Food is one of the strong elements in showing and introducing the identity of a travel location or a restaurant. For this reason, people compete to produce food photography with a good look according to their respective places to attract sympathizers to visit their place.
what is food photography?
Food photography is a type of photography that uses food as the object of photography. Food photography can be described as someone who is making paintings, where it all starts with something empty. The more well-drawn, the more perfect balance of reality and art will be in your mind. Everything that is displayed and placed in the photo is the perfect choice and decision that has been carefully considered by the photographer himself.
For most photographers, food photography is a difficult thing to do and makes you dizzy, because, in addition to formulating the basic concept of photography, you must also ensure that the food to be used as a subject in photography, must remain as fresh as the first time you see it. In all areas of photography, both food photography and product photography, it takes at least a process to get good results in every photo shoot. Patience, training, perseverance, as well as the spirit of not giving up easily with circumstances, are the keys to success in starting food photography.
10 Tips for Food Photography
- Use a little food portion
In general, everyone eats with a full serving, but in F photography, it is not. The smaller the portion of food you serve on a plate, the better, because serving small amounts of food will bring more attention to the food itself. In addition, small portions of food give an interesting impression of food. Therefore, provide ample space for the audience to view objects from each food photo you create. Remember, the more components you display in your photos the more difficult it is to create blurred or less focused images. That is why maintaining the simplicity of the food you want to present will give interesting and amazing results.
Use food while still hot
Photographing using hot foods has a time limit. That is why make the most of your time. For example, if you want to take a picture using a subject such as soup with a steam display that is still warm, then adjust your camera settings beforehand and make sure that props or other supporting elements are set up. Because if the preparation you do is right, then you will get satisfactory results. In addition, if a dark background is not available at the time of the shooting, then use additional light or a reflector to provide adequate lighting for your subject.
- Turn off your camera’s flash
Camera flash can give less good effect to any food. This is due to the presence of a large amount of light in each moist area. Therefore, turn off the flash on your camera when taking pictures of food. This (light on the camera) is not only annoying but also makes the food itself look greasy instead of moist. More than that, strange and unattractive shadows will also appear on your food, plates, or both. So, remember that food will usually look good with soft lighting, that is by utilizing the amount of natural light in the environment around the photo as much as possible.
- Use tripod
A tripod is a device that is very helpful when you want to do F photography. The tripod can be used to keep the camera stable (or not shaking) while taking photos instead of placing your camera on a wall or something that can hold your camera. Tripod as a whole makes it easy for someone to do F photography. Why? Because by using a tripod, your hands are completely free to determine the style of your meal.
- Defend the color
Vibrant (excessive) colors make all photos stand out. However, this does not mean that you can not get a good image by combining existing colors. Despite the fact that not all places can give good results in photography, so make sure that you have considered the composition of the lighting you will use in covering each missing photo element that usually gives a significant effect to each image.
The right combination of different colors can enhance the quality of your photos. That is why pay attention to the differences of each component in each food and place decorations or even cutlery that have a nice contrast to your subject.
In addition, precise and correct composition arrangements will provide incredible appeal to your food photography. Therefore, be wise in determining the color combination to be used.
Proper usage of lighting
This is undeniable, especially in the world of photography. But if the light in the photoshoot is too big, then it is not good. That is why, looking for a tool for controlling the light itself, will greatly help improve the quality of your F photography. Also, if you use light in small amounts, then you will ruin your photos and make people who love your photos disappear one by one. Why? Because the light is necessary. Remember, it is the light that gives the atmosphere of life in each of your photos. So, make sure that the light you use is not too big or too small so that people will not turn away from your photo. If you are taking a photo using direct light such as sunlight, then use a diffuser to improve the quality of the light.
- Use a different angle
There are so many photos of food using the same angle (photo angle). Sometimes this principle works well, but a creative view of appearing with different angles (photo angles) that are different from each photo is almost always more interesting and impressive than just focusing on one angle (photo angle).
Show simplicity
Planning is important, especially in food photography. Without mature and accurate planning, the resulting images are not attractive. That is why try to plan everything before taking a photo. Good F photography shows the simplicity of the food itself. The more components are included in your photography subject, the more it will distract people from the main subject you want to show to your audience. For that, avoid doing so (placing too much composition on the subject of the photo) so as not to confuse people.
- Look at the food basic ingredients
As an ornament that makes your photo even more fantastic, try to add basic ingredients from the food. As in the example below, yogurt feels like the strawberry has been surrounded with natural strawberry fruit as a visual addition. And the result is also very pleasant to see because the color combination of yogurt and the fruit is very harmonious.
10 Photos while acting
Try recording a moment when there is an action being performed by the food presenter. For example, grate the chocolate and sprinkle it on a cake. This can add tremendous impact to your photos. Other actions such as cutting, or brewing soup can be tried. F photography is something that people often call “easy-difficult” to do, why? Because it has to do with composing a story. That is, everything must be planned and arranged neatly to give good results. That is why some people give up on doing so.