Making Your Food Look Drool Worthy

This is BIG.

Food. Photography. TIPS.

Food is NOT easy to photograph especially if the temperature is an issue, but if you are DIYing food photography. Here are some ways to make it look good.

With that said, here are 5 tips for drool-worthy food photos if you take them yourself! 👊

1. Background Matters

It is all about the vibe, the product, the story and the understanding. For example the cupcake photo is featured on a white background to keep everyone's focus on the cupcake in the center. It minimizes distractions. However for the tea product photo below, the background is wooden and white to give classy look to the photo, but also draw the eyes to the tea bag not the tea being poured in the middle.

2. Lighting

Unless your branding is dark and moody, I advise everyone to bring as much light into the photograph as possible. You can add lighting in post edits or through my presets (click here to learn more) but artificial plus added natural light is the best. The best way to do this is take product photos near a window, using overhead lighting and possible flash. If you look at the photos above, I am taking the image from above, this method works best because you are reducing the shadows.

3. Props

If you remember the framing rule, props should be used sparingly and effectively. Prop styling is a full time job and usually it takes my clients months to fully grasp the idea. You have to learn the basic set-up first. I teach a digital course on this as part of my Back to Basics Guide (you can find it here). However, you must utilize props that are either used to make the product or can be paired well with it. Also stay away from artificial food props with food photos because it sends a bad message.

4. Details

The second most important part of food photography is the detailed shots. These include the melting cheese or sprinkles on the ice cream or the ingredients in the blender before they are blended together. The step-by-step product photos really help your viewers understand (a) how the food is created and (b) the story behind the product. For every one food product, you should have at least three detailed shots.

5. Story

The most important factor of product photography in regards to food is the story and emotion created by the image. You have to set the scene, you want to create that "now I am hungry" emotion. To do this you have to strategically create a time line of the food product that creates hunger. Let's discuss the cupcake photo, you can create drool worthiness with just the one photo. It shows the marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers.

However, smoothies or any food that is blended together needs a story. You need photos of the ingredients surrounding the blender, then an image of those ingredients being put in the blender and then the final product with the "raw" ingredients around it. The Story of the photos create the hunger.