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6 Ways To Create a Focal Point in Food Photography

September 22, 2023

I am sharing some of my favorite ways to create a focal point in food photography. There are simple techniques you can apply to take better food photos today.

A cover for a blog post called 6 Ways To Create A Focal Point In Food Photography

If you ever took one lesson and applied it to your food photos, it would be this – make sure your photo has a focal point.

There are exceptions to this rule, like anything else in life, but truly keep this sentence in the back of your head. ALWAYS!

Creating captivating images is all about the viewer understanding and emotionally connecting with what they are seeing – your food photo.

And if you want to achieve that, you need to master creating a focal point in a photo.

If you’re looking to enhance your food photography skills and make your dishes pop off the screen, then you’re in the right place. Because in this blog post, we’ll delve into the concept of the focal point and its crucial role in food photography.

The Heart of Food Photography – The Focal Point

In food photography, the focal point is the heart and soul of your shot. It’s the element that immediately grabs the viewer’s attention, leading their eyes through the frame and making your subject shine.

So, what happens when your photo doesn’t have a focal point?

As I mentioned, there are times when there is not just one focal point. But in most cases, you will need only one focal point in the frame.

When you don’t have a clear and compelling focal point, your food photos risk falling flat and failing to engage your audience. So what that means is they will be confused with what they are seeing or have a hard time knowing what exactly is happening in the frame. Where should they be looking?

So, how can you master the art of creating a powerful focal point in your food photos? Let’s dive into these six super easy techniques you can use straight away to make your food photography a million times better.

For more in-depth concepts and techniques around the focal points and composition, enroll in my masterclass – Food To Frame.

Here are some of my favorite ways to create a focal point in food photography. Keep in mind that, in most cases, you will use more than just one of these techniques.

1. Leading Lines

Leading lines are one of the most effective and straightforward ways to bring the viewer’s eye to the focal point. But it is also quite tricky since you need to learn what works and what doesn’t.

These lines can take the form of utensils, tableware, or even the arrangement of ingredients and even just empty space. However, keep in mind that the subtlety of leading lines can be an art in itself.

If you want to read more about leading lines, I have a whole article on this topic.

Forest blueberries on a vintage plate on a dark green backdrop

2. Depth-of-Field

When you skillfully blur out parts of your frame either in the back or in the front of your subject, this can create a stunning way to emphasize whatever is not blurred.

The depth of field is a super technical thing because you need to find that sweet spot in your camera settings, aperture to be exact, and the placement of the elements in the frame.

In general, we know:

Shallow depth of field, where the majority of the frame is out of focus, aka blurred and
Deep depth of field where the majority of the photo is in focus
And all the spots in between

Lower aperture settings create a shallower depth of field.

Higher aperture settings create a deeper depth of field.

When you can master how narrow or wide the depth of field your photos need, you have mastered one of the most powerful techniques for bringing focus into the areas you want without any distractions.

A person holding blueberries in a basket in the garden

3. Post-Processing

Post-processing is where your food photos truly come alive. It’s that final way to make everything in your photo shine – especially the focal point.

During editing, make sure that your adjustments not only enhance the colors, textures, and contrast of your entire frame but also accentuate the focal point.

Any kind of local adjustments that you can apply to only parts of the photo will have a great impact on the way your final photo looks.

Using local adjustments, brushes, masks, and all this fun stuff is one of the things a lot of my students are super scared of. But trust me, it’s not too scary once you know how to work all the tools.

When you learn a new software, the first thing I suggest doing is learning to work with the tools that allow you to edit parts of the photo instead of the entire photo.

4. Play of Light and Shadows

Light is essential to any food photo, right? Well, so are shadows.

But the thing is, light is not just a way to make your subject bright and visible. It is far beyond that.

The way light and shadows play can not just add depth to your food photos but also create an emphasis on your subject.

Whether it is making it brighter, keeping the surroundings in the shadow, or having stronger shadows on the main subject in comparison to everything else, the possibilities are truly endless.

And I encourage you to explore light and shadows more.

A purple and pink cocktail with crushed ice decorated with flowers

5. Layering

Layering can be achieved in various ways. You can create layers in multiple ways, using the space around your subject.

I like to teach layering in different directions and how those affect the final photo, plus how the layers interact with each other.

