"Over the past few months, I've been experimenting with taking more food photographs and learning the secrets of what it takes to capture a great food photo. My first source of inspiration is Heidi Swanson's photography featured on her blog, 101 Cookbooks. Her photographs are minimally composed and beautifully colored, and I couldn't help but be inspired to learn more about photographing food. After studying online and going out to take pictures, here's 5 important tips I've learned that's given me the best results.
1. Shoot macro - Use the macro setting on your camera to get the shallowest depth of field you can. It's the one great secret to cool looking food photographs.
2. Don't use a flash - Turn your flash off. Period. Use whatever natural lighting you have to shoot your pictures.
3. Minimize clutter in the background - the caveat to this is to find a way to include the ambience of the setting you are in, whether in a restaurant or a friend's kitchen.
4. Expect to adjust your color balance after shooting - use Photoshop or even something simple like Picasa's editing tools to take out the orange or blue color cast you may get from shooting indoors with incandescent or flourescent lighting.
5. Burn film - an seasoned photographer once told me the only way to become a better photographer was to take more pictures. Before digital photography, this meant to "burn film". Go out and shoot, shoot, and shoot some more.
My reading sources for food photo tips came from Heidi's Food Photography Tips, chef Benjamin Christie's Creating Edible Food Photos, and Digital Photography's "How to Make Mouth Watering Food Photographs".
Heidi's photography is also featured in her book: Cook 1.0: A Fresh Approach to the Vegetarian Kitchen."
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