Food Photography 101
Around the Thanksgiving / Christmas Holiday if you are a photography nut like me, or just want to make your friends jealous you may find yourself wanting to try to get some good shots of your feast.
So I wanted to offer a few quick tips:
A Macro lenses are wonderful for food photos, but a nifty fifty (50mm) is a cheaper alternative .. If you are using a point and shoot I'd use the little flower symbol to go into "macro" mode (it's not really "macro" technically but if will basically make the camera focus faster close up) what your looking for is a narrow depth of field so you can pull the eye in to what you want it to focus on.
(See how you can focus on just the spoon)
Natural Light is amazing; if you can get a little sunlight coming in it can make some really great photos, throw in a simple reflector on the side and you can get some wonderful images without much in gear.
If you do use a flash try to make it indirect or diffuse it, bounce it off a wall or shoot through a umbrella if yo can.
Try to make the background less distracting as possible, I've been using a solid grey lately;
I've been trying to improve the non food items in the picture; I find square white plates look much better, i'd like to get more props to lay around to create a sense of environment in my shots.
I haven't had a food stylist myself but having one on hand would be fantastic.
Video:
Kelby Training has a fantastic food photography video that shows alot of the little tricks that go into some of those really amazing product shots. http://kelbytraining.com/course/glyda_food/ it really is a fantastic course (you can signup for a tree trial to view it when you have time.
Books:
I've heard this is a good book to get you started (also on kindle! :)
Food Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots
Some of my favorite food shots:
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