Food photography is as old as photography itself; fruits like pineapples and peaches were among the first subjects in early daguerreotypes. In the 20th century, the rise of food magazines, cookbooks and, eventually, food bloggers meant pictures of delicious-looking dishes proliferated.
Still-life pictures of consumable products help ecommerce retailers build brands and drive sales. A tantalizing image of focaccia with a sprig of rosemary can effectively promote a bottle of olive oil, while a steaming bowl of Sichuan noodles can boost the appeal of a chili crisp condiment.
So, what does it take to capture mouth-watering food photos? While a professional DSLR camera or mirrorless camera will help, you don’t necessarily need expensive equipment. Whether you’re a marketer, entrepreneur, small business owner or foodie, simply following the photography fundamentals below will help you capture captivating food pics.
How to take food photos
Taking really good food photos is more than pointing and shooting. Whether you’re generating simple smartphone snaps or you’re a professional food photographertaking high-quality food photos with a fancy camera, certain basic principles apply:
1. Choose your background
Select a complementary surface that draws attention to the food. Seamless backdrop paper focuses the viewer directly on the subject. Styling food with tableware, linens, and a few props can educate new customers about your brand world and edible products.
For example, Ghia photographed its non-alcoholic apértif in a stemless glass with a totem foot against a plain, white background. “We wanted to do a glass that felt like it was luxurious, but also very approachable,” says founder Melanie Masarin on the Shopify Masters podcast.
2. Get the lighting right
Lighting can enhance the textures of food products, set the mood, and prevent unwanted shadows. Soft light adds an even illumination, whereas hard light can create harsh shadows. Use a large, soft light source like a frosted window or a softbox (a common type of light modifier) to prevent shadows. Or, take the food outside in natural light.
For example, this photo for olive oil brand Graza’s steak and eggs with chimichuri recipe employs natural lighting from an angle to highlight the finished dish.
Certain foods benefit from varying light directions during a photoshoot. Top lighting works best for plates of food or tablescapes, simple front lighting is good for social media posts, and side lighting can add drama to individual ingredients or products.
3. Compose your shot
Too many elements can pull attention away from the food. While setting a main dish in the center of a shot may feel natural, it doesn’t always produce the most eye-catching image. Follow the rule of thirds and divide the frame into three equal sections, horizontally and vertically, then place the main subject somewhere along the grid to draw the viewer’s attention.
Different angles work for different dishes, so it’s important to find the best angle for your food. For example, a side shot of a slice of Floof Cotton Candy showcases the colorful layers of the cotton candy cake.
4. Stabilize your camera
Steadying your camera on a tripod or camera stand will prevent camera shake and blurry images. Clarity and focus are especially important for foods with interesting textures—like tea cakes dusted with powdered sugar, or fried tofu with a crackling crust. Use a tripod with a geared head—such as the Manfrotto 405—for precise pan-and-tilt adjustments. A camera stand helps capture different angles by facilitating easy vertical or horizontal movement.
For example, Fly by Jing highlights the various colors and textures of food in this overhead shot promoting its hot pot. Food photographers often use overhead rigs or boom arms to stabilize cameras for overhead shots like this.
5 food photography tips
- Experiment with lenses
- Play with light filters and modifiers
- Practice focus stacking
- Use a color checker
- Monitor your images
For big brands, food photography involves a creative team that typically includes an art director, food stylist, prop stylist, food photographer, and digital tech. By contrast, small business owners and merchants often fill these roles themselves. Consider the following tips to take better pictures of your food:
1. Experiment with lenses
Different lenses change the look of the image. Macro lenses have a longer focal length and a higher magnification ratio compared to standard lenses, allowing close-up shots. This is helpful when you’re trying to highlight details like a specific ingredient or an interesting texture.
A probe lens, such as the Laowa 24mm f/14 2x macro probe, has a long, skinny barrel that captures angles that are otherwise impossible. For example, you can pass this lens through small openings, like the center of a donut.
2. Play with light filters and modifiers
Soften any light source by adding layers of diffusion between the source and the set. Professional photographers use diffusions like LEE Filters’ Opal Frost, but a bedsheet can work in a pinch.
To add visual interest, you can use a North Star filter that adds multiple streaks of light from a point light source, which can create a dazzling effect on a cocktail glass or candle. You can also use light modifiers such as nets and flags to remove light or feather it in certain places.
3. Practice focus stacking
Focus stacking employs a computer to combine multiple images with different areas in focus, resulting in a composite with enhanced detail. This technique can be useful in macro food photography—particularly for extreme close-ups where it can be impossible to focus every item in one capture.
