Food Photography
Food Porn Bible
The TEN CONDIMENTS to crave-worthy food photography.
The TEN CONDIMENTS of Delicious food photography.
LIGHTING IS KEY
The most important part of food photography is making sure you’re shooting your subject in great lighting. Natural light looks great, especially in mid-morning or mid-afternoon. If it’s too bright and sunny, however, this is not ideal and you’ll want to find some shade to shoot in and be weary of overexposure. If you’re inside, try to move around and find a good lighting source so you’ll be able to avoid flash, which rarely will give you the results you want. Another person’s “flashlight” feature on their camera, held further away from the subject or diffused through a napkin so that it doesn’t produce too harsh of a light, can work as a light source in a pinch.
PLAY WITH YOUR ANGLES
Ever see people standing on chairs at dinner to grab the perfect food shoot? Yeah, that’s going to be you next! Food photography is about playing with angles and experimenting to find the best shot. Shoot an overhead, or shoot the subject straight on, shoot upwards or downwards. Try every variation you can think of until you fall into a rhythm and know what works best for your style of food photography.
PLAY WITH YOUR SUBJECT
A dish might be served to you hot and seemingly ready to be shot, but you may want to make a few modifications before even trying to photograph the subject. You might want to prop up the dish on a folded up napkin so that you’re able to get a better angle to see everything, or add a bit or garnish to a soup, or cut a sandwich in half so you’re able to see the inside fillings.
FIND THE “HERO” ANGLE
With every dish, there’s probably one angle, the “hero” angle, where the food will photograph best from. Think about what’s the most appealing feature of the dish—is it the toppings of an over-the-top milkshake? The meaty filling of a sandwich? And try to position your dish and camera so that the focus of the photo goes straight to the dish’s best feature. This will help you find your “hero” angle!
FILL THE
FRAME
To achieve the Atlanta Eats signature look, you’ll want to fill your frame with your subject. You can do this by shooting your photo at a close angle and making sure the frame is “filled” with the subject or other props. You can pull a drink into the corner, or a side dish to fill the frame.
THINK ‘YUMMY’
OVER EVERYTHING
To achieve the Atlanta Eats signature look, how “yummy” a dish looks—not how pretty it is—is ultimately the key to deciding whether a dish is Instagram feed worthy or not. You might think a photo is beautiful and composed well, but ask yourself if that dish looks mouthwatering. If not, then try again.
WHEN EDITING, PLAY WITH SATURATION, CLARITY, & EXPOSURE
To achieve the Atlanta Eats signature look, we don’t apply filters but instead up the saturation and clarity on most photos while also correcting any exposure or shadow/highlight issues. You can achieve these results in Photoshop or most iPhone/Android photo-editing apps like VSCO cam.
THINK ABOUT YOUR EQUIPMENT
Will you shoot on a DSLR with a macro lens or an iPhone? For most of Atlanta Eats’ photos, IPhone works best and even outperforms DSLR photos. There will be less bells and whistles to learn when shooting on a phone, and you’ll never be without your camera, but a DSLR may help you achieve more details in your photography. You may also want to get a tripod if you have issues with steady hands when shooting.
UNDEREXPOSED IS BETTER THAN OVEREXPOSED
There’s nothing harder than trying to edit a blown out or overexposed photo that’s too bright and washes out some of the colors of your dish. If you’re ever shooting a photo and those are your two options, go for underexposed—a photo that’s slightly too dark—versus overexposed—a photo that’s too bright.
GET A SECOND OPINION
If you’re torn between two shots, don’t be afraid to ask for a second or third opinion before posting. Ask which shot looks yummiest before posting and more often than not, there will be a clear winner.
How to
Lights, angle, distance
Overhead
Overhead shots are especially popular in food photography, working to flatten out a dish to make it more two-dimensional and allowing you to focus on the colors and accessories that comprise the photo. To capture an overhead photo, stand on a chair next to your table or stand at the corner of the table with your phone raised 3 to 5 feet above the dish. Position the dish on the table so that you don’t capture the floor or other unwanted objects in your photograph. Light should be raised to maximum height, with the light shining down like a shower head onto your dish. Add a secondary fill light coming in from the side to avoid capturing your own shadow.
CLOSEUP/EYE LEVEL
The advantage of a dish that is shot from a straight on angle is that it can really highlight the textures and size of a dish, making the photo appear really drool-inducing. This angle is especially perfect for taller dishes and subjects. Shoot the dish straight on, or if the lip of the plate partially obscures the meal, then shoot with your phone slightly raised. You may even want to get on your knees to get at eye level shot. Get as close as possible to where the dish fills the frame. Light should come from behind you and be roughly 3-5 feet away from the table, with you between light and table.
3/4 ANGLE
Shooting a dish at ¾ angle is the preferred shot for Atlanta Eats photos, allowing us to capture more elements of a dish, like an overhead shot, but still showing more dimension and texture like you would in a straight-on shot. To capture an image at a ¾ angle, simple shoot the photo while you’re standing with your phone at a 45 degree angle so that you can capture the entire dish and some space around the dish, roughly 3 feet away from subject. Light should come from behind you and be roughly 3-5 feet from table/dish with you between light and table.
