Food Wonders!

Taking photos of food can be a lot of fun, especially colourful ones.  There's an art to taking photos of food, and it takes a lot of practice and experimentation.  Some of the things that I find to play a role in creating a good food photo are:

• using plates that are not too heavy with patterns, and the best would be plain ones
• use an interesting background, like a bold coloured table cloth, or a simple patterned place mat
• use variety of colours in/on your food
• make sure there is enough lighting, and the best is natural lighting during the day

I'm no expert, but taking photos of food is a very fun learning process.  It makes us want to present the food really nicely.  What ever it is, the key point is to let the food stand out, and to make it look good.

You can refer to people like Donna Hay  and Martha Stewart for some great shots of food.

Here are some of mine to share.  In these photos I position the food at about 2/3 of the photo space.  I find that it makes the photos look more interesting (and has some artistic touch) when it's not right at the centre.

 

Image | Chocolate Ice Cream, Chocolate Fudge, Sprinkles

Photo | Olympus PEN E-PL1

Background | White Table

Image | Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache

Photo | Olympus PEN E-PL1

Background | IKEA Fabric Scraps from the As-Is Bargain Corner

Image | Baked Chocolate Cornflakes, Almonds, Sprinkles

Photo | Olympus PEN E-PL1

Background | Apple Green A4 Paper

Photo tips: You don't necessarily have to use a DSLR to take good photos.  For close-ups, try using Macro Mode.  Then focus to a specific spot that you want to highlight by half-pressing the shutter button.  If the picture seems to dark, you can adjust the 'exposure' of the camera, making it lighter.  And most importantly, find a place that has loads of natural lighting, like by the window or underneath the light.  Make sure that the light is behind you, but at the same time, make sure that you don't cast shadow on your food.