Actually, creating a depth-of-field is one way of adding layers to your photo.

But one of the simplest ones is placing elements below your subject (which would be the props) and on top of your subject (which would be the parts of the dish or garnishes).

Layering adds depth and visual interest to your photos, so do not forget about it.

Blueberry ice cream in a metal cup decorated with frozen blueberries

6. Enhancing Textures and Shape

Texture is something we don’t often associate with creating focus.

When intentionally enhanced or sometimes even reduced, texture can bring additional focus to a focal point. This can either be done through styling, camera settings, or, finally, editing.

Note that this is usually not the main technique for creating a focal point but rather something that supports all the other techniques.

Similarly, emphasizing shape through careful placement of both your subject or other elements in the frame can bring focus to that particular shape.

When a shape is clearly standing out, it will immediately attract our gaze.

A person sprinkling icing sugar over croissants

Conclusion

With these six techniques and your creativity in your toolbox, you’re all set to become a pro at creating a clear focal point in your food photos.

Just like any craft, practice is the key element. The more you practice, the more intuitive these techniques will become.

And guess what? The next post is just around the corner. We’ll keep delving deeper into the exciting world of composition for food photography. So, stay tuned for more juicy insights and tips that’ll make your food photos absolutely delectable!

How to Take Stunning Drink Photos

May 11, 2023

Learn how to take stunning drink photos with these 8 tips & tricks! From the rule of odds to backlighting and adding human elements, these simple techniques will help you create beautiful and memorable photos. Get ready to capture your next amazing drink photo!

Photographing drinks can be a challenging task, but it’s also a lot of fun. Drinks can be very colorful and come in all sorts of unique glasses and vessels, making them a unique and exciting subject for photography. If you’re a food photographer looking to improve your drink photography skills, you’re in the right place!

In this article, I’ll share some tips and tricks that will help you take stunning drink photos.

1. Use the Rule of Odds

The rule of odds is a simple rule that states that objects arranged in odd numbers are more visually appealing than those arranged in even numbers. When photographing drinks, try placing them on the set in groups of three or five (usually not more for drinks, but you can test that, too!) to make them more visually appealing. This will also help create depth and texture in your photos, especially when you play with placing them at different distances from the camera.

To apply this rule to drink photography, consider arranging the drinks and the glasses in groups of three or five, creating triangles or diagonal lines in the composition. Doing so will make your photos more visually dynamic and engaging, especially when combined with different shapes and sizes of glasses or other props in the scene. You can also use this rule to create patterns or repetitions with the drinks and the glasses, adding a sense of rhythm and harmony to your photos.

2. Be Mindful of the Colors

Drinks come in a wide variety of colors, and you want to make sure that you’re capturing the true essence of the drink in your photos. Pay attention to the colors of the drink and the background. If the drink is dark, consider using a lighter background to make it pop. Conversely, if the drink is light, consider using a darker background.

When choosing the background for your drink photos, consider the color temperature and the contrast with the drink. For example, if you’re photographing a red cocktail, consider using a green or blue background to create a complementary contrast. On the other hand, if you’re photographing a white or clear drink, consider using a black or dark background to create a dramatic contrast. That’s not a rule by any means, but if your photo doesn’t work, it’s worth noting if there’s a problem with the color or brightness contrast. And here is where you can apply these tips.

You can also use props or decorations that match (or contrast) the colors of the drink, such as fruits, herbs, or flowers, to add texture and depth to your photos.

3. Backlight Your Photo

Backlighting is a great way to add depth and drama to your drink photos. Positioning your light source behind your drink can create a beautiful halo effect to make your drink photos stand out.

To backlight your drink photos, place your drink in front of a window or a light source and position your camera so that the drink is between the light source and the camera. This will create a natural backlight that will highlight the colors and shape of the drink, creating a beautiful ethereal effect. You can also use a reflector or a white card to bounce the light back onto the glass and fill in the shadows, creating a more balanced exposure.

4. Create a Frosted Effect

To create a frosted effect on your drink, simply spray a light mist of water on the outside of the glass before taking your photo. This will give your drink a beautiful, frosty appearance, making it look even more refreshing.

