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Step By Step Guide On How To Capture Awesome Over The Top Food Shots

You have probably already seen those amazing over the top shots of food. Where the different dishes fill the frame and there is seems to be an explosion of colour. Well, you too can capture photos like that as it’s a pretty easy process. But one that does require a little bit of preparation, some specific equipment and a bit of science (more on that later). So here is a step by step guide on how to capture over the top food shots.

What you need

The great thing about these sort of shots is that you don’t need much equipment and once you have what you need it will last you for a long time before it needs to be replaced.

Camera & lens

Obviously, you will not get very far without a camera and a lens. For this sort of photography, you will need a wide angle lens, anything from 24 mm should be fine depending on how high you will be above the food.

Background

Take my word for it, the easiest way to capture these sort of shots is to place your dishes on the floor. Unless you want to be balancing perilously on ladders, by using the floor you can still ensure that your tripod is at an easy to look at height. If the floor you are going to be using is suitable, you can place dishes directly on the floor. But most of the time it will not be so a background of some sort will be needed. But even if you are using a table, a background will still come in handy so it is worth investing in some.

Tripod

Unfortunately, there is no way around this. You will not be able to capture those over the top shots perfectly without a tripod. But the tripod that you use is really important. It needs to allow for the centre column to rise and be folded over so that you can mount your camera facing the ground. Not all tripods have this feature so be sure to check before purchasing. Also, be sure that the tripod can take the weight of the camera.

Sandbag (or weights)

An expensive lesson that you will learn if you skip this item is that as soon as you mount your camera on the extended centre column (when it is folded over), the tripod and camera fall over onto your lens. This could easily mean broken lens glass or even a broken camera. This is where the science bit comes in. It’s simply a case of weight balance. The tripod is falling over because it is too heavy on one side. So to avoid that happening you need to counter the weight on the other side. So if your camera weighs 1 kg, you need 1 kg on the other side of the tripod.

Food

Naturally, you will also need some food dishes to photograph. But rather than dumping everything on white plates, have a think about the food and the type of plate or bowl that will suit it. With these types of photos, you will find that your final photo will be better if you use a variety of different serving dishes.

Remote trigger

This is not an absolute necessity but one that will make things a little easier. Because the camera is mounted on an extended centre column it will be at risk of shaking or vibrating with the slightest touch. Even walking past the tripod on a soft wooden floor will cause vibrations that could affect the sharpness of the photo. So without a remote trigger, you must set your camera onto the timer. But make sure that you use a longer timer than the usual 2 seconds. If you press the shutter button on your camera, there’s a good chance that it will still be shaking 2 seconds later. To be safe I set mine to 10 seconds and I move away from the tripod and camera so that I don’t make the floor shake by stepping or walking around.

The set-up

Once you have your equipment, the set-up is relatively easy.

Place your background on the floor and weigh the corners down with something heavy so that it doesn’t get blown over by wind or anything else (or use the floor if suitable)
Try to avoid photographing your dishes in direct sunlight as it will be too harsh. Instead, find some shade and if you can’t, try to hold up something to block the sunlight falling on your dishes (something like a big piece of cardboard will work well)
Set up your camera on your tripod, facing down. Don’t forget to hang the weight onto the other side.
Put one of the dishes on the background so that it roughly is in the centre of your frame.
You can also set your camera to “Live View” mode. This will make it easier than trying to look through the viewfinder. This should also act by locking the mirror in your camera. If you are using your viewfinder make sure you lock up the mirror before shooting as in long exposures the vibration of the mirror turning will affect the sharpness of the photo
Set your camera to manual focus and focus on the main dish
Because you are using a tripod you can afford to set a low ISO and a fairly narrow aperture (like f/9 – f/11 should work well)
Set the timer (remember to go longer to be safe) if you are not using a remote trigger
Place all of the other dishes around your main dish. It doesn’t matter if they don’t go all the way to the edge as you can crop using post-production
Take the photo, review it and adjust your composition by moving the dishes around. Repeat until you have the desired photo.

This might seem like a complicated list, but once you have gone through this process a few times it will become second nature to you.

Edit, crop and share

Once you have captured the shot that you want, spend a little bit of time adjusting things in post-production. Try to aim for a vibrant and colourful photo that when is looked at makes you want to try the food. Things like brightness, contrast, shadows, vibrancy and saturation will help. Cropping will also need to be done depending on the composition and also where you want to use the photo. One element that is really important in food photography is the white balance. So if you do nothing else make sure you adjust this so that the photo looks natural. Finally, share your awesome photo with others!

So that is all there is to it. After a few attempts, you will realize how quick and easy it is to capture those over the top food shots. In fact, often the most time-consuming element is the preparation of the food. Once you have the dishes, the rest is easy. Just remember to make sure your camera is secure and isn’t going to fall over.

6 Tips To Help You Capture Great Food Photos On Your Travels

Food and travel often go together. After all, food is one of the key elements of a destination and can really make us fall in love with a place. The great thing about photographing food for travel photographers is that it provides a great opportunity to capture unique photos without taking up too much of their time. But capturing food out of a studio can sometimes be a challenge. Follow these 6 tips to help you capture great food photos on your travels.

Pause for a minute

The first mistake that amateur photographers often make when photographing food, is that they rush to capture the image. The trick to good food photos is a careful setup and composition. If you know what you are photographing, then start to have a think about your composition before the dish even arrives at your table. Are you going to capture the whole plate? Or are going to zoom in to just a small part of it? Will you photograph it at eye level or from a slightly elevated position? All these decisions will have an impact on the final look of the photo.

