food photography tutorial

By Amy Renfrey


In this food photography tutorial I will be discussing some of the very vital food photography techniques. How to photograph food photography relies upon very much on light, composition and where you focus the lens. Use these tips to capture beautiful pictures every time.

We see more food than we appreciate. Walking through the shopping center will offer hundreds or even thousands of expert photos of meals and drinks. Flipping through a magazine will also usually present some aromatic and tempting food pictures as well. Is there really a trick to photographing food successfully? Yes, in fact there are.

Commercial food photography can apply to advertising, packaging or editorial areas, and the professionals will often be involved with stylists, prop specialists and clients who want the item to look delightful and delicious. You will see examples of commercial food photography in flyers of fast food, supermarket catalogues and even billboards in shopping center complexes and road signs. Every time you pass a sign that advertises a pizza, fried chicken or organic produce, there has been a photographer behind that shot. This photographer might have been in a studio, under hot lights and next to windows, for hours, while they photographed a series of flavorsome food.

Clearly there are some vital challenges in food photography. Such things as meats or even vegetables must be photographed in a way that makes them completely tempting. For many the crucial issues are light, background and texture. To photograph foods in the most pleasing ways possible calls for some vital resourcefulness and also demands that the food photographer pays close concentration the food looking as garden-fresh as humanly possible.

Think that a tomato is picked fresh from the ground, cleaned off and then instantaneously photographed? Think again! In order to photograph food that looks like you want to sink your teeth into it at first glance calls for a number of things to be in pace. The first key is lighting. Lighting foods in order to photograph them glowing often requires such methods as glazes or moisturizers to be applied to their surfaces to give them an interesting gloss that they might not normally have.

This also means that the item have to be lit suitably. The majority of high-quality food photographs are those with a lone, small source of lighting targeting the food in question and then a brilliantly lit or coordinating background that improves the general look of the food. For example, many baked goods such as cakes and cookies are likely to be photographed with complementary colors in the background rather than just a basic or solid color.

In addition to the single, small light source, many food photographers also rest the light at a lower angle to the item than is standard for conventional studio lighting. This is to capture a great deal of texture across the surface of the food and to help any glazes or moisturizers develop many highlights or accents. While many studio photographers also tend to use a great deal of flash fill lighting, food photographers make use of reflectors to light up small amounts of light on the subject instead. The final rule around lighting as used by professional food photographers is to stay away from lighting any foods from directly in front. This frequently causes shadows to appear, and a quick look at food photographs would reveal there are never any strong shadows at all.

There are literally many other principles used to successfully take images of food, but the bulk of experts will say that the way is in the light. Once you have handled the light, then you can work on your clear, sharp focus and where you place things in the photo. This development will permit you to create the most beautiful and delightful photos.




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