Food photos, how to avoid shooting mistakes?

Photographers make some common mistakes when shooting food. This kind of food photo looks easy to take, but improper shooting not only makes the food photo ugly, but also greatly reduces the appeal of food. This paper introduces some misunderstandings of photographers in taking beautiful food photos, which will make you take mouth-watering food photos.

Food photography is a way to plan and think about all the details in advance. Before picking up the camera, consider the key aspects that constitute high-quality food photography, which will help to get the best results.

1, poor light

Like any kind of photography, light is the most important element. Without light, there will be no special effects, which is why photography is often called "light painting". Whether using natural light or artificial light, lighting methods will create or destroy photos.

The difference between professional photographers and amateur photographers usually lies in their deep understanding of the physical principles of light and their ability to manipulate light to achieve the desired effects.

Lighting is more than just shining enough light on an object. As long as there is light, you can get photos with longer exposure time, but good lighting is also correct lighting.

For example, when shooting in a restaurant, a common problem is that the lighting inside the restaurant will destroy the scene and cause unnecessary projection, especially in the case of high light, which is difficult to solve in post-production, but the ambient light can be suppressed by using the flash and the sign at the top of the scene, thus avoiding unnecessary light from entering the scene, thus avoiding this situation.

2. Unreasonable composition

Food itself is a form of artistic expression. Apart from light, this is the most difficult aspect of food photography, and it may take years of practice to master composition. I won't go deep into this article, but I need to know something to improve my composition.

Start with minimalism. All you need is the main theme, plus some auxiliary items, such as props or textiles. Using three to five elements in the work, compared with even numbers, using odd elements will add more symmetry and balance to the scene, thus causing competition among elements and distracting the audience.

Consider the texture. The appearance of simple food can even be really improved by adding textures to props or surfaces or even ingredients and seasonings.

Another technique is to choose a neutral background and surface. Bright colors will distract food and cause unnecessary shadows on food.

3. Wrong shooting angle

Before shooting, it is very important to choose the best angle of the scene, and the correct choice will depend on the shooting theme.

Layered dishes like hamburgers or pancakes look best at eye level because you can see every element. On the other hand, it is best to shoot flat plates, such as pizza and biscuits, at a 90-degree angle from above, because this angle puts everything on a plane and gives the subject a graphic appearance.

For scenes with many elements, this is a big angle, and these elements are difficult to adapt to the picture.

Another popular angle is 45 degrees or three quarters, which is suitable for many types of food, most focal lengths and various shapes, heights and textures of the main body.

A shooting angle recommended here is a low angle with the camera slightly upward, which can sometimes be seen in Hamburg advertisements, but this angle is rarely suitable for most types of food.

4. Wrong visual focus

When preparing for shooting, you need to consider where the focus is. In addition, consider which field will become the focus, which will be affected by the selected aperture value.

It is rare to shoot food with a large aperture (less than f/5.6), because areas that are not large enough will be sharp. In food photography, the goal is to show the best dishes, which will not happen, and most of them will be blurred.

After taking a picture (it is best to connect a laptop), then check the focus with a magnification of 100% to ensure that the focus is in the desired position and the depth of field is not too shallow.

In addition, calibrating the lens will ensure that the focus will not be lost due to technical problems.

5, cutting error

The charm of digital photography is that it can solve some problems in the shooting process in post-processing. One example is cutting with tools in Lightroom and Photoshop.

A common mistake made by beginners is that the subject is too close, so that the viewer can't understand what is depicted in the photo, or cut too much to display the plate in the best way.

When the scene is wider, the spiced shrimp looks much better, including some other foods, such as bread and chutney. Close-up shooting lacks a sense of movement and direction, so it doesn't look very attractive.

Try several framing schemes when shooting, and then see which one is the most suitable. This is also a good technique. You can shoot a wider scene than you intend to complete, and then use the cropping function in post-processing to make the composition better.