Food Photography for Bloggers

Illustrate Your Food Blog with Tasty Photos of Pro Quality

Dec 5, 2008

Food blogs are becoming more and more popular and the competition is fierce. To build a thriving blog, delicious recipes aren't enough - you also need dazzling photos.

You can take food photos with any digital camera, no need to spend thousands on pro equipment. Don't use a camera phone or webcam though. With just $100 you can get a good digital camera.

If you have the money, a DSLR would be a great choice. DSLRs aren't very difficult to use, and you don't have to shoot in manual mode if you're not comfortable with it. Even the cheapest body with an inexpensive lens will get you better results than a point-and-shoot.

The best lens would probably be a macro lens, so you can get close to the food if needed (a macro lens does not mean you have to be close). Canon's 100 mm f/2.8 lens would be an excellent choice for a Canon DSLR.

Lighting

If you only have a built-in flash, you should never use it for food photography. Ensure you have enough light, either by using natural light or lamps – normal table lamps or spotlights are just fine.

Be careful with using several light sources of different "color", though, such as fluoros and incadescent lamps, or you may end up with a photo which is partly blue and partly yellow.

If the pictures come out shaky due to lack of light and the resulting long exposure, you have to support the camera with something. If you don't have a tripod, you can support it – or yourself – with a chair, table or even a wall. Resting your elbows on the table gives more support than just holding the camera in the air. Take several shots, so even if some turn out shaky, at least one should be alright.

Generally even lighting is the best, and you should avoid burning out the highlights – an omelette won't look too good if it's just solid white without any highlights. There are some things, however, that should generally always be glossy, such as jams, glazes and some sauces. In that case it might be better to have too-bright highlights than none at all.

Composition

Composition isn't nearly as important in food photography as the lighting. Well-lit pictures from a boring angle tend to look much better than poorly lit ones with a great composition. That said, composing is one of the fun parts of photography and can make your food shots look a lot better.

You can often create more dynamical compositions by cropping out a part of the dish. Experiment with both portrait and landscape orientation. You can even try tilting the camera a bit – but don't do this for every photo, or your blog might make the reader seasick.

Background

Many of us have a kitchen which is almost completely white (or metallic), and taking all the photos with a white background can become boring. Try to see if there's some other part of the house where you can take pictures with different backgrounds.

If needed, you can use tea towels and tablecloths (and things that look like them, even if they are something else) to bring in some color.

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