Your Guide to Taking Food Photos Good Enough to Eat

When you have got the most delicious looking plate of food served to you, it is always fun to take a photo to ~~taunt~~ share with your friends, earn some 'Likes' and just up your 'street cred' in general. Nearly always by your side, smartphones with their increasingly proficient in-built cameras become your BFF when it comes to snapping food photos on the go. And with the slew of photo-taking apps available on smartphones (OpenSnap, Instagram, Camera+ etc.), some even dedicated to #foodporn, you might just have to try out a few, even use a couple in tandem to your liking. Armed with your app of choice, you will just need the know-how. Here are some popular tips shared by food photographers around the world. Choose Your Seat The process of taking a good food photo starts when you enter the restaurant. Short of setting up every shot with your own lighting team, natural light is your best friend. So find a window seat with soft directional light filtering in and let the ambient light work its magic.

! Avoid using the on-camera flash as it will cause uneven lighting, with the front of your photo appearing a lot brighter than the back. The Rule of Thirds As with any work of art, it's all about composition, composition, composition. And the Rule of Thirds breaks each photo down like a tic-tac-toe board would, into 9 sections and 4 intersecting points.

While this might not always apply, try not to feature your subject in the centre of the photo. Instead, compose your photo such that focus is drawn to 1 of the 4 intersection points. Explore Your Angles Top-down, 45° degrees, low-angle and everything in between.
Just as you might prefer your right side to your left for a mug shot, it is about choosing the angle where the dish looks best.

Adopt the top-down view for a macro image of the dish, accentuating general textures and it is generally a very forgiving angle for having little or no props.
The 45° degree shot angle is the most common one allowing the photographer to capture the subject while including a degree of depth to showcase the background decor.

Setting up the 'Studio' - Background, Props, Camera Make no mistake - the dish is the hero of the photo. Part of creating the perfect food photo is really working the background, utilizing props available to make the food shine like the star it is supposed to be.

Wood as a surface is definitely in - the rustic, textured surface plays perfect host to food dishes. Alternatively, light/white surfaces allow the colours of the food to really pop as well. And as and when available, complementary drinks or condiments in the background add varied elements to the photo. The 'Close-Up' Sometimes a food photo just needs that little boost more, to showcase a star ingredient for instance. Holding up a single food item up close and personal enough to see the intricate details backed against a backdrop of other food dishes works nicely.

Bonus points if you manage a tasteful 'bokeh', blurring the parts of the photo out of the focal zone. Raising Photo Quality (Through the Roof) Smartphones are smart, but photo quality wise, they just wouldn't be able to cut it like a full-fledged camera. It is becoming increasingly common for 'smartphone-ographers' to take photos with cameras before uploading the same photos onto social platforms via their mobile phones. Point-and-Shoot cameras offer an instant boost to photo quality with as little as a point and shoot. DSLRs on the other hand, grant the user extensive manual control for effects such as depth of field and also flexibility in shooting under different lighting conditions. Our Choice of Point-and-Shoot: Nikon COOLPIX P340

Weighing in at just 194g, the Nikon COOLPIX P340 brings the best of both worlds in a sleek portable frame. We love it for many reasons:

Its super-fast f/1.8 lens that gives us crystal clear photos every time.
The 'Macro' mode allowing us to get real up close and personal with our food subjects from as close as 2 cm away.
Creating 'bokeh' has never been easier; throws the subject into clear focus with a beautiful background blur
Built-in WiFi capability makes transferring images to smart devices and sharing on social networking sites a breeze

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If you have any more food photography tips, or favourite food dishes that you love to photograph, let us know in the comments below! See Also: Stand a chance to win attractive prizes here Don't miss the best eats in town - check out OpenSnap now!