this one by Michael Ray which can be found here and here.

     Another article that proved very useful for me is this one by Lolo of the famous blog vegan yum.yum found here.

     For more inspiration, there's always Flickr for tons of food shots with helpful discussions on styling and lighting techniques. Just take care that you don't spend more time browsing than actually baking and taking photos of your work as I am sometimes inclined to do. ;-)

     Best of luck on your photography adventures. And one last thing, do it as often as you can because the more you practice, the better you become.

     Happy snapping!

EDIT: You don't need a dSLR to pull off beautiful photos of your creations. Most mobile phones these days have amazing features and take excellent photographs. You just get to know your phone's camera well and you are on your way to documenting your wonderful creations. Look at Instagram for more food photo inspirations. You'll be surprised how most of them are taken with mobile phones.