I started professional food photography back in 2015, 10 years ago! Food photography is way more complex as it seems! so i gathered here some of the tips and tricks i wish i knew back in the days when i started my journey.
Tips for taking great food photos
Short answer is, Lighting! Yes! Lighting is the key to a great, or a bad photo. It's that photons that hits your food that defines the beauty of its shape and its vivid colors. So a bad lighting is going to result in a very bad photo, and a Good one is going definetly to improve your photo quality and the final result! Here are some tips to get started:
- Shoot under natural light. When you get started in photography try to use your biggest window or door to let the light in as maximum as possible and shoot your food near it!
- Professional Artificial Lighting. when you get used to your camera settings, buttons and different modes, try to use a professional lighting as a main source of light, this is gonna help you massively! because not everyday is a shiny day, and the artificial lighting gives you that consistency in terms of quality of light all day long!
- Use good quality lenses. The camera body is the brain that translate the light into data, then into an image. But what about the eye? in this case the eye is the lens of the camera, a good quality lens is going to result in a sharper image and a better quality picture!
Cameras for food photography
When i first started food photography, i started with a very old Dslr Camera from canon (Canon 550D), and it was that camera that thought me the very first techniques of photography. Then fast forward in 2019 i purchased a second Canon 550D along with a 50mm 1.8 lens, then at the end of 2019 i got a brand new Nikon D7500 with a 18-140mm kit lens, in addition to a 35mm 1.8 lens.
Since 2024, i upgraded to the Full-frame world of cameras, and bought the Nikon Z6 II with a beast of a lens (The 35mm 1.8 S-Line version).
Moral of the story is that you don't need a fancy camera to start, it's been almost 10 years since my first camera that i upgraded to a fancy one! so just start with what ever you have, even you phone, most phones these days take beautiful photos.
As for the brand, it's more of a personal preference, i had 2 canon cameras and 2 Nikon cameras. so just go with what ever you feel yourself better with!
Lenses for food photography
As i mentioned earlier in this post, the lens is the most important thing in a camera setup and for a better results!
The best lenses for food photography are in my opinion the prime lenses, you know the ones that comes with only one number (35mm or the 50mm)! these lenses have a better build quality and also a better quality glass, that results in a sharper image and better colors.
The lenses that i highly recommend for food photography are the 50mm f1.8 S-line and the 105mm f2.8 Macro lens. These are in my opinion the best lenses for a food photographer.
You can also go all-in with the new Nikon 85mm f1.2 S-line, this is a VERY VERY sharp lens and a much premium build quality for professional photographers. But this is not cheap, almost 3 grands!! so keep that in mind!
Other photography equipment
Lighting. Lighting is as important as the lens, so you should definetly invest in a good quality one. The one i personally use is the Godox SL100D.
Light modifiers. I use this parabolic softbox as my main light modifier, it gives a nice soft, and subtle light. Also it is the best way to avoid the hard shadows in your food photographs.
Recommended photography software
I used before the Adobe Lightroom CC software as my daily driver, but recently i switched over to Capture One Pro software. I can't describe enough how this software is amazing and powerful in terms of photo editing and processing!
Additional food photography resources
- The Complete Guide to Food Photography by Lauren Caris Short
- Picture Perfect Food: Master the Art of Food Photography with 52 Bite-Sized Tutorials By Joannie Simon