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You are here: Home / Photography tips / The Secret to Beautiful and Powerful Food Photos

February 20, 2017 By Emily 2 Comments

The Secret to Beautiful and Powerful Food Photos

The Secret to Beautiful and Powerful Food Photos - The Goldilocks Kitchen

Skinny White Chocolate Creme Brulee from The Goldilocks Kitchen

Food photography.

Phoodtography. Whatever you want to call it,ย the ability to snap a shot of aย beautifully delicious looking, consumable culinary creation to share with the world is the goal for many a blogger or Instagram foodie these days.ย I see some bloggers/photographers whoย have them mastered (not talking about myself here). There are others out there who are always looking to improve their skill;ย if that’s you, read on my friend. Whenever Iย have food in the frame of my camera I look at it like aย work of art. At least, that’s what I’m shooting for haha ๐Ÿ™‚ So what gives a food photo that magic that says; “I’m delicious and you can’t go another day without eating me???”

The Secret to Beautiful and Powerful Food Photos - The Goldilocks Kitchen

Photos courtesy of Sugar et al.

Color and Design + Food Styling + Technical Camera knowledge = Magic Food Photos

Knowingย a thing or two about food styling andย theย technical know-how of camera equipmentย are part of the equation for a great food photo. These elements I’ll talk about at length in future posts. This post focusesย on the first, and most overlooked,ย of the three elements for what I call ‘Magic Food Photos’.

The Secret to Beautiful and Powerful Food Photos - The Goldilocks Kitchen

Courtesy of The Chunky Chef.

Food photography has becomeย anย art unto itself; much like creating a still life, a great food photo should be thought of as a piece of art. I’ve seen some great bloggers/photographers try to explain how they make their photos look so good with props, lighting, and food styling without anyย knowledge of color andย design.ย Often they’reย usingย principles of color and design in their photos without even knowing it! And if you don’t happen to know what they are it can be difficult to describe.

The Secret to Beautiful and Powerful Food Photos - The Goldilocks Kitchen

Courtesy of Half Baked Harvest.

Having the art backgroundย that I do, Iย feelย I neededย to share what exactly that missing puzzle piece is. The very basics of creating an artistic masterpiece, or the bestย kept secret to creating beautiful food photosย areย an artist’s principles of color and design.

The Secret to Beautiful and Powerful Food Photos - The Goldilocks Kitchen

Marshmallow High Hat Cupcakes – The Goldilocks Kitchen.

If you’ve never takenย an art class before, learning all theย principles of Color and Designย can beย overwhelming. There is soooo much to learn. In this post however, I’ll make it easy and just shareย the principlesย I use the mostย in my food photography.ย First we’ll talk about color.

Principles of Color.

The Color Wheel.

1. Contrast creates visual interest.

Memorizing the color wheel is important when it comes to taking that special food pic. You’ll have the ability to create mood, and decide how much contrast you want when you can visualize the color wheel inย your head. I personallyย like most of my photos to be very colorful,ย so I tryย use opposite (contrasting)ย colors on the color wheel or as close to as possible in my shoots.ย Contrast is a way to create visual interest and keep the observer’s eyes moving around your picture. This is a good thing! Notice how yellowย and violetย are exactly opposite on the diagram above? Now see how the photographer used very similar colors in the photo below?ย Think of the colors of (or in) the food itselfย you’re trying to photograph, and then try to incorporate contrasting color into props, garnishes, backgrounds,ย or even the food itself by going back and changing the recipe if needed. Sometimes using a red bell pepper instead of a green one can make a huge difference.

The Secret to Beautiful and Powerful Food Photos - The Goldilocks Kitchen

Courtesy of The Kitchen McCabe.

 

2. Create mood by using a monochromatic scheme.

A fun way to create mood (light or dark) is to create a ‘monochromatic’ scene~ ‘mono’ meaning oneย hue (color)ย blended withย varying shades of gray (canย go all the way toย black and white also). Here’s an example pic:

The Secret to Beautiful and Powerful Food Photos - The Goldilocks Kitchen

Courtesy of Gimme Some Oven.

See how there’s only oneย major color with lighter or darker shades of itself in theย picture? The Reflections of the glass and water create many shades of orange blended into the white and various shades of grey created from the shadows. Here’s another one with the color brown:

The Secret to Beautiful and Powerful Food Photos - The Goldilocks Kitchen

Courtesy of Baker by Nature.

Besides the color variance, did you notice all the triangles and rectangles in the photo above? (Remember this one, ‘cuz we’re going to talk shapes in just a bit.) Color is actually a form of light, it’s just different wavelengths bouncing off ofย objects and into our eyes. This is why lighting is so important in a food photo. Always make sure you correct your white balance in editing your photo so the rest of theย colors in the photo look their best.

The Secret to Beautiful and Powerful Food Photos - The Goldilocks Kitchen

See how Chungah used contrasting colors in this photo? Courtesy of Damn Delicious.

Flowers are super on trend right now for food photography, and they’re a great way to bring in some contrasting color for your foodย if you’re lacking some.

The Secret to Beautiful and Powerful Food Photos - The Goldilocks Kitchen

The focal point in this photo is created by the strong punch of color from the flower’s center.ย Courtesy of Half Baked Harvest

The more contrast youย have in your background medium surface (wood, cork board, marble, cloth, whatever)ย the brighter those colors willย visually look. White or black gives the most contrast and will make the colors in your photograph seem brighter and give more visual interest. An art professor once told me that black is better than white for making colors look brighter, and I have seen some amazing bloggers who have adopted a black/dark greyย background style with beautiful results. I’ve also seen some who use a bright white backdrop that are also amazing. The wonderful thing about creating art is that it’s an expression of you~ find your own style and brandย by using the principles of color.