This means that by the time your dish has arrived on the table you will have a rough idea of how you will frame your shot. But rather than snapping away, just pause for a minute and really look at the dish and evaluate if what you had envisioned would work. If the answer is yes, then start photographing it. If not re-evaluate and re-frame your shot.

Is there enough light?

Often the biggest challenge when photographing food is the available light. This is especially problematic in restaurants where there is usually low light. The best way to get around this issue is to either sit near a window or sit outside where natural daylight can provide the light needed to capture the photo.

If that isn’t possible then it usually means you will have to raise your ISO enough to allow you to capture the photo at a fast-enough shutter speed to avoid camera shake. But raising your ISO will mean additional noise in the image and if there is too much the image will look to grainy and not sharp.

The only other option is to use a tripod. Clearly sometimes this won’t be possible in busy restaurants so you may want to invest in a small desk tripod (like a Gorillapod) that you can set up on the table. This will allow you to be able to capture photos at low ISO and slow shutter speeds. Just make sure that the tripod you are buying can take the weight of the camera that you are using.

Avoid the flash

Every single person at some point in their life has probably taken a photo of a dish in front of them using a flash. You know what happens next. When you look at the photo afterwards, it looks washed out and not very appealing. The problem with using a flash directly onto a food dish is that not only does it wash out the dish in front of you, but it also disturbs the natural ambient of the location you are in.

The best light for photographing food outside of a studio is to use natural daylight. If it happens to be an overcast day, then that is even better. On an overcast or cloudy day, you get a soft even light across the plate which means minimal shadows and highlights which give a pleasing result by making the ingredients in dish pop out. Even on sunny days you would be better off finding somewhere with cover to take the photo rather than photographing in sunlight.

If you find yourself with no other option but to use the flash on your camera, don’t point it directly at the dish. Instead try to bounce off a surface such a wall or ceiling.

Think of the whole picture

It’s always worth remembering that when photographing food, the actual dish needs to be the hero of the shot. So always try to keep the composition simple. This means paying attention to things like the background and even the surface that the dish is sitting on. But sometimes you’ll have elements on the table or in the background that can be incorporated into the shot to provide a good secondary point of focus. For example, is there an interesting table cloth on table? Or can you add a glass of wine to the frame to give it more context? Even sometimes a knife and fork when positioned well on a plate can really enhance the photo.

The key is to ensure that you have thought about it and it has been incorporated carefully and on purpose.

What settings?

There are no hard and fast rules for what settings you use when capturing food photos. As every situation is different by offering its own challenges and opportunities, you need to be able to adapt your settings for each scenario accordingly.

Usually your first consideration will be the available light and how that impacts your shutter speed. This is so you can be sure that you use a shutter speed that will be fast enough to avoid camera shake (blurred photos). How slow you can go with your shutter speed depends on how steady you can hold the camera. This is something you should test at home so that you know for future reference.

Basically, the more light that is available to more options you will have with things like depth of field and ISO settings needed. As a starting point, aim for a shutter speed of around 1/100 sec with a pretty shallow depth of field (i.e. f-5.6) and go from there.

Work quickly

Whilst it’s always good to pause for a minute before your start, keep in mind that food can quickly deteriorate. Imagine a bowl of ice cream on hot day outside. Before long it will start to melt and once that happens it will stop being as photogenic as when it first arrived at the table. So, once your plate has arrived and you have taken a quick pause to evaluate, make sure you work quickly.

Food photographs should be a must on any travel photographer’s shot list of a destination. It is such a huge part of our experience of a location and if done well can have wonderful results. Not only will it give you a good variety in your portfolio, but it will also often add to the story of that location.

Profiled Photographers – Natalia Klenova

Russian born photographer Natalia (Natalia Klenova Photography) has been a professional photographer for 10 years. Her journey started when she lived in California and started a new hobby, taking lots of pictures when walking with her daughter. She says “I kept a camera with me every day. I photographed daily, anything and everything, so that the camera became an extension of my eye”.

Working from her studio, her work has a stylized look and feel that transforms the ordinary into vibrant works of art. She has certainly come a long way from her early days as an amateur photographer all those years ago.

Natalia, where are you from and where do you currently live?

I’m originally from Russia but I now live in Belgium.

What genre of photography do you specialise in?

I love still life photography and this is what I specialise in. It’s very broad and includes everything from food to flowers.

How did you get to your speciality?

I didn’t settle on my style immediately. I experimented by taking pictures of people, nature and macro until I found my passion and my style. I found myself in still life photography.

What are you working on at the moment?

My focus now tends to be in food photography. I really love taking pictures of seasonal fruits and vegetables.

What is your next project or assignment?

I love to work spontaneously. My online business allows me to be more creative as commercial projects often do not provide such freedom. I never know when the idea of my next project will come to my mind. Sometimes I can get inspired during a dinner in a restaurant, sometimes I find a nice plate in a local flea market and the idea of my next picture will already be in my head. I travel a lot so different countries and cultures are also a huge inspiration for me.

Are there any photographers whose work/style you admire?

Oh, the world’s most difficult question! I love the work of William Meppem, Anna Williams, Tara Donne, Ellen Silverman, Myles New… I could go on and on…

What photographic equipment would you never leave home without?

As I work mostly in my studio, I never put anything in my camera bag (except when I travel).

My photographic equipment is camera Canon 5D Mark III, Canon lenses and Hensel Studio Light.

What advice you would give anyone who is starting out?

I would tell them to simply practice, practice and practice more. It can never be enough.

Any pitfalls they should avoid?

They should always pay attention to detail. It’s the details that can make your photo.

Lastly… if you weren’t a photographer, what would you be doing?

Oh, in that case I would be a writer.

To view more of Natalia’s work or get in contact with him visit www.klenova.com or follow her on Instagram or Facebook.

Interview by Kav Dadfar.