The basics of food photography

Learning goal

You will be able to explain why a dish looks dry, gray and flat in a photo, starting from the direction of the light and the moment the food arrives in the frame. Thinking of the area around the plate as a clock face, you will name which hour of the clock you put the light on, and set up a repeatable arrangement for a restaurant's order page. You will see how the small glints on wet and oily surfaces say that the food is fresh, and that these glints turn toward the lens only when the light comes from behind. You will set up the light and the framing with a stand-in plate before the real food arrives, and when the food arrives you will set aside the first few minutes for shooting. You will keep a hand reaching for the food from going dark in backlight with a reflector you adjust to the skin's color.

The question

The owner of the restaurant at the corner of the arcade opens the menu on their phone: lentil soup, stuffed vine leaves with meat, baked rice pudding. All shot under the ceiling lamp, from above and a little late. The soup's surface is a matte orange slab, the vine leaves' oil dull, the rice pudding's skin a dried gray smudge. Yet that same morning your friend had seen with their own eyes the steam of the soup coming out of the kitchen, the shiny green of the vine leaves and the browned top of the rice pudding fresh from the oven. Food that tastes the same looks completely different in the photo. Why doesn't food look appetizing in photos?

Context

In the first food lesson you tried how light coming to food from behind and slightly from the side brings out texture, shine and steam, and choosing a single hero plate on a table (Lesson 16.7). While learning to read light you used the direction clock, which puts the subject in the middle of a clock face and the camera at six o'clock and names the light's direction with a number (Lesson 18.1). In the reflector lesson you also weighed how close a white surface should be brought to open up the shadow side (Lesson 18.3).

That first lesson was a home table; this track, on the other hand, talks about a business's menu, an order page, products renewed every week. Here shooting one plate well isn't enough; the same light has to be set up again for every plate and the food has to be caught at its freshest moment. This lesson builds that repeatable foundation.

Simple explanation

Where on the plate should the light come from?

The direction clock applies to the plate too: the plate is in the middle of the face, the camera at six o'clock. Twelve o'clock is backlight, the light coming from right behind the plate; three or nine o'clock is light coming from the side; six o'clock is light coming from behind the camera and striking the food from the front. Between ten and eleven, or between one and two, is where the back-side light of the first food lesson sits on the clock.

This naming isn't a rule but a language and a memory. Eleven o'clock can work well for a soup or a dessert, while for a layered pastry nine o'clock can show its form better. What matters is noting the hour that works well and being able to set up the same hour for the next plate. A light at six o'clock, like a ceiling lamp or the camera's own flash, hides the shadows behind and under the food; the texture is lost and the food turns into a flat surface.

How do you tell that food is fresh?

Freshness highlights are the small, bright points of light that appear in the butter on a soup's surface, at the edge of a sauce, on a vine leaf's oily skin or on a fresh tomato's skin. The eye associates these glints with moisture and freshness; when the food cools and dries, the glints go out and the surface turns matte. The glints are a reflection of the light and obey the rule of the angle of reflection: when the light comes from behind they bounce off wet surfaces toward the lens, when it comes from the front they go the opposite way, behind the camera. That is why a light put at eleven or one o'clock shows the same food much fresher than front light.

The same backlight makes steam visible too, but it isn't enough on its own. A steam backdrop is a dark surface placed behind a hot dish that lets the backlit steam stand out in front of it like a bright, thin curtain: a dark wooden board, a chalkboard or a black card. In front of a white wall, in light coming from the front, steam doesn't show.

What is prepared before the food arrives?

A stand-in plate is an object of similar size or a leftover portion, put on the same plate, used to set up the light, the framing, the focus and the exposure before the real food arrives. A soup's fresh surface lasts a few minutes, an ice cream's shape even less; searching for the light within those minutes often means finishing with food that has gone flat. When everything is prepared with the stand-in, the food arrives, is put in the stand-in's place, and the first few minutes are set aside only for shooting.

Backlight is a challenge for a hand. In light coming from eleven o'clock, the side of a hand reaching for the food that faces the camera stays in shadow. A white card put beside the camera opens up that side. On dark skin, bringing the card a little closer or using a surface close to silver brings back the skin's detail and warmth. On light skin, on the other hand, the same backlight can burn the edge of the fingers; turning the light a little to the side protects that edge.

