This article is aimed at beginners in food photography. These tips are more basic than a white girl in Uggs ordering a Pumpkin Spice Latte. If you’ve been doing a food blog or taking photos for your restaurant Instagram you have probably picked up on these things already. However, reading this may reinforce some of your subconscious habits. For more experienced photographers consider subscribing to our newsletter to be notified when more in-depth blogs are published. Now let’s get into it.

Focus on Lighting

Find the Biggest Window You Can

You may have a best friend. Tell that person they’ve been demoted because as a food photographer, big-ass windows are now your best friend. Windows are basically big diffusers for the best light in the world, the sun. They provide copious amounts of even, soft light which is the simplest way to get great-looking photos. Position your food opposite to the window for max lighting or at a 90° angle if you want some shadows.

Be wary of bright backgrounds

A lot of times with food you’ll have the subject up close and want to show a cool background. When setting up this shot take note of the lighting where the food is vs. the background. If you’re photographing something in the shade and a sunlit patio is behind the subject you may find your subject comes out dimly lit. Don’t let your subject be outshined like you get outshined by your sibling.

Play with your food

Unlike myself, food does have a good side. Each food looks best from different angles. For example, pizza looks great from a top-down view but a hamburger from that same angle will be all bun and no fun. Try different angles with different foods and take note of what works. Get some action going even if there is none in your personal life. Pick up the pizza to see the cheese pull or grab some noodles out of your ramen and hold them above the bowl.

Don’t Let Your Food Hide

Often takeout containers will provide shadows for the food to hide in. Finding ways to take the food out into the light is essential. If you’re a takeout restaurant consider buying a few plates for photos. Remember we hide our feelings not our food!

Don’t Be Afraid to Edit

Centering and Leveling

One of the simplest ways to make your food photos look more professional is to center and level when needed. A lopsided photo will draw attention away from the subject. You can do both of these in your phone’s default photos app if you tap the editing tab. For leveling use things in the background like tables or lines on a wall to ensure straight angles.

Other Simple Edits

Some other settings you may want to play with are brightness, shadows, and highlights. The brightness covers the light of the entire photo. Shadows affect the darkest parts of the photo and highlights cover the opposite. Mess around with these three when you’re not happy with the light in a photo.

In Closing

The last two bonus tips. Always have fun with it. Enjoying yourself is more important than the perfect shot. And lastly, if you want to keep improving consider following along at @douglassmedia on Instagram where we post more tips.

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