[Macworld]

Post your comments for Simple techniques for photographing food here

[SteveHix]

"Flash always flattens out the food, making it look boring and unappealing."

You might want to tweak that statement a bit.

Single on-camera flash will certainly do that, but professional food photo work usually involves multiple lights, with appropriate softening and/or diffusion or other modification to get the desired effect.

[mscrimger]

A good basic technique is to also focus on the closest subject and use good Depth of Field if you have multiple subjects in the photograph. You want them al in focus.

[cincyflygrrl]

SteveHix, on 01 March 2012 - 08:51 AM, said:

"Flash always flattens out the food, making it look boring and unappealing."

You might want to tweak that statement a bit.

Single on-camera flash will certainly do that, but professional food photo work usually involves multiple lights, with appropriate softening and/or diffusion or other modification to get the desired effect.

Oh, come on. The article is for AMATEURS using point-and-shoot cameras or iPhones. If the author was addressing pros don't you think she would have said something different?

[BrianTeeter]

I worked as a food photographer professionally for about 20 years. While you won't have access to the team of professional food stylists, studio and lighting equipment that I did every day, there are some tips I can share:

1. Food often looks more appealing when lit (illuminated) from above and behind what you are shooting. If you have access to a light source such as a strobe light, or even a decently powerful adjustable table lamp, you can do a lot with that. Diffusing the light with a sheet of frosted acetate or other translucent material can help you control the light and not make it too harsh. (Stapling the diffusion material to a wooden canvas frame, and propping that up, can make a handy diffuser.) In the foreground, immediately adjacent to the lens, you can fill in the more shadowy front of your photo with white or silver cards - these are available at an art supply or more professional photo store.

Lighting this way, from above and behind, or from the side (if you are photographing something tall, such as a bottle of wine), will give your food more texture and appeal. Avoid lighting from in front.

An alternative is window light. Rembrandt and Vermeer had a good idea with the beauty of window light, and you might want to give that a try. Make sure you turn off overhead lights, ESPECIALLY fluorescent lights, which project a terrible color and light quality.

2. Shoot TIGHT and close-up. Compose your photo by getting close-up to the food. You can zoom in or get your camera's lens in close, enough to turn a plate of food into a landscape - it will make the photo much more dynamic.

3. A tripod can be your best friend, especially if you use a DSLR camera. If you are photographing up very close, being able to lock your camera down on a tripod is a huge advantage. Professional studio photographers use a massive rolling studio stand (imagine the mast and boom of a sailboat to visualize what I mean), which lets the photographer literally hover the camera right over the subject. You won't be able to afford such equipment, but some tripods also offer a sidearm accessory to let you get better shooting angles. Locking the tripod down with sandbags can counterbalance a camera hanging over the centerline of the tripod. Plus, sandbags absorb vibration, very helpful for long exposures.

4. If you are shooting food in your own kitchen, a trick used by pros is to set up your shot with "stand-in" food that you use to adjust your lighting and composition. This is especially important if you are shooting up close. If you have access to something heavy like a paperweight or metal slabs, use those to mark the position of the plate of food, so that when you replace your stand-in with the real food, you can put the plate back in exactly the same location.

5. Study professional photos in cookbooks to get some insight on how food is styled professionally. Food stylists have tons of tricks. For example, instead of baking a fruit pie that can sag or get soggy looking, smart stylists will fill the pie with cornflakes, which get good and stiff when baked. The stylist will then use pins and a compass to cut an exact slice, and fill the walls of the opening with fruit filling.

Another trick stylists use with cakes is to decorate the icing with a set of artist's palette knives instead of a butter knife. It's much better looking.

If you are shooting meat, undercook it, because on film (well, digital), it would look like you cooked it with a blowtorch otherwise. You can heat up metal skewers to do a "branding iron" effect to make it appear that it had been on a charcoal grill. Brush meat with juice or Kitchen Magic to keep it looking moist.

Want to photograph soups? DO NOT heat them up - they will form a skin. Instead, present the soup cold. You can add a bit of liquid smoke or dry ice vapor to make it look hot.

Fried eggs? Cook them immersed in oil. You read right. The yoke will stay fresh looking. And it will keep the egg pliable - you can literally toss it like a Frisbee. You can make the yoke look more voluminous by wetting a bit of paper towel and placing it beneath the center of the egg on the plate. That will make the yoke stand up more.

As the author noted, steam vegetables very briefly to enhance their color, then "shock" them by quickly transferring the veggies to ice cold water (ice water in a glass bowl). That will prevent the veggies from turning brown. Lemon juice can help. Brush water on the veggies (spraying can make a mess) with a small brush of water to keep them looking fresh.

I could go on and on. But look carefully at how food is styled. The food is your "hero" so you want to go out of your way to make it look its best. Look at how professional stylists and photographers compose the food on the plate in cookbooks and food magazines. There's a lot you can learn just by studying the pros.

Food photography can demand a lot of diligence, but it can be a lot of fun. Best of luck!

[dominiquejames]

The fastest way to take bad photos of food is to take bad photography advise.

1. You don’t necessarily have to be a foodie to take good pictures. The feel-good stuff is fine, but you still have to work with all the exacting technical aspects of photography. Being a foodie doesn’t necessarily make you a good food photographer.

2. You choose to use certain camera settings and modes because that is what fits the circumstances of the shoot, and not necessarily because you’re shooting food. In any case, many amazing food shots has been created with the fool-proof full Program (or automatic) mode.

3. The right app? The right cam? The right equipment? The right gear? While it helps in many ways, it is the photographer behind the “right” app that takes the picture—food or not.

4. Even with the “wrong” lens, you can still take the most amazing food photos. In fact, you might be pleasantly surprised that using the “wrong” lens may be one sure way to set your food photography and then stand-out from all the rest.

5. Props are just props. In many cases, props can take the viewer’s attention away from the main subject, which is the food. The focus should always be on the food.

6. In general, photography is light. It’s not because your lighting is interesting that makes the shot. It’s how the light affects the subject that is. In many of the world’s best pictures, you never notice the light — “light is absent.”

7. Finally, a good advise. But one that many will sadly ignore (because it’s hard and time-consuming, among many other reasons). Despite numerous amazing “advances” in digital photography, post-production is still necessary. Shoot-then-post-prod-before-show is a must workflow that almost always brings out the best in pictures. In a pinch, one can shoot-and-show, but whenever there’s an opportunity for enhancement …

So, that’s that.