The Secret to Beautiful and Powerful Food Photos - The Goldilocks Kitchen

Courtesy of Gimme Some Oven

Principles of Design.

So what do I mean by ‘design’? Without getting too technical here, design is about basic shapes, lines and patterns and how you arrange them in your frame. If you squint long enough, you can see these very basic shapes in almost any work of art. Example: inย food photography, bowls of stew, slices of oranges, or hamburger buns become circles/ovals. Pastas, silverwareย or chopsticks become lines. Toast, rectangular serving platters, garnishes, wontons, become squares/polygons with sharp angles. Texture can be anything from mirror glazes on cakes to dish towels to crumbs. Design is how you group or place these shapes within your composition to create Visual Interest. That’s what makesย shooting food with a DSLR camera visually appealing to so many, becauseย the ‘out ofย focus’ areas, or ‘bokeh’ย reduces the background to simple shapes and textures that ourย eyes find appealing.

The Secret to Beautiful and Powerful Food Photos - The Goldilocks Kitchen

Courtesy of Better With Cake

Have a focal point.

Ideally, to create Visual Interest you want to have an initial Focal Point (the place your eye looks at first) in your photo, then have your viewer’s eye move around the composition, looking at other interesting things.ย The focal point isย the point where the most contrast is happening or theย area in sharpest focus; so either the brightestย or lightestย colors and darkest colors are closest together. To get the viewer’s eye to move around the photo, you can use one of the following elementsย of design:

The Secret to Beautiful and Powerful Food Photos - The Goldilocks Kitchen

Courtesy of The Kitchen McCabe.

Repetition

Having one design element can be boring; but if it’s repeated the eye will notice it, either consciously or subconsciously. In the photo below, just one of these meringue popsiclesย by itself wouldn’t be very interesting. The photographer chose to display several, some in the foreground and others in the background, creating repetition and varying sizes. The Matzoh crackers are also a nice contrasting design element that break up all the smooth texture and round shapes, further creating Visual interest. Remember the chocolate cheesecake photo from above? Great use of repetition by placing that little piece of square Lindt chocolate as a garnish!

The Secret to Beautiful and Powerful Food Photos - The Goldilocks Kitchen

Courtesy of Cupcake Project.

Size Variation.

Havingย repetition of a shape or texture isย good, to vary their size (again like the photo above) is even more interesting.ย One important thing to note: if you have anyย corners (like square plates, silverware etc.) just touching the edge of your frame, this subconsciously causes tensionย for the viewer. In other words our brains want to fix it. Either give it more space away from the edge of the frame or go the other way; have a portion of it definitivelyย cut off and out of frame. In case you were wondering, the photo below isย an ad for theย the plate, and I cropped the photo just as an example ๐Ÿ™‚

The Secret to Beautiful and Powerful Food Photos - The Goldilocks Kitchen

Texture

Texturesย are great for creating visual interest. Ever wonder whyย food photographers love those great wooden or marble tabletops toย display their culinary creations? The have great textures thatย create additional visual interest.ย In the photo below you can see both repetition of texture (granola and berries) and contrast (smooth shiny nutella and spoon).

The Secret to Beautiful and Powerful Food Photos - The Goldilocks Kitchen

Courtesy of Wyldflour

Placement

You may have heard of the Rule of Thirds~ Thisย rule applies to all photography, whetherย it be portrait, landscape, or food. Most of the photos I’ve included in thisย postย follow that rule. It basically means that you should try to offset your subject from the middle of the frame.ย Have it beย closer to the bottom, top, sideย orย corner of the frame. Evenย the photo above follows this rule becauseย there is more black space (negative space) above the smoothie bowl than below.ย When you group objects together and leave some negative space, this creates visual interest.

Notice the spoon above? See how some of it is cut offย by the frame? The brain wants to finish filling in theย missing pieces of the spoonย where it ends. This engages the brain in a good way and gives additional visual interest. I’ve seen some bloggers call this ‘anchoring your photo’.

Summary

By applying a few principles of Color and Design to your food photos, you’ll be able to add that ‘magic’ that willย help you create beautiful and powerfulย photos that can engage your readers.ย I would highly recommend that youย apply these principles justย one or two at a time for each future photo shoot, so you can slowly master them and avoid becoming overwhelmed.ย When I get ready for a shoot, before I even prepare the food I tryย to imagine what it’s going to look like on a plate. What are the main colors? What propsย and garnishes do I want to use?ย Often I’ll set those things out before I start cooking. Thenย as I shootย I’mย taking lots of different angles, making sure that theย food isn’t in direct center of my frame.ย Practice, practice,ย practice!ย Don’t get overwhelmed in planning your photoshoots. I am moving stuff around the whole time, looking for more interesting groupings and angles. I have tons of room to improve, and I’m on a very tight budget so I don’t have a lot of props to work with (I’ve hit up the local Good Will with little success.) But I’m slowly accumulating them and learning something new with every shoot. So good luck on your photography journey, I’ll be right there with ya ๐Ÿ™‚

Here areย some great resources I recommend for more in depth study. Enjoy!

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Comments

  1. Wendy Martin says

    February 24, 2017 at 10:04 am

    The food photos are beautiful…I didn’t realize so much went into making them artistic.

    I love all your posts….Thanks for all you do.

    Reply
  2. Janice Snow says

    March 11, 2018 at 4:32 am

    Youโ€™ve quite succeeded in your post. My mouth is actually watering after seeing all those delicious-looking food some I donโ€™t even recognize but will love to give it a bite. LOL! Yum yumโ€ฆ Now Iโ€™m hungry. here I have tried some food photography

    Reply

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