Delicious

FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY
The fundamental tips and tricks to make
you a better food photographer starting today

SHIRAN DICKMAN
 CONTENTS

Introduction..............................................................................................6
My Story..................................................................................................................7
A Snapshot of What to Expect.........................................................................9

Digital Camera Basics..................................................................11

Choose Your File Type RAW vs. JPEG.........................................................12
Depth of Field.......................................................................................................14
Exposure...............................................................................................................15
The Three Major Controls: Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO....................16
Aperture Priority and Manual Mode.................................................................23
Lets Practice........................................................................................................23
White Balance and Color Temperature.............................................................27
Focus and Sharpness...........................................................................................29
Summary...............................................................................................................32

Natural Lighting..................................................................................34
Soft Light and Hard Light..................................................................................35
Tips to Control and Achieve Perfect Lighting.................................................37
Light Directions....................................................................................................42
Lets Practice........................................................................................................46
Summary.................................................................................................................47

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Composition and Styling..........................................................48
Composition..........................................................................................................49
Rule of Thirds.......................................................................................................50
Negative Space.....................................................................................................50
M ovement..............................................................................................................52
Create a Mood or Tell a Story.............................................................................53
C olors....................................................................................................................58
T extures.................................................................................................................61
H eights...................................................................................................................63
P roportions............................................................................................................64
Q uantities..............................................................................................................65
Angles....................................................................................................................66
Focus..........................................................................................................................67
Props.......................................................................................................................68
G arnishes................................................................................................................73
Remember: Your Primary Food is the Star......................................................75
But Dont Forget About Everything Else!......................................................76
Take Advantage of Food that Looks Appealing..............................................77
Two is Better than One........................................................................................77
Think About the Yum Factor...........................................................................78
Keep Things Fresh...............................................................................................79
Take Action............................................................................................................80
Get Messy..............................................................................................................80
Get Close, but Not Too Close!...............................................................................81
Vertical or Landscape?........................................................................................82
Study Photos that You Like...............................................................................83
Define Your Own Unique Style...........................................................................83
S ummary................................................................................................................85

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Setup Tips and Workflow........................................................87
Take the Time to Plan..........................................................................................88
Stay Organized......................................................................................................89
Build Your Scene Through Your Viewfinder.....................................................90
Know When to Stop.............................................................................................90
Consider Taking Step-By-Step Photos..............................................................91
Take a Series of Photos........................................................................................92
Be Flexible............................................................................................................92
Develop an Efficient Workflow...........................................................................93
S ummary................................................................................................................95

Editing.............................................................................................................96
Don't Rely on Editing..........................................................................................97
Choose the Right Software.................................................................................97
Develop an Efficient (Editing) Workflow.........................................................98
Use Presets...........................................................................................................99
Take Timeouts.....................................................................................................100
Back Up Your Photos.........................................................................................100
RAW vs. JPEG in Editing..................................................................................101
Overview of the Basic Settings........................................................................101
How I Edit My Photos.......................................................................................109
Saving Your Photos.............................................................................................111
Tethered Shooting..............................................................................................113
S ummary..............................................................................................................115
My Styles...................................................................................................116
Bright Food Photography.................................................................................118
Dark and Moody Food Photography................................................................121
Rustic Food Photography..................................................................................124

Final Thoughts.....................................................................................127

5
 Introduction
There is no sincerer love than the love of food.
- George Bernard Shaw
 DEPTH of FIELD

D
epth of field refers to the area in a photo that is sharp and in
focus, and it is affected by aperturea scary-sounding word
that youll soon understand.

The photo on the left has a shallow depth of field, which means that
only a narrow zone is in focus and appears sharp. The photo on the
right has a deep or large depth of field, which means that more details
are in focus and appear sharp.

The blur around the area that is in focus is known as a bokeh, and it
can give a beautiful artistic touch to a photo. I love the affect that the
blur creates so I use a shallow depth of field often, but its just a matter
of personal taste. Both photos look great and create a different feel.

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 SHUTTER SPEED

S
imilar to aperture, shutter speed
also affects the amount of light in
your photo. As the name implies,
this term refers to the amount of time
that the shutter is open.

Shutter speed is measured in seconds

or fractions of a second. When
measuring in seconds, most cameras
will show a quotation mark after
Shutter speed set on 125
the number (1 meaning one second,
2 meaning two seconds), while Lower number More light
fractions are shown without any
marks (for example, 30 stands for 1/30
of a second). You may want to refer
to your guide for more information
about your specific model and how it
displays these numbers.

