TIP: Food Photography

For the past five years I have been photographing food for clients here in New York City. I have had the pleasure of working with restaurants like Punch Restaurant and Wined-Up Wine Bar near the Flatiron Building - - and also with the great Italian chef, Gabriele Bagni. Food photography is a somewhat specialized form of photography – but I have some hints for those of you who (even with point and shoot cameras) would like to “take your best shot”. 

1. Perspective – I like to photograph food as a “landscape” putting the camera low – and on the table. This “ant’s perspective” brings out lots of detail in the food – and offers a unique perspective on the plate.  Shooting too high over the plate tends to make the food look flat, and lacks the dramatic shadows of shooting low.
2. Use the MACRO – if you are using a “Point and Shoot” camera – set the camera to Macro (usually the icon is a tulip). This will allow for only a narrow portion of the photo to be completely in focus.  A blurry background (and maybe a bit of the foreground) will emulate the mouthwatering photographs you are used to seeing in gourmet magazines.
3. Natural Light – Using defused light, coming through a window with long soft shadows helps add to the drama of a “food landscape”.  Don’t use a flash.  Mostly, because shooting so close (macro) to the food, the intense flash will overwhelm the plate.
4. Time is of the essence – photograph food as soon as you can after the plate lands on your table. Butter and sauces tend to “cloud” over as they cool.  Other parts of the dish may steam and wilt, or change color the longer they are exposed.

For my photo shoots with food, I usually use my Nikon D300 with a short 20mm lens.  This allows for plenty of natural light – and a narrow depth of field.  While that lens does tend to distort things a bit – corrections for that can easily be made in Photoshop CS5.   Additionally, I will usually use some kind of reflector to bounce light back onto the food – creating even, defused light.