Taking "good" pictures of food... Your tips?

[DrPierreMcDuck]

We've all been there. You're eating at Disney or elsewhere and want to take photos of your food to show others. Having both taken and viewed tons of images over the years, I've learned a few things that have been helpful.

1. The empty plate rule. Unless the plate itself is in some matter unique, don't take a shot of just an empty plate. I know it is a disappointment if you've forgotten to take any pics until the meal is over, but seriously, an empty plate doesn't really tell your audience anything about the food or experience.

2. If you've forgotten to take pictures until you're part of the way through the meal, don't panic! You can still take some great pics. The key is to avoid having the plate look like a half-eaten mess with bite marks and such. Use a knife to cut away any partially eaten portions and a spoon to move sauces. Wipe away any smudges. This only takes a few seconds and will make your pics far more appetizing.

3. Generally speaking, the ideal is to take a picture of the item as it is presented to your table, but there are some exceptions. For example, if you have a sandwich that doesn't reveal its contents as presented, then it is usually better to cut it in two and photograph from an angle than it is to open it up or leave it as is.

4. Unless the photo is at least partially about the people who were there, avoid body parts and everything else. You want the focus to be on the food.

5. Learn about and experiment with the settings on your camera. It takes time to know what lighting and balance options are best for different situations, but it is worth it. You don't have to be a professional photographer to take some great pics.

OK, having shared my thoughts (most of which I suppose are common sense), what are yours? What tips have you found to be helpful when taking pics of all the yummy food that is out there?

 

[Hockeyman]

Like you mentioned, just experiment with your camera and all the settings. This picture picked up a lot of noise than what I thought it had. i saved it on my phone off my wife's Facebook then uploaded to the Photobucket app then to here. Not sure if original came out as bad or if lost a little bit from all of that. I also snapped some pizza from Via Napoli, havent gone thru all the pics yet so not sure how they came out.

 

[havoc315]

-Fill the frame. There is a tendency to center the object of the picture, and leave lots of empty space around it. Really, you should get as close as possible to the subject. Better to go in the opposite direction, of having the edges of the food actually extending outside of the frame.

example:
http://www.foodporn.net/?portfolio=olive-oil-sour-cream-pound-cake


-Don't shoot head on, from above. Do you lean over the table and look straight down at your food when you're eating? Of course not. Additionally, that angle makes the food look quite flat. Instead, shoot the food from an angle.

Example:
http://www.foodporn.net/?portfolio=wet-burritos

-If you have a better camera, go for a short depth of field. It makes for a more interesting picture, with the foremost part of the food dish being crystal clear, but then blurring further back in the picture. It's a more dramatic shot.

http://www.foodporn.net/?portfolio=lamb-kebab-sliders

 

[havoc315]

Like you mentioned, just experiment with your camera and all the settings. This picture picked up a lot of noise than what I thought it had. i saved it on my phone off my wife's Facebook then uploaded to the Photobucket app then to here. Not sure if original came out as bad or if lost a little bit from all of that. I also snapped some pizza from Via Napoli, havent gone thru all the pics yet so not sure how they came out.

Good picture. Often the difficulty is the low lighting you find in restaurants. Using a flash is just rude in a restaurant, plus natural lighting makes a far superior picture. So without a great camera, it can be difficult to get the best food photos under most restaurant settings. (on the other hand, eating in a bright dining room, or outdoors, you can easily get great shots).

 

[Hockeyman]

Good picture. Often the difficulty is the low lighting you find in restaurants. Using a flash is just rude in a restaurant, plus natural lighting makes a far superior picture. So without a great camera, it can be difficult to get the best food photos under most restaurant settings. (on the other hand, eating in a bright dining room, or outdoors, you can easily get great shots).

Yep youre right. I dont like using a flash to begin with but found with the right lens I can take great pictures in low lighting without a flash. I took this in Ohana a week ago just before 8am and was still a little overcast outside at the time which made it a little darker inside.

My biggest obstacle is trying to take pictures at Disney all while having to juggle a 5 month old baby and 16 month old toddler lol. Sometimes I was trying to take a picture with camera in one hand while my daughter was dragging me through the gift shop trying to grab a lollipop with the other hahaha.

 

[havoc315]

Yep youre right. I dont like using a flash to begin with but found with the right lens I can take great pictures in low lighting without a flash. I took this in Ohana a week ago just before 8am and was still a little overcast outside at the time which made it a little darker inside.

My biggest obstacle is trying to take pictures at Disney all while having to juggle a 5 month old baby and 16 month old toddler lol. Sometimes I was trying to take a picture with camera in one hand while my daughter was dragging me through the gift shop trying to grab a lollipop with the other hahaha.

It appears you were seating near a window.... it looks like natural light hitting the side of the waffle. I assume you used a wide open aperture on your lens, and a very fast ISO setting.
My problem is I have very unsteady hands, so I can't slow the shutter speed down too much. Plus of course... I'm just shy about taking out the big camera in a restaurant. I'm already geeky enough, lol.

 

[Hockeyman]

It appears you were seating near a window.... it looks like natural light hitting the side of the waffle. I assume you used a wide open aperture on your lens, and a very fast ISO setting.
My problem is I have very unsteady hands, so I can't slow the shutter speed down too much. Plus of course... I'm just shy about taking out the big camera in a restaurant. I'm already geeky enough, lol.

Our table was just over from a window to the right. We had some natural light coming in but not a whole lot. I started out just using the aperture setting alone and everything else on auto but since Oct I have been confident enough to use on full manual and love it. Sure not every picture is perfect but you just change settings and learn.

