5 Ways To Improve Your Food Photography

Food Photography  •  Photography Tips

Your food photos should be as delectable to the eyes as the dish is to the taste buds. You want to sell that dish—let the aromas, flavors and textures jump out of the image onto the viewer’s mental dinner table. Food photography is something of an art form and takes a lot of time, consideration, and tweaking. Skyler Burt has five tips to help you improve your own food photography composition:

One of the most important things to remember is that your technique should be invisible. You want your audience to notice the food, not get distracted with the methods in which you’ve photographed it. Take a bit of extra time to think about your setup and be meticulous with detailing.

5 Tips For Food Photography Composition

1. Hold your camera slightly above the table at a 45 degree angle to the food.

This provides a nice view of the food while leaving room for interesting background and foreground elements to be incorporated.

2. Style to the camera.

Use a tripod and lock your camera down, rather than shooting by hand. You don’t want to have to readjust the frame and focus every time you adjust the setup.

3. Shoot at a 90 degree angle.

Place your camera directly above the table. Your food and props have their own beautiful shapes and colors; use them to your benefit.

4. Use the Rule Of Thirds.

This type of framing is useful for all types of photography—even food photography. Use the power points—the points where lines intersect—within the frame. Try putting a main dish on a power point and scatter the other dishes around.

Apply the rule of thirds.

Try putting all the food and props on one third of the frame. The large negative space creates a good spot for text.

Negative space leaves room for text.

5. You don’t have to show everything.

Some dishes and objects can be partially out of frame. Trying to squeeze everything into the photograph may look unnatural and staged.

“Try to style it as if you just happened to walk by and see a really cool and stylish table set for a meal and you also just happened to have your camera to take an awesome photo.”

Try out these pointers and see if they improve your own food photography.