The higher the fraction number, the

faster the shutter speed. For example,
a shutter speed of 800 is faster than 20
because 1/800 of a second is a much
shorter amount of time than 1/20 of a
second. This means that less light will
be able to enter your camera when
using a speed of 800 as compared to 20.

Likewise, the lower the number,

Shutter speed set on 250
the longer the shutter stays open,
resulting in more light coming in. Higher number Less light

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The photo on the top was shot with
an ISO of 100, which is very low, thus
it appears smooth. In the photo on the
bottom, however, the ISO was set to
more than 2000, which is very high.
As a result, theres a lot of noise in
the photo, especially in the background.
Zoom into the photos to really see the
difference.

Low ISO smooth

You usually want to keep your ISO

between 100 and 600 whenever possible.
The lower, the better.

This all may sound very confusing at the High ISO grainy
moment, but dont worryitll become
clear as soon as you get in some practice. Now lets talk about your cameras
aperture priority mode and manual mode. This will help you to better
understand the correlation between aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.

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Natural Lighting
Lighting makes photography. Embrace light.
Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light.
Know it for all you are worth, and you will
know the key to photography.
- George Eastman
In contrast, the photos below were shot with soft light and you can barely
notice the soft shadows. These photos have much less contrast than the
ones above, and as a result feel less dramatic and much more airy.

TIPS to CONTROL and ACHIEVE

PERFECT LIGHTING

1
Soften the light coming through your window. As Ive
mentioned before, unless youre trying to convey a certain mood,
harsh light is usually less flattering to food. Thats why in some
cases when you feel like the light is too intense for your photos,
youll want to soften it to make softer light. Since I live in a warm
area where the sun is always shining strong and creates harsh and
unpleasant contrast, shadows, and highlights in my photos, I tend to
soften the light for most of my photos.

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These two photos were shot with back lighting. Try to envision how the
light is coming from behind to create the glowing effect in the back of
the photo. Also notice the large amount of light in the back compared
to the front. Looking for shadows also help in understanding where
the light originating from as shadows always appear on the opposite
side of your light source.

SIDE LIGHT

S
ide light refers to light coming from the side of your dish. Around
90% of my photos are shot with side lighting, and I recommend
for beginners to always start with it. Light coming from the side
complements food and highlights textures while adding nice shadows.
Those shadows can be controlled by using a reflector, depending on how
soft or dramatic you want them to be. When using side lighting, the side of
the photo thats closer to the light source will appear brighter than the side
thats further away.

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 RULE OF THIRDS

T
he rule of thirds refers to where
you place the important elements
in your frame. While placing
them directly at the center of your
image may seem more natural, going
off center usually makes for a more
interesting and balanced photo.

Imagine dividing an image into thirds

both horizontally and vertically so
that you have nine parts. The rule
of thirds is a simple principle that
says you should consider placing
your points of interest somewhere on
those lines.

This is a great rule that I try to stick

to for most of my photos.

NEGATIVE SPACE

N
egative space refers to the empty space around your main
subject. Think of it as the untouched space where you dont place
any props, textiles, or food.

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 HEIGHTS

D
ifferent heights make for a balanced and interesting photo, and
create movement so theres a flow when the viewers eye moves
from one object to another.

Lets take another look at this photo;

the range of heights displayed
here show the strong impact they
can have on a photo, and are what
make this photo really interesting.
Without the vase of flowers or the
tall bottle of milk in the back, the
photo would have looked flatter.

Try stacking flat foods to

create height. Some foods
such as bagels, donuts,
cookies, bars, and pancakes
look more interesting and
mouthwatering when you
stack them one on top of
the other.

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 ANGLES

C
hoosing the right angle is essential. Certain angles can really
complement food and create interesting photos. There are three
main angles to shoot from:

Eye-level/Straight-on Overhead Three quarter/45 angle

When shooting at eye-level, youll Above eye-level, but it isnt
need to have a background for the overhead
back of your set

To understand the best angle for your dish, explore and move around
it for a minute. I usually shoot from several angles, starting at eye-
level and moving higher, analyzing what looks best and why. What
angle makes it look most appealing? What parts would I like to
emphasize or hide? Whats interesting about it?

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 SURFACES AND BACKGROUNDS

A patterned or colored background can sometimes be the only prop

you need to create an interesting photo. You can get really creative
when it comes to surfaces and backgrounds, but here are a few ideas
to get you started:

Wooden boards and surfaces Can be any wooden table you already
have at home, boxes, or cutting boards. They can be old and distressed
or new, with their natural color or painted.