To create the frosted effect, use a spray bottle with water or a mix of water and glycerin, and spray a fine mist onto the outside of the glass. Be careful not to spray too much of the mixture since this can make the drink look messy. You can also use a paper towel or a Q-tip to wipe off any excess water or droplets from the glass. This technique works particularly well with cold or frozen drinks, such as iced tea, smoothies, or cocktails.

You can read more about creating a frosted effect here.

5. Use Artificial Ice

Using real ice in your drink can be tricky because it can melt quickly under the heat of the lights, especially when you’re working on cocktails in the summer. Which will give you a very short window for photographing the drink. Artificial ice, on the other hand, provides a more consistent and longer-lasting effect, making it perfect for drink photography.

Artificial ice comes in various forms, such as chunks or shards. You can get them in different materials, some of which will look more realistic than others. Before you purchase any artificial ice, I highly encourage you to read reviews!

6. Tell a Story

Every drink has a story, and your job as a photographer is to capture that story in your photos. Think about the context and the mood of the drink, and try to convey it through your composition, lighting, and props. Is it meant to be enjoyed on a hot summer day or to warm you up on a cold winter night? Is it a casual drink to share with friends or a special cocktail to celebrate a milestone?

To tell a story with your drink photos, consider the setting, the accessories, and the ambiance of your scene. For example, you can use a wooden table or a beach towel as a background for a casual vibe or a marble countertop or a velvet tablecloth for a more elegant look.

7. Add Human Element

Adding a human element to your drink photos can make them more relatable, engaging, and memorable. People love to see other people enjoying drinks, especially when they can imagine themselves in that situation. By including a hand in your photo, you can create a sense of connection between the viewer and the drink and make the image more inviting and personal.

As a one-man band, I often photograph myself holding the drink. If you do the same, make sure to set your camera on a timer and focus it on the spot where you’re going to hold the drink.

8. Capture Action

I love action! It always adds a fun element to any photo. Capturing the action of the drink, such as pouring, shaking, stirring, or splashing, can add a sense of movement and excitement to your photos and make them more exciting and lively

To capture the action of the drink, use a fast shutter speed and a burst mode to freeze the moment and capture multiple shots in a row.

I hope these tips and tricks will help you take stunning drink photos that will wow your audience and enhance your portfolio. So remember to practice, experiment, have fun with your photography, and share your best shots on social media and your website (cuz you never know who’s watching). Cheers to your success!

Invitation to the online Drink Photography Workshop

How To Make Artificial Light Look Natural

October 18, 2022

If done correctly, artificial light can elevate your food photography process and make it easier to handle long photoshoots while producing a consistent look. However, it takes some understanding of the basics of light to make it look natural.

The world of artificial light is vast and has so much to offer. You can create looks that are out of this world, but you can also create a photo that looks like it was taken in natural light.

And this is what we are focusing on in this article.

I remember my early days of blogging when I was creating recipes and taking photos, which took me so long. During the time I got from the first to the last shot, my light changed a gazillion times. My editing skills were nowhere near what they are these days, and editing that series of images was a nightmare.

I refused to get artificial light because I was sure it would make my photos look cringe. But then, one day, I decided to get my first off-camera flash (which I use to this date!), and I was so scared to start.

But once I took the courage to test it out and see for myself and practice, practice, practice; this is when I realized artificial light could look exactly like natural light. It’s all about knowing a few key ingredients.

We will talk a lot more in-depth in the live Artificial Light For Beginners Workshop, so if you’re interested in that, click here.

And now, let’s see all the different things you need to do to make your artificial light look natural.

Learn about light dynamics

Working with any type of light, you will notice it has some characteristics. It changes depending on a few factors, and observing those changes is crucial to learn both natural and artificial light.

When we talk about the properties of light, we can divide them into quantity and quality.

Quantity is how much light we have on hand.

Quality is how this light looks like.

I like to teach my students in my Food To Frame course about the four pillars of light dynamics – Intensity of light (That’s the quantity), the color of light, the direction of light, and the softness or hardness of the light (these are the quality side of light).

Learning about these dynamic properties of light is crucial to know how to modify your light when working with artificial light. The key is knowing how light changes when working with a larger softbox compared to a small one or knowing how the distance of the light source from your subject can make light harder or softer.

Remember!

The bigger the modifier, the softer the light.

