Food Photography: A Beginner’s Guide to Creating Appetizing Images

CHAPTER 1

What Gear Do You Need?

So what do you need to shoot great food photos? The most important thing is the food itself. If you don’t have some kind of edible subject I guess you wouldn’t be reading this book in the first place. Alongside the subject itself, the gear you use is an important factor, so we‘ll cover this topic in detail.

Consider this old joke: A cook says to a photographer, Your photos are great—you must have a really good camera! The photographer replies, I love your food too—you must have great pots and pans.

Just as a good cook can create a wonderful meal regardless of the types of pots, pans, and knives she uses, you can capture great images of food using a cell phone, a full-frame DSLR, or whatever camera you like. Once you have made your initial investment in a camera and a lens or two, any additional gear shouldn’t cost very much at all.

The gear you need depends on how you use the results. Using a cell phone to take pictures you plan to post on social networking sites requires a different approach than shooting high-quality images for your food blog or commercial sale. This book assumes that you are aiming higher than just using your phone.

When I am shooting food, I use a full-frame DSLR with 50mm, 100mm, and 70–200mm lenses, an accessory flash, a tripod, and various light shapers (more on these later). However, you can follow all the tips in the text using a compact camera, as long as your camera allows you to make some adjustments. Check your camera’s manual to see what’s possible and what’s not. If you want to try food photography using your phone, check out the list of apps that simulate features found in real cameras at the end of this chapter.

So what exactly makes a food photo great? If you look at the work of established food photographers, you will notice that most of them contain some or all of the following elements:

Deliberate use of sharpness and blur

Lighting effects (the direction, style, and color of light, as well as contrast between light and dark)

Color

Textures (the style of the surfaces involved)

Props such as plates, flatware, backgrounds, etc.

A specific arrangement of the subject within the frame

Careful use of perspective, angle of view, and camera viewpoint (usually close to the subject)

Only the first two points have anything to do with the gear you use, and you will learn all about the others in the course of this book. The following sections will help you decide what you need.

An interchangeable-lens reflex camera

Which Camera?

There is no right camera for food photography, and you will probably want to use your camera to photograph other things too. The basic types of camera available are compact, reflex, and mirrorless system cameras. Without going into the number of megapixels a camera has—all of today’s cameras have enough, unless you want to print images for house-sized posters—the differences between the various types are as follows: Compact and bridge cameras have built-in lenses, whereas the lenses in reflex and mirrorless system cameras can be swapped, allowing you to select the ideal lens for the job at hand. This is a great advantage in food photography, but it also tends to be more expensive. If you do decide to purchase a compact camera, make sure it has a fast lens with a maximum aperture of at least f/2 (I’ll explain what this means in the next section) and a zoom range that covers everything from medium wide-angle to medium telephoto. A short minimum focus distance is really useful too, as it reduces the distance between the camera and the subject, and food photographers usually like to get up close to their subject. You also need to be able to set the exposure time, the aperture, and the ISO sensitivity manually (see page 24). Food photography with a compact camera is only fun if all of these criteria are fulfilled. If you use a reflex or mirrorless system camera, these will all be standard features. Ask your photographer friends which camera they recommend. The next important matter to discuss is what to look out for when choosing a lens.

A compact camera with a built-in lens

The minimum focus distance is the shortest distance between the camera and the subject at which the lens can still focus correctly

Which Lens?

The lens is probably more important than the camera itself, as it determines how the subject is captured by the camera’s sensor. The two important factors here are the maximum aperture and the focal length. The larger the maximum aperture (i.e., the smaller the number), the more expensive the lens will be. A large aperture allows more light to reach the sensor, thus allowing you to use a shorter exposure time to correctly expose your image. For example, a lens with a maximum aperture of f/2.8 captures twice as much light as one with a maximum aperture of f/4. A wide aperture also produces a brighter viewfinder image, making it easier to compose your image. Perhaps most importantly, a wide aperture reduces the depth of field in your image and produces more blur in front of and behind the focal plane (see page 17). Points of light captured in these defocused zones appear as blurred circular dots known as bokeh, which are very popular in food photography circles.

The lamps in the background have been transformed into a chain of bright bokeh dots.

The other important lens metric is its focal length. This determines the angle of view within which you can capture a subject. A 50mm lens is usually referred to as a standard or normal lens, as it has an angle of view that is virtually identical to that of the human eye and produces images with a very natural look. Focal lengths of less than 50mm are called wide-angle. The shorter the focal length (i.e., the smaller the mm number), the wider the angle of view and the greater the amount of your subject you will be able to capture within the frame. Regardless of the aperture setting you use, wide-angle lenses produce images with greater depth of field but also distort shapes, especially at the edges of the frame. Wide-angle lenses are rarely used for food photography.

Lenses with focal lengths of more than 50mm are considered telephoto lenses, and the larger the mm value used to describe a lens, the narrower the angle of view and the greater the magnification. Telephoto lenses produce images with less depth of field, and produce a nice degree of blur in front of and behind the focal plane at medium apertures. They also visually compress the subject, making the foreground, subject, and background appear closer together than they really are. The images above show the results of capturing a subject from the same viewpoint using 50mm and 100mm fixed-focal-length lenses. Although the subject distance was the same, the angle of view and framing are completely different.

A sample image captured with a 50mm lens.

ISO 100, 1.3 second, f/8, 50mm

The same subject captured from the same position using a 100mm macro lens.

