This surely is a meltdown if I ever did see one...
They say variety is the spice of life...lets see how many terrible food puns I can bowl you over with before they take away my keyboard. I swear my yolks aren't that bad.
Food is one of those magical things...in a sense it begrudgingly brings us together, whether it's at Thanksgiving or your local Chipolte. Although eating is technically a necessity, some treat it as a passion. These enthusiasts refer to themselves as "foodies." I may not be much of a picky eater, but the thing that drives me bonkers is seeing unappetizing pictures of food on a menu. Go ahead and google image search "egg foo yung", half of the pictures look radioactive and are taken on paper plates. It only gets worse when you look at your favorite diner's menu and see something that resembles an omelet, but mostly out of focus with additional jpeg artifacts. Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure this is not a very good sales tactic. To be fair, smaller restaurants that aren't Applebee's or Houlahans might not have the funding to hire expensive professionals. Even the great DIY food techs online might be toting some great recipes, but the first impression for the viewer is usually the picture. An iphone Instagram can only get you so far.
So here's my argument: Restaurants, food blogs, and even the casual food enthusiast should take more pride in their craft. They shouldn't settle for crappy photographs, nor should they feel the need to hire some guy with a full rig. You can get some great shots at home with a little bit of planning, effort, and common sense.
Guy Fieri is enraged by the inappropriate use of magic wand tool.
Step 1: Have Patience Young Padawon
Like many things worth attaining, you're going to have to put in some sweat and tears before you get it right. Protip: Refrain from using your camera phone. You'll have time to post your photos onto facebook after your all done, so have patience Chef Boyardee.
Before you even pick up a camera there is some prep work to be done. I'm as bad as it get's when it comes to running and gunning, but trust me, you have to make some decisions that will make your life a little easier in the long run.
Step 2: Mental Preparation
A good start is to ask yourself the important question: What am I taking a picture of? Take into account the color, texture, and shape of your dish. Decide what you want to highlight and do your best to make it look clean. Keeping it clean can be a bit of a struggle when dealing with messy food, but presentation is everything. You'll have to dig out those old design principles and put on your food stylist cap.
Step 3: Choose Your Plating
My suggestion would be something simple in terms of color i.e. not a color that would compete with the food. Neon colors aren't your best friends and anything shiny in photography can be a pain. You're not trying to emphasize the dinette set you bought from Ikea. Funky shaped plates can be a great way to experiment, but again I think it should have some function to the form. In plating your object remember the surface is just as important as the dish. You don't want it to look like it was taken on the set of Saw VII. I prefer my backgrounds to be less distracting. Implementing compliments of color and texture. There's always beauty in simplicity!
Step 4: Location and Lighting
Next is choosing your location. Incandescent lights are usually too dim for photographic purposes and they tend to make your food look a little putrid. You'll want to look for an area that has a nice open source of light. Large windows providing natural daylight can be very flattering for any dish, but you have to choose a time of day that works best. More angled light available later in the day can be good to define texture, but you don't want to rely on a sunset with harsh shadows...this might make your food look a little too dramatic, then again it might be your aesthetic! A good fix for this is some fill light from a white card to reflect onto spots that are losing detail. With any shoot, lighting is always half the battle, but with a simple set up you won't be tripping over light stands and power cables.
Step 5: Using the Camera
OK, it's alright to pick up your camera now. Hopefully you're using a DSLR camera as you'll have an easier time adjusting exposure and aperture. Point and shoots have come a great way from being the slow, sputtering pixel mashing machines they once were, but they are still limiting. Being able to easily control everything from ISO, White balance, and focus will get you further than crossing your fingers for a happy mistake. If you're not familiar with manual controls, some of the auto modes like A(aperture) and (S) shutter speed allow you adjust one or the other while it calculates what it understands to be a perfect exposure.
More tips!
Shoot Raw. This will allow you to fine tune your image much more effectively.
Set your white balance. Auto WB usually does a good job, but if you're looking for accuracy you should set your own custom white balance in your camera with the help of a grey card or color checker.
Use a longer fixed lens. Depth of field is easier to attain so you can get that selective focus look should you want it. Having a wide lens won't do you much good here. A macro lens can do wonders for sharp detail shots.
Use a tripod if your finding that shake from hand holding is becoming an issue.
Set a lower ISO. This means less noise and light sensitivity for when you want open up.
Create diffusion if the light is too harsh. Using a white sheet near a window acts as a softbox which is great even lighting.
When composing choose an angle above your dish, but not directly on top. Getting level with your dish wont help your food look dimensional.
Finally Shoot to crop. Give yourself enough room to work with so you can easily crop the image with that fancy rule of thirds composition. Get creative...shy away from being dead center.
Here's an example of a shoot that resulted in a few extra pounds. I used a fixed 85mm lens open at f5.6 to create a focal plane in front, leaving the rest to blend into the non-busy space. A popular look for food is what I refer informally to the 'Martha Stewart Look'...basically this includes an open source of light from a window and relatively shallow depth of field. These two were taken in front of the same window and it wasn't necessarily a great day out, but overcast lighting can be amazingly soft. I tried one on a white dish and another on a checkered red dish to echo the red in the cupcakes. Honestly the hardest part was waiting for the cupcakes to bake and not going overboard with the decorations. Not much work was done in post, really just some sharpening and opening up the shadows. The more work I do in camera means less time staring blankly at a computer. I don't consider these anywhere close to professional, but I think these are successful in making me want a cupcake. (Then again when is this not the case?) If the end result does not inspire some salivating, I think you're ultimately doing something wrong.
The Martha Effect at Work
I needed a shot of insulin and a larger pair of pants after this one
After writing this article I realize that it's challenging to find a general set of rules that can be used for all food photography. First and foremost, everyone has their own aesthetic. What Great Housekeeping's in-house team thinks is worthy of being published might not necessarily be your cup of tea. Another major factor is that there's a lot to cover with food..there's just too much on your plate. OK, OK, I'll stop. Every dish has unlimited potential. I tried to establish a less complicated setup that I think anyone can do. With some planning and a little effort you too can compete with the big wigs. I think these tips should be a good kick start in the right direction, but perhaps a video would be more effective. Stay tuned to our blog for a video demonstration on more tips in food photography.