Glenfas

I wanna know how to take great pictures of food

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Be creative in the setpups, it certainly helps, if your a good cook. Read up on the different techniques, there is enough to fill many, many books, latterly and have fun!

yorkiebyte Loc: Scottsdale, AZ/Bandon by the Sea, OR

Try this:
https://www.diyphotography.net/15-awesome-food-photography-tips/

camshot Loc: Peterborough ontario Canada

Be sure to do it before you eat it...….Sorry a little humor for these days!

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Good site!

yorkiebyte Loc: Scottsdale, AZ/Bandon by the Sea, OR

Yeah, Food should be FUN!!

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Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Learn lighting, and get hooked up with an excellent food stylist. Can't take great pictures of food if the food isn't great to take pictures of.

If you are a decent cook, you can just focus on the styling - the photography is pretty straightforward in many cases - beverages with interesting lighting comes with their own set of challenges.

Look up Delores Custer - she wrote what I consider the bible on Food Styling. She was already adding an artistic flair when nearly all food was staged by high school Home Ec teachers. I did a few gigs with her when I lived in NY.

http://www.delorescuster.com/food-styling-book/

Also take a look at food images that you like, and just deconstruct them - imagine how the lighting was set up, how the food was prepped and presented, props, cucoloris, lighting flags, etc.

I like Australian food author and stylist Donna Hay - very spartan, but extremely appetizing food photography.

This is another good site for inspiration - some of it is meh, but some stuff is genuinely good

http://foodporndaily.com/

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

I do food photography for a living- 60% of my commercial photography business is for the foodservice industry- advertising, cookbooks, menus, electronic menus displays in fast-food restaurants, recipe cards, packaging, produce retailers and more.

If you want to be a good portrait photographer, you gotta love PEOPLE and have patience and compassion for all kinds of folks. If you want to be a good food photographer, you gotta love working with food, eating, and you need lots of patience. A great portrait is flattering to the subject and reveals character. A good food shot makes you hungry! If the stuff doesn't look appetizing and perhaps make your mouth water or cause you to want to go out and buy that product or make that recipe- its a failure! As in most kinds of commercial photography, you want to show the product at its best.

When you advise a client on preparing for a portrait session you discuss "styling"- fashions, clothing choices, colors, hair styling, possibly makeup, etc., and likewise with food illustration. Think about props, dinnerwear, cookware, utensils, table coverings, countertops, and actual STYLING of the food, the way appears on a plate, bowel, glass, pot, pan, grill- whatever the illustration includes.

Oftentimes foods have to be specially prepared for photogrhay- there are literary thousands of methods, tricks, and methodologies. I can write encyclopedia and I'm not even a stylist or a chef- those folks can write a bible. After many years of working with great short-order cooks, chefs, and professional stylists, I picked up a few tricks too along the way. So...stea, rather than boiling the veggies to retain color, undercook the poultry so it won't wrinkle too much and apply a blowing agent for color- but DO NOT EAT IT! You might add marbles to soup so the solid foods rise to the top, Shoot a syringe full of air int beer to give it a better head, apply a mixture of light salad oi and water to form nice droplets, arrange pasts with a tweezer to put each strand in place, and the list goes on, and on and on!

Of course, there are many urban legends about fake food, wax fruit and applying floor wax, fabric dye, and shoe polish to food. Mostly not the case. on the packaging, the government takes a dim view of that- the food ca appear at its best but not totally unreal or the FTC will come down on the provider. We do use acrylic ice cubes, steam or smoke pellets, and dip ice cream scoops into a tray of dry ice just before shooting

Lighting is your friend! Lighting must bring out texture, transilluminate beverages, provide dimensionality, and "make that food jump off the plate and the imagist jump off the page, the sign, the menu or the billboard.

Now y'all- all of the aforementioned is kinda professional stuff. If you want a simple solution for some fun food photography, you can use some of the tips I have outlined, get the literature that Gene alluded to and create a simple lighting setup. 1- 30" softbox equipped with a monolight or a good continuous lighting source- suspend it over the food set, fill in the shadows with a reflector and you are good to go. The softbox is overhead and slightly behind the item and feathered toward the camera position.

If you specify what kinda food you are shooting, what gear you have at your disposal- especially your lighting equipment, I may be able to advise you more specifically.

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Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Now I want a corned beef sandwich in the worst way, and I can't get one of those in lower Delaware, even in non-pandemic times.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

I wish I could dehydrate or freeze-dry one and send it to you. I don't know if it would reconstitute very well.

That sandwich is SMOKED MEAT, more like Pastrami. It's from Schwartz Delicatessen in Montreal. They make/cure their own smoked brisket of beef in an actual smokehouse- no harmful injected chemicals.

The original owner sold it to a bandleader who maintained the recipe. That owner sold it to the folks who worked for him- theses guys were of Greek extraction. Later the sold to an important investor, singer
Celine Dion! It sold for 10-Million dollars! Each owner had to promise to maintain the quality of the recipe. The smoked meat is the specialty of the house, the also serve corned beef, charcoal-broiled rib steak, liver, smoked turkey, pickles, sours, and coleslaw. Cherry Coke is the usual accompanying drink.

The place is not fancy, the servers are usually kinda rude (part of the atmosphere) and the seating is like a school cafeteria and a few stools at the counter. On a busy day, folks are lined up around the block.

WestTnGuy

E L wrote an excellent piece. I my past life I worked for Kraft Foods. And while I did not work with the food photographers directly, I was friends with those that did. They talked about different styling techniques and especially the lighting they help setup and adjust! Photo shoot days were really big days for them!!!

SonyBug

First you have to have great food.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

I use a mister to make my veggies and fruit sparkle.

SonyBug

Your food staging and lighting is awesome!

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

Be sure to use a good (expensive) clear glass filter, to protect the lens from smoke and grease etc. especially when shooting food as it is cooking