The bigger the distance between the light and the subject, the harder the light.

Observe natural light and how it looks in certain situations

There is no better teacher but the nature itself.

Observing how light looks and changes is one of the best ways to learn artificial light. Sounds strange, I know. But if you want to re-create natural light, you need to know what it looks like.

Become a student of light and observe how light in nature:

is diffused,
gets blocked
and gets reflected off surfaces.

Take a mental (or real) note of how this happens and combine this with your light dynamics knowledge.

I encourage you to take simple subjects, like produce or drinks (A simple glass with colored water will do!) and see how it looks in different natural light scenarios.

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Use the right modifier (size, diffusion material layers)

Everything always comes to the dynamics of light. There is really no going past that!

There are two important things you need to consider when modifying your artificial light:

Using the right size of your modifier. As I mentioned above, a larger modifier (aka a larger light source) the softer the light and vice versa.

Knowing how many diffusion layers to add. Typically we only focus on the shape and size of a modifier, but what is also very important is how many layers of diffusion you need to use. The more layers you use, the softer the shadows will be, creating lovely, natural-looking soft shadows.

How to use artificial light behind the scenes

Distance is key!

One of the best things about artificial light is that you can move the light around the scene and not the other way around. This allows you to explore how the light looks when you place it further or closer to the scene.

If you place your light closer, you’ll get softer shadows, and placing it further back will create harder shadows. They can both be found in nature, so there is no wrong or right here. But, you need to know what your end goal is to know to place your light.

There is much more to discuss on this end, and we’ll be delving deep into this topic with examples and much more in the Artificial Light For Beginners workshop. I’ll be happy to see you inside if you decide to join.

How To Mix And Match Photography Backdrops

September 2, 2022

Curious about photography backdrops and how to mix them in your food photography work? There are a number of ways you can mix and match backdrops and I hope my ideas will give you a creative boost for your work!

*This post is sponsored. All opinions are my own.*

Let’s face it, once you start building your backdrop collection you start facing the issue of how to pair them. The options are literally endless however not everything works in every situation.

So I gathered a list of ideas and tips to spark your creative fire, try new combinations, and be comfortable doing so.

While doing so I tested my new food photography backdrops from V-flat. It’s the first time I tried backdrops with a stand or as they call it Duo legs. I was always used to either leaning the backdrop on the wall or clipping it to a stand. However, I found the legs to be very useful, especially since I’m often playing around with my artificial light and I can very easily put the light behind the backdrop if need be. Which is something I wouldn’t be able to do if I lean the backdrop to a wall.

So before we go to the tips and creative ideas, I just wanted to mention that all the photos in this post are made with the V-flat duo boards, and you can see how easy it is to set them up and mix and match them. Not to mention that they don’t curl like vinyl. I love and appreciate my vinyl backdrops, but these boards saved me time in editing (no curly edges in the photos, no-no).

Without further ado…

Here are my creative ideas and tips in a nutshell:

1. Mixing and matching different colors

2. Mixing and matching smooth and rough textures

3. Mixing and matching patterns vs. no patterns

4. Mixing photography backdrops to create space

5. Mixing photography backdrops to create dynamics

6. Play of light & mixing photography backdrops

7. Mixing and matching backdrops to fit the story

1. Mixing and matching different colors

This is probably the most common technique and while it’s easy to mix two backdrops with similar colors, choosing two different colors can create a lovely feel and mood in your photo.

To really know which two {or more} colors to choose, we need to understand color theory. Since this is such a broad topic, we won’t go too deep. I suggest reading some art books or simply searching for them online and you should get a basic idea.

But whatever you do, always keep the food the star!

2. Mixing and matching smooth and rough textures

By smooth I mean a texture without a lot of visible bumps whereas by rough I mean a texture that has a very pronounced bump effect or pattern.

You can absolutely mix those two together, however, you need to be careful about a couple of things:

carefully choose the colors based on what we discussed in the previous section
it’s better to choose food with the opposite texture. Meaning, that if your subject is a very textured salad it might not work on a highly textured backdrop. In this case, you need to place the salad in a way where it has minimal interaction with the textured and more interaction with the smooth backdrop.