ISO 100, 1.2 second, f/8, 100mm

Remember: The smaller the aperture number, the brighter the lens; and the longer the focal length, the narrower the angle of view. Lenses with focal lengths of less than 50mm are called wide-angle and those with focal lengths above 50mm are called telephoto.

Lenses with variable focal lengths are called zooms and those with fixed focal lengths are called primes. Zooms offer more flexibility when it comes to selecting the angle of view, while prime lenses usually produce higher-quality images. Because they are easier to design and manufacture, primes are often cheaper too. A 50mm standard lens offers great image quality and a wide maximum aperture for an unbeatable price. Because I usually work in a controlled studio environment and my subjects don’t move, I use 50mm and 100mm prime lenses almost exclusively. These cover most of my daily needs.

As mentioned previously in connection with compact cameras, make sure your lens has a short minimum focus distance. Some legacy lenses can only focus at distances of three feet or more and are therefore of no use for food photography.

An overview captured with a macro lens.

ISO 100, 1.4 second, f/5.6, 100mm

A detail of the same subject captured with the same lens.

ISO 100, 1.4 second, f/5.6, 100mm

And a closeup, also captured with the same lens.

ISO 100, 0.8 second, f/5.6, 100mm

Macro Lenses

Macro lenses usually have a very short minimum focus distance, making them ideal for getting up close to food subjects or photographing selected details (see page 62). You can use a macro lens to fill the frame with a small portion of a subject at reproduction ratios all the way down to 1:1 or more, which means that the subject is reproduced at life size (or greater) on the sensor. When considering a purchase, note the maximum reproduction ratio a lens offers—the appropriate metric is usually printed or etched onto the surface of the lens body.

Macro lenses are available in a range of focal lengths. I use a 100mm Canon macro lens with a high magnification that enables me to shoot from farther away than I could using a 60mm lens. The shorter the lens, the closer you have to get and the greater the risk of actually touching the subject with the lens. Macro lenses also have extremely shallow depth of field. This creates shallow field of focus behind the subject and a slightly deeper field of focus in front of it. When using a macro lens, you have to take care focusing and setting the aperture if you want to avoid producing too much blur. Try taking some test shots with a small aperture of around f/11 to get a feel for the right setting.

While reading this book, you are sure to notice that I love my 100mm macro lens. If you want to know why, check out the photos above. I captured these blackberries from close up, then closer, then closer still. Even the tiniest details are still in sharp focus in the closeup shot on the right.

When purchasing a tripod, make sure the head you buy suits your camera. A quick-release plate saves a lot of time and hassle when you mount and unmount your camera.

Using a Tripod

If you use long exposure times, you need a tripod to keep your camera steady. A generally accepted rule of thumb states that you can only keep the camera steady handheld using an exposure time of 1/focal length—i.e., 1/50 second for a 50mm lens, 1/100 second for a 100mm lens, and so on. Camera shake becomes very obvious at the close subject distances involved in most food shots. Using a tripod also makes it easier to focus manually. Tripods are available in all manner of shapes and sizes—from pocket-sized for tabletop use to six-foot monsters designed for use with large, heavy cameras. There are various accessories available for attaching cell phones to a tripod. The head and legs of larger tripods are sold separately, and high-quality tripod heads are usually fitted with a quick-release plate that attaches to the camera.

Working with a tripod can be awkward if you are not used to it, but once you’ve had some practice, your tripod is sure to become a faithful companion on many of your shoots. It is easier to select your viewpoint and shooting angle (see page 61) handheld before you attach your camera to a tripod.

A tripod

Remote Shutter Release

A remote shutter release helps to prevent unwanted camera shake when you are working with a tripod. Regardless of how careful you are, pressing the shutter button will manually jog the camera and produce tiny vibrations that can easily produce blur in the image you capture. Remote releases are available in wired and wireless versions. As an alternative, you can use your camera’s self-timer, although you will probably find this approach too time-consuming. Tethered Capture (see chapter 7) enables you to release the shutter remotely via the Lightroom software interface and is a great alternative to using a remote release.

A cable remote release

Artificial Sources of Light

Capturing photographs requires light. I prefer to use daylight if possible, but there are numerous other sources of light to choose from when there isn’t sufficient ambient light. The best type of light to use depends on the circumstances. If, for example, you shoot mostly in the evening, a daylight lamp or flash is the best option. Don’t use normal room lighting or a table lamp, as these will cause unwanted color shifts. See chapter 3 for more details on lighting. If you do use artificial light, always use light shapers to soften the shadows produced by the light source. These include softboxes, diffusers, and shoot-through umbrellas, all of which are available for studio lights and flash. The effects that light shapers have on your photos are also described in chapter 3.

A studio flash fitted with a softbox

White Balance Using a Gray Card

You need to use a gray card to set white balance if you want to capture authentic-looking colors under tricky lighting conditions. You can do this either while you shoot (see your camera’s manual for details on how) or later at the image processing stage. Once you have saved the tonal value of your gray card to your camera and/or software, you can adjust the colors in a photo taken under tricky lighting conditions with a click of your mouse. See chapter 2 (page 24) and chapter 7 (page 164) for more on how this works.

A studio flash fitted with a shoot-through umbrella

Setting white balance using a gray card and Lightroom.

Incorrect white balance.

ISO 100, 1.6 second, f/5.6, 100mm

Correct white balance achieved using a gray card.

ISO 100, 1.6 second, f/5.6, 100mm

Memory Cards

You need a memory card