The main purpose of taking pictures of food is to show the color, aroma, taste and texture of the food well so as to arouse people's appetite. Lighting of food, rarely use direct hard light, generally use soft light still with direction, this soft light on the texture of food performance is best. So, what are the techniques for photographing food?

Tips for photographing food, the use of light

1, natural light

The use of natural light to photograph the food is a very good choice, I am in the fashion magazines and other media to photograph the food, most of the time, choose to shoot in natural light. But try to avoid direct light, as that can cast harsh shadows on the food. Don't use flash (the camera comes with a flash) unless you want your food to look all wet and greasy. But on the occasional shot of a roast or something like that, that effect might look cool and funky. Try diffused soft light coming in through thin curtains, use it as a backlight or side backlight, and you'll find the food is beautiful.

2. Flash

Didn't we just say no flash? Yes, don't use the flash that comes with the machine, the flash we are talking about here is a professional flash. The lighting arrangement of food photography, to show the three-dimensionality of the dishes, the basic use of light is to use a slight sense of backlighting of the top light, combined with the side of the main light and the character of the secondary light, soft mask and honeycomb cover is more commonly used.

Shooting bread, cakes and other snack foods to soft light is the main; and braised, deep-fried and other fatty food, you need to avoid food through a more rigid light source is too plain; shooting cooked dishes, drinks and other translucent food should be its sense of transparency out, which is the use of backlighting and contouring light is very effective. Lighting is dead, people are alive, in the face of different foods, creative use of local light sources, will arrive at a surprising effect.

Shooting food skills, composition and angle

1, how to highlight the expression of the dish

Here, according to the actual situation of the network, we published on the network of pictures, mainly want to highlight the food salivation, resulting in the appetite of the photos, the sense of temptation! The most important thing. So simply taking a picture of the food along with the tableware neatly, such a simple perspective, just so we can see the food itself, but does not reflect the tantalizing feeling. Why don't we look for the most critical parts of the food, such as the most beautiful pieces of staple food in a dish, or even the beautiful tableware, and let the viewer to associate and feel. If you have the conditions, you can also change the container and environment of the dish itself to achieve the effect of surprise.

2, shooting angle 0, 45, 90 usage, purpose

Food shooting angle, should be based on the characteristics of the dish to grasp. Here are some simple instructions:

Western food, snacks, snacks, drinks and other three-dimensional sense of food, more suitable for 0 angle and other relatively flat angle shooting, in order to highlight the three-dimensional sense of food.

In Chinese cuisine, a large number of large plate tableware, or a large bowl of soup and roasted vegetables, in order to be able to perform well to these large tableware within the food, we can use about 90 degrees of relatively vertical angle shooting, of course, some of the interesting Western food can try to use the plate, to bring a different visual effect.

The 45-degree visualization is more common, but we often use it for general dishes, which requires us to reasonably match the material and use props to avoid blandness.

Of course, when shooting these foods, special techniques are essential. In order to maintain the freshness of the food, you can also spray or paint some special liquids on the food, or inject certain substances into the food to maintain its color, surface texture and fresh appearance.

The most typical example is in the shooting of fruit, the surface of the fruit coated with a thin layer of grease, and then sprayed with water spray, it will make the fruit produce a fresh and crystalline effect, and then through the illumination of the sidelight, it will really make people salivate. This is done by first pouring a few drops of glycerin on the palms of your hands. Rub your hands a little, then take the fruit in your hands and rub them with both palms. After a general coating of glycerin has been applied, place the fruit in a bowl and arrange it neatly as you envision. Then, take a plastic spray bottle filled with water and carefully spray the water onto the fruit. This results in a layer of crystalized water droplets on the fruit, achieving the desired effect.

Need to be reminded that the use of spray bottles, be sure to keep an eye on the surrounding diffuse light, should be turned off after the nearby lights, and then start spraying water, and so ready to take pictures and then turn on the lights. Also, when spraying water, cover the rest of the area, because if the bowl and seamless paper are sprayed with water, the whole image effect is ruined. Don't put too much oil on the fruit or the surface will give off an unnatural shine, just a thin layer of oil.

If you want to show the heat of the food, you can be flexible according to different foods. Want to enhance the effect of general food hot air, you can be in all of the cloth light is completed, find a thin blowpipe, such as sucking with . Wheat pipe, mouth sucking a mouthful of cigarette smoke, the straw to the interior of the food being photographed, forcefully spray a mouthful of smoke, and then quickly leave, such as smoke rose to the best state in a timely manner when the shutter is pressed.

Note that to make the above smoke effect is more obvious in the picture, the best use of backlighting or backlighting in the best lighting, and choose a deep dark background, the dazzling smoke will be in the dark background curling up, it is imaginative.

In the shooting of vegetables, in order to show the texture of vegetables fresh, may wish to put the vegetables beforehand in alkaline water to soak a little, you can make the vegetables to get fresh green fresh texture. And when some of the food on the table may change its initial state, it will have to use a special way to deal with the use of some artificial materials to simulate the shape and texture of the dishes to do some fake food, in order to restore the best state of the food.

The most typical example is to shoot the ice, no matter how quickly you, the ice melts under the light much faster than you think. So when you're generally shooting ice or food images with ice, you can get quite realistic results by choosing a type of ice that's specifically carved out of Plexiglas.

Photographing cut apples should be soaked in salt or lemon water to avoid discoloration from exposure to air over time. If you are photographing cooked meat or fish, you can apply a layer of refined cooking oil before shooting to make the food look especially fresh.

The composition of food photography can only be used as a reference, because all the atmosphere and the effect of the food to be done, can only be reflected. Then improvise some local adjustments to make it as close as possible to the original idea.