I got the DSLR bug a few months ago and have been having fun with this new hobby of mine ever since. Shorty after getting my camera with the stock 18-55mm and 55-200mm lenses I invested in a fixed 30mm and 50mm with a f/1.8 aperture. Best investment so far. I hardly even touch those 2 original lens. With that high aperture it really helps me when I take pictures at night or in low light settings and not having to use a flash, which is great when at restaurants, shows and rides where the flash is just rude. As far as being shy I got over that a long time ago and dont care how nerdy I look or how nerdy people think I am lol.

 

[queenmichelle]

I'd say the 2 most important thing for good food photos is dining with people willing to wait patiently for you to finish taking good shots and not being embarassed or self concious about taking the photos

 

[YankeePrincess]

I'd say the 2 most important thing for good food photos is dining with people willing to wait patiently for you to finish taking good shots and not being embarassed or self concious about taking the photos

Enter my husband. He hates when I take pictures of the food but I am such a camera/picture freak I can't help it. I have a Nikon and I love the thing. I am looking into some good lenses and taking great pics at night. All I have now is the original lens that came with the camera and a zoom lens.

 

[Hockeyman]

Enter my husband. He hates when I take pictures of the food but I am such a camera/picture freak I can't help it. I have a Nikon and I love the thing. I am looking into some good lenses and taking great pics at night. All I have now is the original lens that came with the camera and a zoom lens.

I was in the same boat with my stock lenses and wanted something for night and with a higher aperture. Picked up a 50mm f/1.8 for $150 and a 30mm f/1.8 for $199. I have a Sony A390 and the lenses seem to be a little more pricey than Nikon and Canons. You should be able to find one around $100 if not a little more.

 

[ppony]

Like you mentioned, just experiment with your camera and all the settings. This picture picked up a lot of noise than what I thought it had. i saved it on my phone off my wife's Facebook then uploaded to the Photobucket app then to here. Not sure if original came out as bad or if lost a little bit from all of that. I also snapped some pizza from Via Napoli, havent gone thru all the pics yet so not sure how they came out.

Now THAT'S a nice Disney food shot for these boards! Blueberries are perfectly placed. I used to art direct for 12 years, a LOT of food was in those shots and I know how it is. THANKS for the lens tips. I never got into what the photographers were using, I just told them what to do.

 

[NLD]

Two words: white balance

And the explanation....

When you take a picture, make sure anything in the scene that is supposed to be white actually appears to be white in your picture.

Ever notice how sometimes when you take a picture indoors without flash, everything might appear to have a yellow cast? That yellow cast is because the temperature of indoor lights is different from the temperature of outside (sun) light.

Now, when we are indoors and see something white, our mind generally understands "oh that's white" and we'll see it as white.

But your camera doesn't really know what's white and what's not.

So you have to tell your camera.

You do this by changing the white balance settings on your camera.

OR... if you don't change the white balance when you take the picture, you can also "cheat" and fix the photo with a photo editing program after the fact.

But no matter how you do it... no matter how you get the whites to look white... please do it. Because nothing will make your food look more unappetizing than the wrong white balance.

A plate of yellow food does NOT look very yummy.

Here's an extreme example. Not a great photo, but it serves the illustration purpose well.

This was taken at Boma, which has some seriously low lighting and the lights are quite yellow. This is the exact same photo, everything is the same, but #1 is before correcting the white balance and #2 is after correcting the white balance.

Take a look... which version is more appetizing? Which one makes you want to throw the food in the trash, and which makes you want to eat the food?

#1-Uncorrected White Balance


WhiteBalanceFoodExample1 by nicole_lynn_, on Flickr

#2-Corrected White Balance


WhiteBalanceFoodExample2 by nicole_lynn_, on Flickr

 

[Hockeyman]

Now THAT'S a nice Disney food shot for these boards! Blueberries are perfectly placed. I used to art direct for 12 years, a LOT of food was in those shots and I know how it is. THANKS for the lens tips. I never got into what the photographers were using, I just told them what to do.

I wish I could stake claim and tell you that those blueberries were strategically place but they werent lol. They just happened to be on my plate when I was messing around trying to snap the waffle lol. I was trying to juggle taking pictures all while trying to keep our toddler from throwing food all over and that alone was a challenge lol.

 

[ppony]

I wish I could stake claim and tell you that those blueberries were strategically place but they werent lol. They just happened to be on my plate when I was messing around trying to snap the waffle lol. I was trying to juggle taking pictures all while trying to keep our toddler from throwing food all over and that alone was a challenge lol.

No wonder it looks natural then! LOL People take years of experience to learn to do what nature already does naturally. Awesome!

 

[Hockeyman]

No wonder it looks natural then! LOL People take years of experience to learn to do what nature already does naturally. Awesome!

I did move the waffle so it was facing me lol. I just kind of wing it, I have no formal training and have only been snapping away with my DSLR for 4 months now. I just enjoy it and know that not ever picture I take will be perfect.

 

[thelawnet]

I would suggest a fast lens; if you have a DSLR/DILC, buy it a nice fast fixed lens, you want a 'normal' lens, not a wide angle. If you have a zoom unfortunately you are going to get less aperture as you zoom in, so be careful with that.

Otherwise I keep an Ultrapod II (tiny folding tripod) in my bag and it takes very little space, put the camera on that and you can get a sharper image than you could do hand-held.