Professional cameras have large sensors and a shallow depth of field to facilitate this feature. Phone camera users can try it with focus stacking apps such as FocusStacker on iOS.
4. Use a color checker
Appetizing colors are especially important when photographing food, but they can be difficult to get right. A color checker, like the X-Rite ColorChecker Passport, is a tool that looks like an eye shadow palette with little squares of color—each with a precisely calibrated, measurable value. When you place it in a photo, it can help you ensure color accuracy later on in the editing process, keeping food items as close to life as possible. X-Rite offers a Capture One and Adobe Lightroom plug-in that reads the color patches to calibrate your camera for faithful representation.
5. Monitor your images
Plug your camera into a computer via USB so you have a larger screen to review your work while taking photos. Software like Adobe Lightroom and Capture One support the major camera brands. These programs also directly transfer your images to your computer, eliminating the need to import after the shoot or fill up memory cards. Viewing your images immediately on a larger screen will allow you to spot issues so you can correct them right away.
What settings should I use for food photography?
Manual mode enables consistency from shot to shot by controlling the aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and white balance. If you don’t use a DSLR camera, apps like Halide can help you control some of these settings on your phone:
Aperture
Aperture controls the amount of light that reaches the sensor by opening and closing the aperture ring of your lens. A wider opening, which allows the most light in, has a lower f-stop value (the ratio of the focal length to the aperture’s width). The f-stop value has a significant impact on your depth of field—how much of the foreground and background are in focus. The higher the f-stop value, the larger the depth of field. A low f-stop value, such as f/2.8, corresponds to a wide aperture opening and produces a very shallow depth of field. A high f-stop value, such as f/22, has a much greater depth of field.
The more you stop down your lens (i.e., the more you increase your f-stop number), the more focused the foreground and background will be. However, due to the phenomenon of diffraction (when light waves bend after passing through your lens), fine details will get less sharp. For food photography with a full-frame DSLR, a mid-range aperture like f/11 will produce the sharpest photos, offering a balance between a clear foreground and background and fine details.
Shutter speed
Shutter speed is the amount of time your camera’s sensor is exposed to light. A slower shutter speed, such as 1/15th of a second, allows more light but will blur any motion you’re trying to capture. When using natural light, you’ll need to use a slower shutter speed. A faster shutter speed, such as 1/1,000th of a second, will freeze any motion in the frame. This works best for action shots, like pouring a beverage from a glass or showcasing the bubbles in a carbonated beverage.
Check the manual for the camera’s flash sync speed. A value of 1/200 second is common. A faster shutter speed will reduce the amount of ambient light—such as overhead lights or light from a window—that reaches your photo. When using flash for food photography, block out as much ambient light as possible to maximize control over the light’s shape and direction.
ISO
The ISO setting adjusts the sensitivity of your camera’s sensor to light. A lower ISO value, such as 100, allows the least amount of light and produces the lowest amount of visual noise, or clutter, making it ideal for brightly light outdoor scenes and when using flash. Visual noise looks like random discolored specks in your image, which can ruin the appearance of colors and deep shadows.
A higher value, such as 3,200, is more light-sensitive but produces more visual noise. For food photography, it’s best to use the lowest value you can for the amount of light you need. Check your camera manual for the native ISO—often between 100 and 200—as this will yield the best quality.
White balance
Different light sources have varying white balance values, measured from warm to cool on a scale called Kelvin. For example, an incandescent lightbulb has a value of 2,700 K, giving off a warm glow, while natural light on a cloudy day may have a value of around 6,000 K, which a camera perceives as cooler in tone. You can find the white balance that works best for your scene in your camera’s menu items.
Avoid mixing warm and cool lights when composing your scene, as this will be difficult to color balance in your photo editing software. If you plan on using daylight or flash, turn off any artificial lighting.
How to take food photos FAQ
How do you take good pictures of food?
There are three essential steps to taking great food photos. Plate your food item or product aesthetically, find beautiful natural lighting, and secure your camera to a stable tripod.
How do you take food pictures without shadows?
To prevent shadows when you photograph food, avoid direct sunlight and position a large light source close to your subject. Taking pictures outdoors in the shade or near a window with low light will yield the best results, turning good pictures into great shots.
What camera settings should I use for food photography?
For food photography, use a low ISO to minimize visual noise and a mid-range aperture like f/11 for a wide depth of field and maximum sharpness. Your shutter speed will depend on the amount of light in your scene. Capture your food photographs in RAW format for maximum flexibility during editing.
