JT Spunk | Photography

Food Photography Help?

Can you please give me a few tips and tricks in food photography? I’ll be doing a shoot soon and I’d like to get as much information about the field as I can as it is my first time shooting food. The food is Chinese food..more of dimsum and the sort.

Food can be very hard.

I would probably use the 50 mm, especially if it has macro capabilities. A fixed focal length lens renders a sharper image than a zoom.

Put the camera on a tripod and shoot close up at a large aperture (4, 5.6). This will limit the depth of field.

Bring something to wedge under the plates so you aren’t shooting straight down. Keep the camera level, or tilted to a parallel plane to the plate.

Pay attention to what is in the background – don’t show the table edge (and put a cloth on it – white, well pressed will act as a fill.) Fill background space with more dishes of food – be sure they are out of focus. Check out food mags for ideas.

Use a softbox if you have one, or bounce a flash into a white reflector from behind at 45 degrees with a bounce card in front and to the side, or side light it with bounce to fill. You don’t want a lot of contrast so turn the contrast control down on the camera and don’t put a lot in the lighting. Turn off all other lighting in the room, take a white balance and only shoot the flash light.

Keep the ISO low – if you have to use long exposures, you can manually trigger the flash (get a flash meter and plug the flash into it, push the read button and the flash will go off or you can manually trigger the flash itself) Open the camera shutter (set on B and using a cable release) trigger the flash, let it recharge, retrigger as necessary. You must be in a completely dark room (no light at all) for this to work. This a trick large format photogs use all the time. Each additional exposure will yield a one stop increase in overall exposure. You should practice this before the shoot. You can do up to four (I’ve done 6) exposures without problems. When you have done all the exposures you need, close the lens. Let the picture write to the card and check out the shot.

Have fun,

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