3. Mixing and matching patterns vs. no patterns

This is very similar to the previous creative idea, however in this case the texture is much more pronounced and looks more geometric hence – the pattern.

You need to watch the same things as above {so go ahead and read it if you haven’t yet}.

In comparison to simple but textured backdrops patterns are so much heavier in visual weight. This means that pairing them with highly textured foods is usually not a good idea. Choosing simpler and more uniform subjects is a better way to approach patterned backdrops.

Pairing them with a smoother photography backdrop makes it easier for the eye to process everything happening in the photo, so I encourage you to try it out and see the effect.

4. Mixing photography backdrops to create space

You can think of your backdrops as a vessel to create space. If it’s a flat lay it’s creating a feeling of a table or any other flat surface.

If you combine the two, you can give a sense of a familiar space. We are used to seeing floor and wall interact all around or a countertop and a wall interact in a kitchen.

But you can go even beyond that. Combining more than two photography backdrops is certainly possible. If you take a look at the example photo below, you’ll see how adding that extra backdrop on the left created a mystical feel {almost like whatever is behind is a secret}!

Before you choose a backdrop for your next photoshoot thinks about the space you want to create and what backdrops you can use and how many to make the viewer feel like they are in that space.

5. Mixing photography backdrops to create dynamics

Let’s talk more about the space we are creating with backdrops. Placing backdrops at certain angles can create beautiful diagonals and adds another dimension to a photo.

It’s very easy to get stuck in placing one backdrop behind another and set up that line between them to be perfectly horizontal. It’s just very logical. However, once you start to think about the backdrops as not only how they look, but how they can add to the flow in the composition, you’ll start to see that it can have a massive effect on how your photos look.

Think creating diagonals, triangles, placing one backdrop on top of another… the options are endless!

6. Play of light & mixing photography backdrops

Playing with light is one of the most exciting things about food photography if you ask me. I often like to play with hard light and shadows to create an interesting effect in my photos.

However, there is something crucial that can make or break a photo with a shadow play, when you are mixing different backdrops at the same time. Adding strong shadows to an already busy backdrop can become distracting very easily. That’s why I prefer having a strong shadow effect on the less busy backdrop. Just like you can see in the photo below.

7. Mixing and matching backdrops to fit the story

It goes without saying (although I’m saying it right now) that anything you put inside the scene needs to match the story you are telling.

Including photography backdrops! Imagine those white tiles in the photo below to be black.

Do you see how that would not fit the story of early morning breakfast? The photo would lose its freshness.

And imagine if I used a green backdrop below and a purple one in the back. While the color combination might somehow work, the story would be completely crushed.

Never stop exploring photography backdrops and their combinations

Hope you enjoyed these tips and ideas for combining different backdrops. Now let’s roll up the sleeves and go practice, because practice makes perfect, as they say.

One thing you should never stop is trusting your own feeling and explore new options.

Let me know in the comments what are some of your favorite photography backdrop combinations!

Number One Newbie Food Photography Mistake

January 25, 2021

We’ve all started and we’ve all made this super easy fixable food photography mistake. Let’s go through my old images and see how to spot the issue.

Number One Mistake Newbie Food Photographers Make

Today, I’ll walk you through a few mistakes I see new food photographers make all the time. They are very easily fixable and I’ll show you in my old photo examples. If you prefer following a video, here’s my YouTube video, and below you’ve got a transcript of the video.

In case you’re interested in more mistakes you might be doing and how to fix them, I have an article about that too.

Not making the main subject the hero

So one of the most common things I see food photographers do is not really thinking about their main subject and making it the hero or the focal point of the image. There should always be one clearly defined center of attention in the image. Always!

Actually, the more complicated scene you do, the more chance you have of missing what your hero subject is.

There’s a number of reasons why this can happen.

Let me explain.

Image #1

Let see the image below, for example. This is one of my oldest recipes from the blog. These are some super delicious chewy Guinness caramels. But you can’t really see it, because it’s wrapped in a wrap. I wasn’t thinking about, what about the hero dish is important. It’s not the wrap, it’s the caramel.

Image #2

So in the image below I’ve opened up a few caramels so the viewers can see them, and the image is a bit better, but everything that’s happening around is still overpowering. The bog glass and can in the back, the big bowl on the side, they all compete.

