Ten Skills of Food Photography

Lead: Food has a mission. It wants you to eat it now. If you linger to take pictures of it instead of eating it, its defense mechanism begins. It will go bad in the photo immediately, forcing you to give up, put down the camera and eat it. The result of natural selection. Now is the time to subvert the hateful mission of food. Please read our tips, pick up your camera and join the glorious revolution of food photography!

1. Keep the background clean.

Try to contrast the background with the color of the food, and don't use a background similar to the color of the food. For example, strawberries on a red plate will make the theme unclear. In addition, the background should be clean. Before you start taking pictures, make sure that there is no clutter in the background to distract your attention (scattered people, silverware, others). It is best to blur the background with a large aperture. If you are not sure, use a white plate.

2. Adjust the white balance

Adjust the white balance according to your food. For example, when shooting meat, it is best to use warm colors. The meat photographed in the blue fluorescent lamp environment must be quite terrible.

Shoot with natural light

It's always good to shoot food with natural light at any time. You can choose to shoot by a sunny window during the day, and try to avoid using a flash directly facing the food as a light source at night. If you can't use natural light, don't consider using flash. Flash photography is too blunt for the delicate texture of food. Except for some uncomfortable highlights, everything is flattened. This light is unnatural. Even if you use a flash, you should also use the flash effect reflected from the ceiling or wall.

Use a tripod

In places with poor lighting conditions, such as restaurants or kitchens, long-term exposure will make any movement of the camera blur the photos. Try to use a tripod if possible. If not, try putting the camera in a glass cup or on the back of a chair. Or make yourself a rope tripod.

5. Small details make the picture look different.

Don't ignore some small details, and always remember that using a knife and fork with a clean plate can make ordinary food interesting.

Close the distance

You can shoot the food on the plate at a macro, and close to the shooting target can show the finer part of the food, making it more interesting and thought-provoking, making the photo frame full of food and making the viewer feel that it can almost be tasted.

7. Stop! Subdivision!

In addition to the appearance of food, the internal texture and color of food are sometimes more attractive. For example, cutting cakes and showing different levels of food.

8. Shoot from all angles

Don't always condescend and watch the food shoot like a bird watching us. Left, right, left, right, up and down, change your perspective, you can also adjust and change the position of food.

9. Use props

Don't be afraid to add all kinds of other elements, put orange juice and pancakes together? Or use a bottle of wine as the background for steak and potatoes? Of course, it is good to sprinkle some crumbs on the side of bread sometimes, but it needs to be understood that too many props will distract the viewer.

10. cheating?

If you don't want to eat them after shooting, you can consider using some industrialized means to make the photos more attractive. For example, apply vegetable oil to food to make it look more shiny; Or the kind produced by soaking cotton balls just taken out of the microwave oven in water? Freshly baked? Hot.