Fabric or tablecloth Patterned, cotton or

linen, soft or heavy, wrinkled or flat.

Marble board Gives an elegant and clean look.

White foam board For a completely white

and smooth background.

Vintage, scratched, or distressed items

This includes items such as metal luggage or
boxes, silver trays, and baking/cookie sheets.

Textured tiles I buy single and leftover tiles

from tile warehouses.

Chalkboard

Wrinkled brown paper or newspaper

You dont always have to use a board or object to create a background.

Your walls, the curtains, a chair behind the tableanything can be a
backdrop for your food photos. Shooting in your garden, for example,
with flowers or green in the background can make for a beautiful scene.

Not all backgrounds work well in food photography. Shiny or orange

surfaces, for example, tend to flatter food less. If a background isnt
working for you after a few tries, try something else.

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 KEEP THINGS FRESH

F
or a long time I was only taking photos of desserts, so when the
day came to shoot a roast, I had no idea what I was doing. The food
had sat out for a while, dried out, and lost its shine. Still, brushing
it with its own juices worked like magic and brought it back to life.

An easy fix for food that has lost its luster or looks dull is to brush
it with some water or oil, or its own cooking juices or marinade. A
cooking spray or spritzer bottle is perfect for this. If using oil, add it
only moderately if you plan to eat the dish afterwards.

You probably wont need this if you shoot the food while its fresh or
still warm, or if youre using very fresh ingredients such as herbs,
vegetables, or fruits.

In this photo I brushed the stew

with its marinade to make it look
juicy and appealing.

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 DEVELOP AN

EFFICIENT WORKFLOW
P
hotography takes a while: preparation, choosing props, choosing
the right lighting direction and angle, the setup, changing things
up until they work, taking a series of photos Before you know
it, an hour has passed and youre not fully sure how. Thats why
developing a workflow is important in order to keep you organized
and efficiently manage your time. Without putting a bit of thought
into your dish, the mood, or the props, you can easily find yourself
running around almost aimlessly from one place to the next and end
up completely frustrated.

The following workflow works best for me, and you can either adopt
it or use it as inspiration to develop one of your own.

1. Styling your food starts the first moment you pick your
ingredients. Your photo wont look good if the food doesnt, so
make sure to choose fresh ingredients that are sure to show off
the dish.

2. Think about your dish. I usually start doing this while

preparing the ingredients. What does the dish mean to you?
Whats the story behind it and whats the mood that goes along
with it? Make a list of a few words that you feel describe or
define the food best, such as: modern, bright, colorful, messy,
fun, wintery, etc. Also write anything that comes to mind such
as from what angle you think the dish would look best.

3. Sometimes youll instantly envision the way you want the

photo to look, but other times you may get stuck (welcome
to the world of artists). In that case, seek inspiration online
in places like Pinterest. I keep different Pinterest boards for
different photography styles and types of food, so if I want to

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You may also notice that there will come a point where your computer
simply wont have enough storage space and youll need to move the
files anyway. The easiest solution is to buy a large external hard drive
and be sure to back up your photos every once in a while. Another
popular way is to back up your images to a cloud service such as
Dropbox or Google Drive. Initially, most of the services provide free
storage, but as you grow your collection youll probably need to pay
a monthly fee.

RAW vs. JPEG

IN EDITING

T
his is a good time to again talk about RAW vs. JPEG. When it
comes to editing, youll find that you have much less latitude
with JPEG files than RAW because JPEGs have limited
information stored in the image such as colors and shadows. That
means that if theres a critical adjustment you need to make, it will be
much harder to fix in a JPEG, and each correction will be much more
intense when moving the sliders. This is one of the main reasons why
I prefer shooting RAW.

OVERVIEW OF THE

BASIC SETTINGS

N
o matter what software you use for editing, there are some basic
tools that youll find in nearly all of them. In Photoshop, most
of these tools can be found under image -> adjustments, or
under filter. In Lightroom, they can be found under develop.

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 EXPOSURE

You already know that exposure refers to the amount of brightness in

your photo. This setting allows you to correct over- or underexposed
images by darkening or
brightening the photo.
Most of the time, I need
to bump up the exposure
during editing. Note that
if your photo is extremely
overexposed to the point
where some details have
been washed out, or
underexposed to where
they are overly darkened, it
cannot be fixed. Low exposure High exposure

CONTRAST

For most of my photos,

I bump up the contrast,
especially if I shoot in RAW
as it can produce photos
that look a little flat. Adding
contrast means that the
bright colors in your photo
are brighter, the dark colors
are darker, and the overall
details are more defined.
Low contrast High contrast

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