Food Photography Tips
Food photography is more than just snapping a picture of your meal—it’s an art form that brings flavors and textures to life through the lens and captures the exquisite creation of the cook, chef, or baker. Whether you’re a professional photographer, a food blogger, or just someone who loves to share their culinary creations on social media, capturing food in a way that looks as mouthwatering as it tastes can be challenging.
In this article, we’re sharing essential tips to help you master the art of food photography, from perfect lighting to styling tricks that make your dishes pop. Let’s dig in and turn your food photos into a feast for the eyes!
Image by Liam Rimmington
Edited with Quest 36 Botanica
Essentials
Let’s start with a few essential tips and things to watch out for when photographing food!
Use fresh ingredients! To ensure your food looks appetizing and vibrant, use the freshest ingredients you can find. No one wants to look at a photo of wilting greens or dull garnishes.
Clean up your setup! Check for smudges, crumbs, unwanted dribbles, or distractions in frame before photographing.
Photograph the food quickly— especially if you’re photographing food commercially for a restaurant or cookbook! Food can deflate, melt, dry, or coagulate, making the dish look less ideal, so snap those photos fast!
Experiment with different setups of your dish, props, and garnishes to get a variety of compositions. You can pick out the most appealing setup from your experiments! The images below and above of the bread show different angles and focus on different spots on the table spread.
Image by Liam Rimmington
Edited with Quest 36 Botanica
Setting Up your Food Photos
There are so many factors to consider when setting up your food or table spread to be photographed. What is the intended purpose of the photos (commercial, food blog/recipe, cookbook, social media, or fine art to name a few)? Are you trying to tell a story with the photos, or document the beauty and color of the food? The lighting, angles, focus and depth of field, and how you compose your frame will all change depending on the final purpose!
Image by Markus Erhard
Edited with Quest 22 Glacial
Lighting
Generally, it’s best to use soft, diffused natural light from a window, with white reflectors or bounce cards to fill shadows and distribute light evenly.
That said, many photographers experiment with direct sunlight, slices of light, and artificial light to create images that tell more of a story with dynamic light.
Image by Markus Erhard
Edited with Quest 27 Serenus
Artificial Lighting
Often, if you’re on a commercial food photoshoot, you’ll need to have off-camera flash or or a constant light source with a huge softbox to diffuse the light evenly. Restaurants and commercial kitchens can be dark, so ensuring you’re prepared with light is essential. A reflector or bounce card is handy to have on hand, but even a light colored plate or tablecloth can do in a pinch!
Images by Lauren Alexandra Photography
Edited with Quest 29 Altitude
Angles
Different angles work better for different foods and circumstances, but trying different compositions is all about experimenting, so don’t be afraid to “break the rules”!
Top-Down - Good for flat foods like pizzas, tarts, food flatlays, or photos of a whole table spread.
45-Degree Angle for Depth - 45 degrees is a natural angle for most food, as it shows the height and layers of the dish.
Side Angle - Excellent for tall food, like a sandwich or burger, cake, layered dessert, or pancakes!
Images by Markus Erhard
Edited with Quest 22 Glacial
Images by Lauren Alexandra Photography
Edited with Quest 27 Serenus
Garnish & Props with Purpose
Garnish can add a pop of color or texture to a plain-looking food— fresh herbs, citrus slices, or spices elevate the visual appeal and add detail and context if they are ingredients in the dish!
Props can be a great way to add layers of texture and interest. Use rustic cutting boards, utensils, or textured linens to enhance without overwhelming the hero of your food photo.
Arrangement
Sometimes, you need a series of images to tell the story of the recipe or preparation of the food you’re photographing. Try scattering ingredients around the food, or create a separate composition with the raw ingredients highlighted.
Images by Markus Erhard
Edited with Quest 22 Glacial
Fine Art Food
Images by Liam Rimmington
Edited with Quest 36 Botanica
Some of the most famous still lifes are of food, especially bright and colorful or visually fascinating foods! The Dutch still life painters had a persistent obsession with citrus fruit— particularly lemons— and included them in their paintings often.
Image by Liam Rimmington
Edited with Quest 29 Altitude
The Hero of the Photo
Unless you’re photographing a big tablescape of lots of food and ingredients, you’ll want to have a main character or “hero” of your food photo.
Isolate the hero with tack-sharp focus, making sure all the details are easy to see, like the frosting on a cupcake or the skin of a fruit.
Depth of Field
Use a wide aperture on a macro lens to blur the background and keep the focus on the hero food!
Background
Utilize a simple background that doesn’t detract from the viewer’s interest in the food composition. Divide the foreground and background by color or texture, or completely surround the hero food with the same texture like a cloth or ceramic dish.
Image by Liam Rimmington
Edited with Quest 29 Altitude
Editing
Keep your edits simple for commercial or recipe food photography— presets and adjustments that enhance colors, textures, sharpness, and bring out the shadows are advised.
For fine art or more creative, storytelling food photography, experiment with your edits! Try something filmic and nostalgic, or ultra-bright and high contrast!
Some of our favorite food photography Quest presets are:
Images by Lauren Alexandra Photography
Edited with Quest 22 Glacial
Tell us you favorite food to photograph in the comments!