Visual evidence

Your friend chooses the restaurant's table by the window and has the ceiling lamps turned off. From the kitchen they ask for a bowl of yesterday's soup as a stand-in. They place the bowl so that the window stays at eleven o'clock, stand a dark wooden board behind it, and put a white card beside the camera. They set up the light, the focus and the exposure and note the settings.

The freshly cooked soup arrives, and your friend lifts the stand-in and puts the fresh bowl in the same place. In the first two minutes a thin curtain of steam rises in front of the dark board, bright points glitter on the butter's surface, the red of the chili flakes stands out grain by grain. In the frame they shoot five minutes later there is no steam, the butter has set; when they put the two frames side by side, the restaurant owner sees the difference at once.

The cook, a middle-aged man with olive-brown skin, sprinkles chili flakes over the soup. In the first frame his hand has turned into a shadow in the backlight. Your friend brings the white card a little closer to the hand; in the new frame the hand's warm brown, the trace of flour on his wrist and the chili grains falling between his fingers stand out, and the soup's glints are in place.

Common mistakes

Summary

Food doesn't look appetizing when it is shot in flat light from the front or from above, and after its freshness has passed. Putting the light between ten and two o'clock turns the texture, the steam and the freshness highlights on wet surfaces toward the lens. Setting up the light in advance with a stand-in plate leaves the first minutes for shooting, and a hand going dark in backlight is opened up with a white card brought closer according to the skin's color.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will photograph a dish at different hours of the direction clock and at different minutes.

1. Beside a window, with a stand-in plate, put the light at six o'clock, three o'clock and eleven o'clock and shoot three frames; note the best hour and the settings.
2. Prepare a hot dish or drink, put it in the stand-in's place, and shoot the same frame in the first two minutes, then five minutes later; look at the steam and the glints.
3. Photograph a hand reaching for the food, with its owner's consent, in backlight, first without a card, then bringing the card closer.

Check yourself

• At which hour are the food's texture and glints most distinct?
• What disappeared between the first two minutes and five minutes later?
• Did the card bring back the detail and color of the skin in the hand?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. On the direction clock applied to the plate, what does twelve o'clock describe?

• A) The light coming from behind the camera
• B) The light coming from right at the side
• C) The light coming from right behind the plate
• D) The light coming from above

2. Why do freshness highlights show when the light comes from behind?

• A) Because light reflected off wet surfaces bounces toward the lens
• B) Because the light is stronger
• C) Because the colors are warmer
• D) Because the food cools faster

3. What is a stand-in plate for?

• A) Keeping the food hot
• B) Setting up the light, framing and exposure before the food arrives
• C) Taking the place of the hero plate
• D) Measuring the white balance

4. How is a dark-skinned hand reaching for the food in backlight opened up?

• A) By moving the light to six o'clock
• B) By stopping down the aperture
• C) By taking the hand out of the frame
• D) By bringing the white card beside the camera closer to the hand

Answers

1. C — Because the camera stands at six on the face, twelve is the backlight behind the plate.
2. A — Light coming from behind bounces off shiny surfaces at its angle of incidence and reaches the lens.
3. B — When the fresh food arrives everything is ready and the first minutes aren't wasted.
4. D — The approaching card turns more light back to the side in shadow and the skin opens up.

Summary card

• The direction clock works on the plate too: twelve back, three-nine side, six front.
• Ten to two o'clock: texture, steam and freshness highlights.
• A glint is a reflection: it turns toward the lens when the light comes from behind.
• Prepare with a stand-in plate; the first minutes go to shooting.
• In backlight, a white card for the hand; closer on dark skin.

Bridge to the next lesson

Seeing the frames, the restaurant owner is pleased and asks a question: why does food in ads always look so plump, shiny and flawless? In the burger they saw in a magazine, the patty shines, every lettuce leaf stands upright, with small water droplets on it. What are the behind-the-scenes tricks? The next lesson takes up food styling, that is, choosing the plate, building texture and the small touches made with a brush and a spray.