Tips on How To Photograph Food Like a Pro

Food Photography  •  Photography Tips

Food photography means business. The photos that you take must be able to invoke hunger – the ultimate goal is to make the viewers’ mouth water. Taking such photos is not an easy job, but it’s nothing near impossible either. In this video, photographer Thomas Manning from Epic Light Media shares some tips and tricks to help you photograph food like a pro:

“When it comes to food photography, you want that whole item to be tack sharp.”

Photographing food is all about capturing the details and the textures in the food. These are the basic stimuli that help to activate our desire to eat foods we see in advertisements. And thankfully for photographers, it’s not very difficult to capture these hunger-triggering details. As manning suggests in the video, one way to do it is by shooting at narrow apertures – a setting of f/16 or higher for instance. This increases the depth of field and allows you to have the entire product in focus. But keep in mind that doing so will significantly cut down the light entering the camera. So, be sure to have some quality light handy.

Speaking of light, make sure to make it as soft as possible. You can do this by using a large diffusor and having the light as close to the food as possible. And if the shadows are causing problems, have some bounce cards or a reflector handy. These will help you soften the shadows a great deal.

Besides these, Manning also shares other interesting tips like tethering, using stale food as subjects (yes you read that right), and some other creative tips to help you take better food photos. So, be sure to go through the entire video for some awesome food photography tips.