frankthephotographer

Here you can find some tips of how to create a particular style or mood for a food photography project.


Styles and trends within food photography always undergo changes every few years.

In order to create a particular style, you need appropiate props, backgrounds, composition skills and the right lighting.

Composites
Composites are photographs with several items in one shot, used in food, still life and advertising photography.

Sometimes everthing needs to be in focus/sharp, but sometimes a blurred foreground / background creates a better focus
on the product. This is a highly skilled and time consuming task, since every object has to be placed in the right position
to avoid overlapping, showing all the important parts, and achieve good lighting througout.
You also need special camera equipment, like tilt and shift cameras or lenses,
and high powered lighting equipment to get everthing sharp.


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Top Shots
Top shots have recently become fashionable in food photography and it can be an eyecatching way of displaying food.
Often free space around the food is required (which means, that you have to pull back from the food) in order to make
it easier for the graphic designer to create the layout with the text/copy of the recipes.

But:
It can be eycatching for some dishes, but not all. Some recipes look much better shot from a shallow angle and close up,

giving you a much more exiting 3D look rather than a flat perspective shot from the top.
A preplanned spacing for the food and text within your layout can improve your image a lot!


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Natural Farmhouse Look
This is a recent change in the style of food images.
The natural daylight and a choice of oldfashioned country style props
gives the food a natural, organic and healthy traditional feel.



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Simplicity

One of he latest trends in food photography is simplicity :

Hardly any props, simple, 'dead on'(straight) food arrangments.

But:

When it comes to special features, eg. christmas,
you might need more props to create more atmosphere / feeling.



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Shallow Focus / Angled Shots
Angled shots can add more dynamic to your image.
Within editorial photography,this angled style is now out of fashion , but is still used in creative advertising work.

'Shallow focus' with a blurred foreground / background makes you focus more onto the product.
It also creates a more natural feel.
This is also great for adding copy / text in your layout.



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