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Photography 101: Food Photography

I was lucky enough to dine with Steamboat F&B Director Liz (and our husbands) earlier this month to shoot some of the great dishes at Hazie's on-mountain Restaurant. We had a long sunny evening to work with and some interesting photo results that made me realize this would be a great Photo101 post.

From Hazies Food 7.31.10

When photographing food there are some key settings that your digital camera can improve your shots with. If you've been reading the other Photography101 posts, you'll already know I vehemently urge you to take the Auto Setting training wheels off and shoot in manual modes to make the most of your camera's technology and artificial intellect, which IS smarter than you (deal with it).

In regards to lighting, I prefer natural lighting to flash, and an attached flash to the standard on-camera flash. The on-camera flash will make your photos look unprofessionally blown out or ill-exposed, so my tips below are focused on NOT using that standard flash. By using a tripod and the camera's 2-second timer (just so you don't have to wait as long) eliminate shake and a need for the flash all together.

Key points for shooting food indoors on manual modes (P, Av, Tv, M on Canon):
  • Set a high ISO (800 or 1600 if you have it) to give yourself advantage on lighting
  • Play with the light balance/WB settings ("Trunsgten" for a lot of interior lighting, "Cloudy" or "Sunny" for natural lighting)
  • Meter/AV settings usually require a +1 or +2 adjustment to fill in the light on the food
  • A note on shutter speed- the rule of thumb is your hand is shaky at any speeds less than 1/60 (1/30, 1/15, 1/8, 2", etc), so make sure your shutter speed is higher than that. If not, bust out the flash (accessory flash, not on camera flash if possible)
  • A note on F-stops: smaller #s mean less in focus, so choose f10 -f2.5 to focus on the food creatively
  • Always try multiple angles
  • Watch what's in your background and make sure objects out of focus or cropped so focus is on the food
  • Watch for window glare

Tips for attached flashes:
If you DO have an attached flash, use it. If you do not, find a tripod or something like a stack of books to steady the camera on and set the timer.
  • Bounce the light off the ceiling or a nearby wall to have creative lighting and no glare on food
  • Return ISO back to 100 and Speed to 1/125
  • Leave focus/f-stop low

From Hazies Food 7.31.10
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