Guest Post | 5 Tips For Photographing Food

Welcome to the very first of the 5th Birthday Celebration Guest Posts.  I'm super excited to introduce today's guest Erika Follansbee.  I have been reading Erika's blog for over 5 years, and can recall bookmarking it on the laptop before we flew to Canada for Christmas 2006, it's been there ever since.  Erika is an awesome photographer and she regularly makes me jealous with her gorgeous photos of scrumptious meals.  My burning question to her, just how do you do that?  Here's Erika with her 5 Tips For Photographing Food:  


1. Use Macro Setting:  There is nothing more disappointing than a blurry photo of a delicious looking dish. You want to really make sure it's in focus. For point and shoot cameras, simply select the "macro" function which normally looks like a little flower.  This enables the camera to sharply focus on a subject very close to the lens.  You'll need to hold the camera very still and allow the focus to take hold. For DSLR users, you can use a macro lens.

2. Use the Right Light: Soft, indirect light is best for food photography. I try to look for a window with light coming in from the side, but avoiding direct sunbeams. You want the food to be well-lit, but not garishly bright.  If you're in your kitchen, usually the direct overhead artificial light is not flattering, so you could try to find light from a more sideways angle.

3. Angles: I find that the best angle for shooting food is usually the one where you would normally be sitting at a table in front of it. :) It just so happens that the slightly downward view that we have of our dish from a sitting position is often the most appetizing.  But there are NO rules: You can experiment with shooting straight on to emphasize height of a dish, or stand up and shoot more directly down on a food to showcase a beautiful arrangement on a plate.  Look for the perfect angle that really brings out delicious textures and makes you want to say "YUM, let's eat!" You always want to show texture and detail.

4. Part vs. Whole:  Whether you shoot the entire plate, or just half the food is a matter of personal choice. Composition is a strong stylistic decision and there is no right or wrong answer, but the easy way to decide is to ask yourself this--what looks the most DELICIOUS?

5. Avoid clutter in the background. You always want the food to be the focus of the photo, so you don't want a bunch of random stuff in the background. You need to crop in tight enough so that there is nothing else showing, and/or use a shallow depth of field to make everything the background blurry.