Image #3

Let’s see the third photo.

I’ve zoomed in a little and gotten a little more depth of field which is making the stuff around less obvious and less prominent.

Let’s see another photo form the same photoshoot. Again, the caramels should be where our eye goes, but that’s definitely not the case.

I mean it’s far from a perfect photo. I was just starting out. But through showcasing the caramels in the front and keeping distarctions away, blurred in the back I was able to keep the focus on the caramels, not the props and I also kept the storytelling.

Image #4

Let’s see another photo form the same photoshoot. Again, the caramels should be where our eye goes, but that’s definitely not the case.

First of all the caramels are not in focus. I missed the focus and placed it on the top of the glass, so now what’s in focus is the beer head.

Second thing, I’ve placed the caramel too close to the edge of the frame, so it gets lost in all the things that are happening inside this shot.

And third, the caramel compared to everything else in the frame is very small. So it also gets lost in terms of size.

My tip for you if you’re seeing these kinds of issues in your images would be to get good at less busy scenes first, so you can focus on your main subject instead of all the props and an elaborate story.

And I suggest identifying your main subject and keeping it on top of mind all the time during the photoshoot. Always re-evaluate if your main subject is really the hero.

So, this was the number one food photography mistake I see new photographers make. I hope you got some useful tips, let me know in the comments if this is something you struggle with as well.

Creative food photography composition techniques

November 26, 2019

With these nine food photography composition techniques you’ll be able to add an extra zing to your photos.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the rule of thirds, golden ratio or others. We are not going to talk about them today. Today it’s all about forgetting the grid. Well, not forgetting but rather focus on other powerful food photography composition techniques that add something extra to your food photos.

While you still want to keep those grids in the back of your mind, I want you to focus on details. Here are a few composition techniques that will add interest to your photos and help you bring your delicious dish to life.

Diagonals and movement

This is probably a #1 mistake I see with new food photographers (hello, I was there too). We were taught to place things parallel to the table or any edge. Your mom probably didn’t say: ‘Make your bed and make sure the lines are diagonal’ or did she? Probably not. We’re used to placing things straight, which is great in real life because this means order and cleanliness and we love to have a tidy (or at least a tidy looking) home.

But when it comes to food photography using only parallel lines is usually very boring and doesn’t create interest or dynamic.

On the other hand use of diagonals can be a really effective composition technique, since diagonals create movement and dynamic tension.

In the photo below you can see how I used two different diagonals. The napkin is placed diagonally and the dusting of sugar is following the other diagonal.

With these nine food photography composition techniques you'll be able to add an extra zing to your photos.

Negative space

Using space, that isn’t crowded with props is another great composition technique. If used wisely it can lead the viewer’s eye straight to the main subject. It adds harmony to an image and gives a sense of cleanliness and simplicity.

Negative space is not only a plain backdrop, but it can also be a part of the image where the props are very neutral or of a color that’s not distracting from the food but rather emphasizes it.

The great thing about negative space is that it creates a clean space for adding a copy.

This is the number one composition technique that I suggest new food photographers use. When I started out, I had almost no props that would actually be fit for food photography. I had things I used in real life and those are not always great in food photos.

By eliminating or using fewer props you can really focus on the dish itself without being distracted by the props that don’t really look good.

Go off-center

When you take a photo of someone, where inside the frame do you place that person? Was your answer in the middle? Yeah, we all do that. It’s natural to do that. But it doesn’t always make the biggest impact when we look at a photo like that, does it?

The same goes for food photography. Placing the subject in the center can be powerful when you know what you’re doing, but most of the time placing it off-center will lead the viewer’s eye around the image and to that main subject placed off-center.

Lines

Lines are a powerful technique of placing objects in the frame in such a way that they lead the viewer’s eye towards the main subject.

As in the photo below. There are chopsticks leading to the bowl on the left, the napkin is placed so that it creates a line leading to that plate. The rice and meat in the top right plate are styled so that they form a line in the middle. And this line is leading towards the main subject – the plate on the left.

One word of caution. I never set all the lines in a photo to lead towards the main subject. This would inevitably end up looking fake and unnatural.

Layers

This is my favorite composition technique when I want to tell a story. It allows you to add multiple props or layers of food that work cohesively together and tell a story about food. The great thing about layers is that they add texture to a photo. Using layers works miracles with flat foods, that don’t have a very distinct texture.

