Do you love taking photos of your latest culinary creations? Are you longing to start a recipe blog or a cooking account on Instagram? It’s time to up your food photography game! With a few extras and your iPhone camera, your food can look as good as it tastes. Let’s explore the world of creative food photography with a helpful guide for beginners.
At the basic level, you don’t need much to get started with iPhone food photography — just your iPhone and whatever you’re dishing up. If, however, you want to kick it up a notch, there are a few pieces of equipment that will make your food photography even better:
You can use natural or artificial light for your food photography. The secret is to diffuse the light a bit so that it appears soft but bright. One option is to buy a light diffuser to place between the food you are photographing and your light source. Or you can use a sheer curtain or a piece of parchment paper to elicit the same effect.
As for artificial light, you’re looking for something that provides continuous light from the side and possibly from above, depending on the look you’re after. Adjustable, portable lights are great for food photography, and the level of brightness and angle can be easily tweaked. If you aren’t ready to invest in a lighting setup, using a desk light and diffuser will work almost as well.
While natural light is fabulous for food photography, it does have its limitations. With natural light, you have to plan your shots (and your meals) based on the time of day when the sun is at the right angle. Using a lightbox for food photography means you will be able to take photos whenever the mood strikes using diffused artificial light. Here’s what you need to create your lightbox, as well as instructions for creating it.
You’ll need:
Instructions:
A ring light is actually a great choice for providing bright, even light to your plated food. Ring lights are better than traditional lights for filling in the shadows on your food before you snap a photo. Ring lights are designed so that your camera can shoot through the hole in the ring for a smooth, luminous effect on your food photography.
The downside to using a ring light is that using a bright overhead light will sometimes make your subject matter look flat and dull. But with practice, a ring light is a great tool to have in your iPhone photography kit for indoor shots.
If you’ve ever encountered a beautiful plate of food in a dimly lit restaurant, you understand how difficult it can be to get a good photo. Perhaps you’ve figured it’s not even worth taking out your iPhone to make an attempt.
While low-light food photography can be difficult to pull off, we’ve got a few tips to help improve your images. Here are some tried-and-true tips for taking photos of food in the dark:
Now that you have the basics down, let’s go over a few tips for composition, lighting, and settings so that your food photography really stands out.
While it may be tempting to shoot from unique angles when capturing your meals, shooting from the classic 45-degree angle will provide a natural look that shows off your food’s best side. It also allows you to capture a bit of the foreground and background for better context.
In some situations, a 90-degree angle shot from straight above your plated food may be more pleasing. It depends on your subject matter, so you will have to experiment a bit with what works best for each shot.
Use a variety of props and ingredients to create compositions that have different layers. This works best when you have added layers in the foreground and background and your main dish in the middle. Glasses, silverware, food ingredients, and fabric all work well to style your subject. As long as your props and ingredients are related to your main subject, they will help tell your story instead of detracting from it.
When we say “neutral,” we don’t mean a plain white table or wall, but you should look for backgrounds that won’t overpower your subject. Try out different backgrounds to see what works well with your subject — light, dark, or even a warm wood background. Stay away from bright colors and patterns so that the meal you’re photographing can really shine.
Beginning food photographers will often frame their shot around a single plate of beautifully arranged food, and while there’s nothing wrong with this method, it isn’t always the most interesting way to go. Instead, try using repeating patterns to add a stronger graphic element to your food. Try photographing multiple smaller plates of food, a collection of cookies, or several cocktails in a row.
When composing your shot, try to leave some negative space around your main subject. This creates a bit of breathing room that will keep your viewer’s eye within the frame. Use your props to frame your subject, but leave room around the edges for the neutral background you’ve chosen.
Post-processing will enhance your food compositions, making them more vibrant, sharper, and more refined. There are a variety of great iPhone apps for food photography. Here’s an overview of our favorites.
Snapseed is a popular photo editing app that is great for food photography. One of our favorite tools within Snapseed is the selective brightness tool. With it, you can brighten up dark parts of your photo. And if you want to clean up rogue crumbs or spills, the healing tool can get rid of them with the press of a button. Snapseed is 100% free to download and use.
Download Snapseed on the App Store
If you’ve ever used Adobe Lightroom on your computer, you’ll be pleased to know that the mobile app includes many of the same powerful editing tools for your iPhone.
If you’re experimenting with food photography, you will want to try the Camera app in Lightroom, as it includes many additional tools that go above and beyond what is available on the iPhone. With Lightroom, you can change your shutter speed, exposure, white balance, and ISO, so you have more control of the photo from the very beginning. Once you’ve snapped your photo, you’ll find that the editing tools in Lightroom mobile are powerful and easy to use.
Download Lightroom on the App Store
VSCO is best known for its incredible array of easy-to-apply filters that quickly take your photos from dull to dramatic, and that’s exactly why we’re recommending it. You can access 10 filters for free or invest in the premium package that includes more than 100 filters. Using VSCO filters is a great way to streamline the editing process and develop a cohesive theme for your social media account. Whether you’re trying out the new trends in dark food photography or want a light, airy look, there’s a VSCO filter with your name on it.
Download VSCO on the App Store
Ready to up your food photography game? Start experimenting with lighting, composition, and post-processing, and you’ll develop your own beautiful style that will make your viewers hungry! And if you want to experiment with your food photography even more, try shooting with a macro lens for iPhone.