Have you ever seen mouth-watering pictures of food on the internet? They are amazingly tempting and make you feel hungry, right?
You must have never thought that taking these compelling images is hard and challenging for photographers.
If you think of excelling in your career as a macro food photographer, you’ll have to learn the great skills of taking efficient close-up shots because macro food photography is all about focused photographs.
Now you must be confused about how to get the perfect snap of delicious food…..
We will guide you through macro food photography and how to do it in detail so you can start your career immediately or get the perfect food images for your restaurant menu card.
So are you ready? Let’s move further.
What Is Macro Food Photography?
A macro lens gets accurate, detailed, and close-up photographs of food items to display their goodness to the viewer. This is what macro food photography means. The purpose of these images is to show the texture and color and even let the viewer feel the virtual taste of the food.
Macro photography gives viewers the sensation of holding the food in their hands.
Tips To Do Macro Food Photography
Food photographers who are just starting, or anyone who wants to do it themself without hiring a professional, must know some tips.
Here are some tips for taking great food photographs like a pro.
01: Stay Careful With Autofocus Mode
Autofocus sometimes fails to lock into the subject when used with food photography. An autofocus lens can be substituted with a focus limiter lens.
It reduces the distance between the lens and the food item, allowing it to focus more easily. Taking a snap must also not be delayed for long after focusing because the image becomes blurry if you delay it.
02: Benefit From Fast Shutter Speed
Getting an accurate and sharp food photograph with a macro lens is not easy. Sometimes even after putting in all the effort, you will fail to get a crisp image.
A fast shutter speed can help you get the perfect and clear image of the food item you need. A faster shutter speed reduces the chances of blurring the image associated with a slow shutter loading speed.
03: Know The Depth Of the Field
The depth of field holds a very important part while photographing food. It is the distance between a nearer subject and the farthest object.
This distance, if maintained properly, helps to focus clearly on the nearest subject, making it sharp while blurring out all the other unwanted backgrounds. The aperture value and magnification of your lens affect the depth of field, making your picture the best or the worse.
04: Creative Background
It’s not easy to impress the viewer to make a certain decision to buy your food immediately. Using a creative background is one of the tricks that help you to make the food more appealing and eye catchy.
Choose a background that enhances the colors and looks of the food instead of limiting it. Like if your food is dark colored, using a light background and adding a few ingredients separately will help to make that photograph more appealing.
05: Stay Close To Subject
Taking closer shots is the main part of macro photography, which is why macro food photographers must stay closer to the subject. This helps to get clear yet accurate shots of the food items without zooming in too much. Obviously, the closer you are to the subject you will have the better chance of capturing every aspect of the food item.
06: Edit The Photographs
Capturing the macro food photographs using tips and tricks is not enough because there is still room for improvement. To add a more professional look to your food photographs, you need to edit them to eliminate any flaws and enhance them even more.
Especially if your purpose of taking the photographs is to publish them in a magazine or newspaper or post them on a billboard, editing is a must in every situation. You can hire a professional photo editor or do it yourself. Just remember not to edit the images too much; that makes them look fake.
07: Use Proper Focal Point
A focal point can be the main turning point for any viewer, being the center of attention. You can use the focal point to divert the viewer’s attention to a specific part of the photograph. Using the focal points carefully and creatively helps to make your images the best ones.
You must select a focal point that gives a direct message to the viewer. To focus directly on your subject, you can use a narrow depth of field, giving more opportunity to guide the viewer directly to the point where you want him to focus.
08: Maintaining The Exposure Triangle
You need to understand the exposure triangle by mastering the aperture. Get a deep understanding of your lens by experimenting with it from different angles with multiple food items.
Begin with a small aperture and then go up to the higher ones. Try to take photographs from different angles to learn what works best for your situation.
Essential Equipment For Macro Food Photography
Using specialized equipment for food photography holds equal importance to being a skilled photographer. No matter how much experience you have, if you don’t have the accurate equipment, you’ll fail.
To save you from failing, we’ve gathered the list of important equipment you need to buy before moving on with macro photography of food.
Macro Lens
You can’t capture macro photographs without having a high-quality macro lens from the best company. Macro lens photography helps get sharp, clear, and close images focusing on food texture, color, and richness.
We suggest using a reputable company’s 100mm f/2.8 macro lens to get the desired results. You can use other lenses depending on what foods you want to capture.
Camera
The camera selection determines the success of food photography as it’s a highly professional and delicate task where a small change can make or ruin the whole photography project.
You cannot use a mobile phone camera, because that’s not specialized for food photography. Buy a specialized and professional camera to get amazing food photos. You can select Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Fuji from the best cameras available in the market.
Tripod Stand
A tripod stand is the most important thing in any kind of photography. The purpose is to free the photographer from continuously holding the camera in hand with less independence to focus on other factors.
Secondly, you can take more images from the same point without changing positions. Also, a tripod stand will maintain the focus and other settings of the camera from a particular point, enhancing the image’s look.
Lighting Devices
You cannot get stunning food photographs without enough light because you need to capture the close-ups of the food; that is only possible when you have accurate lighting.
The good thing is that you can use natural and artificial lighting depending on your need and what you can afford. For indoor food photography, you must use artificial lighting. But you need to be very careful while choosing lighting devices.
Color Correction Card
In capturing the coloring macro photography of food, a color correction card plays the most important role. It helps to highlight the colors of the food item, separating the highlighted area from the background and giving it a more enhanced look.
Using the color correction card, you can adjust the color levels, burn, saturation, curves, and more. This reduces the need to edit the photographs later; still, you must edit so that no flaws are left behind.
Where To Market Macro Food Photography
Marketing food photographs requires time, but it’s not as difficult as you think. Countless social media platforms are available where you can easily market your photographs to get clients and customers for the food.
Some of these forums include LinkedIn, Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram. You just need to learn a few marketing skills, and you are all set to get new clients.
Pricing of Macro Food Photography
Food photography cost depends on factors like area, type of food difficulty, the expertise of the macro food photographer, and time required to take the particular food photographs.
Considering all these factors, food photography can charge between $100 to $500 dollars depending on how many pictures you need and what your photographer charges.
My Final Words
Macro food photography is growing nowadays, especially for the purpose of advertising. To start your career in food photography, you need to learn the details of capturing sizzling cuisines with a detail that will convince the viewer to buy the food item immediately.
You can’t just grab any camera and start photographing food. Instead, learn about the best food photography equipment and food photography tips for working like a master of your field.
We hope this article was helpful for you to get enough knowledge about how to take the best food shots. Still, if you have any queries, you can ask us.