12/09/2012

food photography tips

By Amy Renfrey


In this food photography article I will be discussing some of the very vital food photography techniques. How to shoot food photography depends very much on light, composition and what part of the scene you focus on. Use these tips to capture beautiful photos every time.

We see more food than we appreciate. Walking through the shopping center will offer hundreds or even thousands of expert photos of meals and drinks. Flipping through a magazine will also usually present some aromatic and tempting food pictures as well. Is there really a trick to photographing food successfully? Yes, in fact there are.

Commercial food photography can apply to advertising, packaging or editorial areas, and the professionals will often be involved with stylists, prop specialists and clients who want the item to look delightful and delicious. You will see examples of commercial food photography in flyers of fast food, supermarket catalogues and even billboards in shopping center complexes and road signs. Every time you pass a sign that advertises a pizza, fried chicken or organic produce, there has been a photographer behind that shot. This photographer might have been in a studio, under hot lights and next to windows, for hours, while they photographed a series of flavorsome food.

Undoubtedly there are some vital issues in food photography. Such things as meats or even veggies must be captured in a way that makes them totally tempting. For many the significant issues are lighting, background and consistency. To photograph foods in the most satisfying ways possible demands some serious resourcefulness and also demands that the food photographer pays close attention the food looking as newly picked as humanly possible.

Think that a ripe, juicy tomato is picked fresh from the ground, cleaned off and then instantly photographed? Think again! In order to photograph food that looks like you want to bite into it at first glance calls for a number of things to be in pace. The first key is light. Lighting foods in order to photograph them glowing often involves such techniques as glazes or moisturizers to be applied to their surfaces to give them an interesting gloss that they might not normally have.

This also means that the item have to be lit suitably. The majority of high-quality food photographs are those with a single, small source of light concentrating on the food in question and then a brilliantly lit or coordinating surroundings that improves the general look of the food. For example, many pastry goods such as cakes and biscuits are likely to be photographed with complementary colors in the environment rather than just a plain or continuous color.

In addition to the single, small light source, a lot of food photographers also place the light at a lower angle to the item than is usual for conventional photographic studio light. This is to shoot a great deal of texture right through the surface of the food and to help any glazes or moisturizers develop many highlights or accents. While many studio photographers also tend to use a great deal of flash fill lighting, food photographers employ reflectors to target small amounts of light on the subject instead. The last rule around lighting as used by commercial food photographers is to stay away from lighting any foods from straight in front. This frequently causes shadowed areas to become visible, and a quick look at food photos would reveal there are never any strong shadowed areas at all.

There are literally dozens of additional aspects used to successfully take images of food, but the bulk of specialists will say that the method is in the light. Once you have mastered the lighting, then you can work on your clear, sharp focus and where you place things in the photo. This process will permit you to capture the most beautiful and tasty photos.




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