Tips for Food Photography

Taking pictures of food is my hobby. It also subsidizes my restaurant bills as I sell the pictures on stock photo sites such as this one. Recently, I was asking to give some tips on taking better pictures of food at a foodies meetup event in San Francisco. Here is a summary on what I presented.

What Camera to Use

If I am shooting for an assignment, I will use my Nikon D300 DSLR. If I am just having dinner with friends in a restaurant and shooting for my facebook post or yelp post, then I will use my Samsung point-and-shoot camera. Sometimes I will even just use my iPhone 4.

I used to use my big DSLR in a restaurant but that just drew too much attention. Also there is not a lot of room around the table to allow me to shoot with a big camera anyway. So the first priority for me is to enjoy the company and enjoy the dinner. Taking pictures is secondary.

iPhone4 can take pretty good pictures and it doesn't draw much attention. However, it does not allow me to change any camera settings, therefore, I prefer to use a small point-and-shoot camera instead.

Lighting

The number one issue for taking good food photos in a restaurant is lighting. Restaurants especially the high end ones are very low in ambient light. Some may even just light the table with a small candle light. Here are some tips:

• Get a table by the window. This works well for lunch or early summer dinner because you can light your plate with the light from the outside.
• Do not use the flash. We don't draw any attention and we don't want to disturb other patrons in the restaurant, My friend has been asked to stop using flash in an high end restaurant before. In a crowded noisy restaurant, maybe it is OK to use a flash. However, food does not look good with flash anyway. So avoid it.
• Use the candle light. Move it closer to the plate or move the plate around to catch other overhead light.
• Increase the ISO setting. This is where a point-and-shoot camera ia better than an iPhone. Set the ISO to 3200 or even higher if your camera supports it.
• If you only have an iPhone and you want to take the picture in low light, then use the table to support your elbow, hold the iPhone steady, and pray. Also take multiple pictures. Hopefully, you will get one that is no blurry.

White Balance

Another problem that many people have is capturing the color of the food correctly. If you don't know what white balance is, here and here provide some good explanation.

If your pictures have an orange cast, that is because the restaurant is using tungsten lighting. Here are some tips on getting the correct white balance:

• Shoot in RAW instead of JPEG. This gives you a better chance to fix the white balance in software.
• Use a gray card such as this and take a picture of it to make a reference of the lighting situation of the restaurant. Here is the instruction on how to use it to set the white balance of your pictures.
• If you don't have a gray card with you, you can take a picture of a white napkin or the white table cloth and use that as a reference. Sometimes a white plate will work too. It is not as accurate as using a gray card but it is better than nothing.
• Once you have a picture of the gray card or a white napkin, you can then adjust the white balance of your pictures in software. Here is the instruction on to change the white balance using Adobe Lightroom and here is the instruction for Google Picasa.

[Before adjusting the white balance]

[After adjusting the white balance]

Camera Settings

Here are the camera settings that I usually use:

• RAW format (not JPEG). But make sure the software you use support the RAW format of your camera. SW usually lags behind the newest cameras.
• A mode. Aperture priority mode. Here is an explanation if you don't know what aperture priority mode is.
• Aperture is set at f/2.4. Smaller the number, the larger the aperture. If your camera supports a larger aperture and if you want a shallow depth of field, you can use that. Here is an explanation on depth of field and aperture if you are not familiar with their relationshio.
• ISO and shutter speed. I will set the ISO as low as possible to maintain a shutter speed of 1/60th second. On a table next to a big window, I can do ISO 200 with f/2.4 aperture and the camera will use a shutter speed of 1/125th second. But in a dark restaurant at night, I may need to do ISO 3200 and f/2.4. The camera will use a shutter speed of 1/15th second. In that case, I will have choice but to try really hard to hold the camera steady when taking the pictures.

Camera Angle and Composition

There is not much creativity you can have with your food photos from dinner at a restaurant. The basic camera angles are:

• 3/4 point of view. Just like you are sitting by the table looking at the plate. This is good for providing a way of the food look in general.
• Overhead. Directly above the plate. This is good for showing off the interesting pattern of the food on the plate.
• Side. Directly in front of the plate. Parallel to the table. This is good for emphasis the height and the layers of the food.

Another thing I do is to set the camera to focus with the macro mode (the little flower icon on the point-and-shoot camera). This allows me to get the camera close to the food and focus on something interesting on a plate. This gives the viewers a different preceptive to make your picture more interesting.

Final Words

If you want to take pictures at a restaurant, make sure you know your camera well and don't disturb your company and other patrons around you. Remember your number one priority when you go out is to enjoy the company and the food.

More pictures from the event can be found here.

Bon appetit!!