Layers can be anything. A backdrop, fabric, props, the food itself when it creates a nice texture and so on.

In the photo below you can see a few layers. There’s a wooden backdrop with lots of texture, two pieces of gauze napkins, a cooling rack, a pie pan, the pie itself and extra sugar on top. All these layers add another dimension and texture to the photo. However, they are not distracting since they are neutral in regards to the main subject – the pie.

Framing

Framing is a very simple concept. It literally means creating a frame around your subject so it creates a visual frame and leads the eye towards the main subject inside that frame.

Framing is very useful for dishes where it is not clearly visible what is in the dish. By placing the ingredients around to form a frame they let the viewer know what’s inside a dish and at the same time show where the hero of the image is.

It is also great for storytelling since the objects around your main subjects can tell a story of that dish while still emphasizing the main subject instead of distracting from it.

Repeat patterns

Patterns are one of the most if not the most graphical food photography composition technique of them all, especially when all the elements in the frame are the same.

Repeat patterns can be simply repeating objects of the same shape, like round objects or long objects.

Another powerful way to use patterns is to add something unexpected to the image. Like in the image below. There’s a cookie missing. This is breaking the pattern and adds interest to the image. It makes the viewer wonder where did it go. Did someone eat it?

Foreground

One of my favorite storytelling composition techniques.

The foreground is the part of the image that is closer to the camera as the main subject. While it is normal to use the space in front of the subject it is less usual to extend the foreground to the point where it looks like there’s an object very far away from the main subject.

This technique adds a sense of space and depth to an image.

Mixing shapes

If with repeating pattern technique is to mix objects of the same shapes, this is the total opposite. By using objects of different shapes you can create visual interest.

This is the most obvious in a top-down photo, but you can do the same with any other angle, like in the photo below. By using a square box instead of something round, I was able to create a line that leads the eye to the main subject – the fruits on the plate. But it also adds contrast to all the round shapes in the frame.

Give these food photography composition techniques a try

I hope you enjoyed my guide and if you try some creative food photography composition techniques, let me know in the comments below.

One more thing, I highly recommend (as I always do) using a tripod or something to stabilize your camera.

I know setting up the scene before setting up the camera is tempting, but in order to take full advantage of powerful composition, placing the camera in its position is the key. Then once the camera is set, start setting up the scene.

And here are some extra thoughts because I love planning 🙂

Planning and sketching

Whenever I can I draw a sketch of the shot. Here’s the reason why?

I could easily rely on creating a beautiful composition by looking at the screen of my camera. But I don’t want to be stuck with the same rule of thirds with all my photos. Most of the cameras these days offer a rule of thirds grid option, so you can see the lines through the screen while you style. And I find this very very useful. But I don’t always follow the rule of thirds. In this case, it’s hard to imagine, where all the props and dishes will go. That’s why I draw a grid or print it out.

Tag Archive for: styling

The Heart of Food Photography – The Focal Point

1. Leading Lines

2. Depth-of-Field

3. Post-Processing

4. Play of Light and Shadows

5. Layering

6. Enhancing Textures and Shape

Conclusion

1. Use the Rule of Odds

2. Be Mindful of the Colors

3. Backlight Your Photo

4. Create a Frosted Effect

5. Use Artificial Ice

6. Tell a Story

7. Add Human Element

8. Capture Action

Learn about light dynamics

Observe natural light and how it looks in certain situations

Use the right modifier (size, diffusion material layers)

Distance is key!

Here are my creative ideas and tips in a nutshell:

1. Mixing and matching different colors

2. Mixing and matching smooth and rough textures

3. Mixing and matching patterns vs. no patterns

4. Mixing photography backdrops to create space

5. Mixing photography backdrops to create dynamics

6. Play of light & mixing photography backdrops

7. Mixing and matching backdrops to fit the story

Never stop exploring photography backdrops and their combinations

Not making the main subject the hero

Image #1

Image #2

Image #3

Image #4

Diagonals and movement

Negative space

Go off-center

Lines

Layers

Framing

Repeat patterns

Foreground

Mixing shapes

Give these food photography composition techniques a try

Planning and sketching

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