The Spring Festival is the most important traditional festival for the Chinese.

The most anticipated day when I was a child was the Chinese New Year. In addition to New Year's money and new clothes, there were also all kinds of mouth-watering delicacies.

Although people's living standards have improved now, and big fish and meat are no longer only available during the New Year and holidays, those traditional foods with the flavor of the New Year are still an indispensable protagonist on the table.

If you don’t eat these delicacies during the Chinese New Year, you will always feel like you are missing something.

So how do you take pictures of delicious food during the Spring Festival? Let’s take a look with me.

1. Key points of food photography ideas 1. The material of food Personally think this is the most important.

Different foods have different textures, soft, crispy, delicate, plump, oily, etc... You need to use different lights for different materials (most people are not interested in studio lighting so I won't talk about it) about high-end food photography

There will also be a dedicated food stylist to "shape" the food and make the food more delicious through some "make-up": the gloss of the ingredients, the presentation of the ingredients, etc.

What most of us can do on a daily basis is to arrange the food better.

2. The common method for photographing the environment/atmosphere of tasting is to make the whole picture bright and slightly warmer (such as fried food, baked pasta, etc.), but it should be noted that most of the foods photographed pursue the normal restoration of color, especially when photographing cold dishes,

For photos such as Western-style snacks and fast food, avoid heavy PS) layout. A common method is to highlight the feeling that the food is right in front of you.

For example, in the picture below, it feels like it’s hot out of the oven.

3. The cooking skills are fresh (spray some water on the vegetables), delicious, hygienic and beautiful.

This is also part of Stylish.

If you do these 3 basic things well, it will be a good photo.

2. Tips for photographing food 1. Don’t use a wide angle. This is the first thing I want to say. It can be regarded as the most basic, most direct and effective suggestion for novices.

Because most dishes are not large in size, the shooting distance is often relatively close when photographing food at a wide angle, which leads to a deepening of wide-angle distortion.

This distortion will destroy the first two points mentioned earlier: materials and environments.

If the tableware (especially the plates holding food) has obvious perspective distortion, it will greatly reduce the immersive feeling, or in other words, it will be unfriendly and unfamiliar.

If you have to use a wide angle, try not to include the entire plate - that is, take a close-up.

This can weaken wide-angle distortion.

However, getting too close will affect the depth of field issue mentioned later, so you have to make a decision based on the situation.

The same goes for ingredients.

I admire the presentation method that is close to the human eye and has the original taste.

2. Control the depth of field. Many people think that for photographing food, they only need a large aperture. In fact, whether it is portrait or still life photography, depth of field is often an important reference that distinguishes high-end photography from low-end photography.

For tasks such as food, which are small in size and can easily be photographed with a shallow depth of field, control of the depth of field is even more important.

The less blurred the subject is, the clearer the material is. The large amount of details in the food is the key to arousing appetite.

It is normal to not see any blur in high-end photography.

The pictures in Zhihu are relatively small, but it would be very cool if they were actually printed on a large-format menu.

High-end restaurants often need to reflect the overall luxury and present multiple dishes together, which requires a small aperture.

At the same time, there is no need for a wide angle.

3. Highlight the ingredients Some foods can be cut into pieces to highlight the ingredients used, which can arouse people's appetite.

4. Shooting from above. The two points mentioned at the beginning are actually quite troublesome for ordinary users.

Point-and-shoot phones/mobile phones generally have wide angles, and it is difficult to control the depth of field well.

In order to solve these problems, shooting from above is a very useful technique.

There is a Japanese guy named keiyamazaki on Instagram who specializes in taking breakfast photos. He almost always takes overhead shots.

Looking down can be described as killing multiple birds with one stone: 1) Weakening wide-angle distortion.

2) By placing a variety of foods on a flat surface, the depth of field is fully utilized and the blur is reduced.

3) A little decoration can highlight the sense of sophistication.

4) In line with our perspective when eating.

5) If it is in a window, the large-area metering of the window can better highlight the material of the food (in fact, only side light, the top light will be blocked by the camera).

6) Many Chinese dishes use relatively deep bowls, and the top view can show the complete appearance of the food better than other angles. Therefore, this can be seen even in high-end photography.

It’s a tried and true method.