Korean Photography Blog

When you first come to Korea, the food is among the first things that pops out to most. While we have been accustomed to many different kinds of Asian cuisine, Korean is among the least known to many foreigners that arrive here. Sure, in places like Vancouver and LA there is a Korean BBQ shop just around the corner, but that is only the tip of the iceberg and most of what you’ll eat here would make Indiana Jones squirm a little bit before finding out that it is really good.

So how do you get good shots of food to show off to your friends and family? Well a lot has to do with preparation, temperature, and depth of field. Simply snapping away as people demolish the food in front of them is not the most appetizing way to show off the delicious food that you are about to eat. So here are a few do’s and don’t about food photography.

The main thing is that you want the main focus of the shot to be about the food, not the table, not the people behind you, but the food itself. So that meaning fill the frame with the food. Get in nice and tight and really get up close and personal but still leave a bit of room so people can actually see what it is.

Depth of Field is key to drawing the interest into the frame. I normally shoot most of my shots wide-open at f/1.4 on a 50mm prime lens. This provides an interesting effect, sometimes a bit too much but you want to have it somewhere around there, to add that little bit of artistic bokeh.

Try not to shoot from eye level. This makes for a less interesting shot of the food. Get down in there and shoot it from table level. This will add further dimensions to your shot. Shooting it from a similar distance from what you would normally eat it from, gives the brain nothing new to look at. This is the same as photographing children, when you get down to their level, the shots are more interesting.

Be aware of the lighting and the temperature of the colours. Sometimes the lighting used in restaurants is not the most flattering on the food you shoot. I normally shoot in RAW format so that I can adjust these factors using camera raw in photoshop. Another handy tip is to sit next a window during morning or late afternoon. The light from the window should offset the yellowish hue from the lights.

Table-top tripods work well for shooting on-the-go meaning that if you just sat down, had your camera with you and the food that you ordered looks amazing, these little, but sturdy tripods work great. However, if you get the chance, talk to the manager before hauling out the gear. They may not appreciate such detailed work, or they may give you a treat to take a photo of. Communication is always better than speculation.

This last one maybe a no-brainer but I still see it a lot. Don’t touch or eat the food before you get a few good shots. You want the photos to make the person viewing them to feel like they, themselves, ordered the food. If you started to demolish the food, then snap a few shots, it looks like someone’s leftovers and not the most appetizing of shots.

Another thing that is often forgotten is to remove any distractions from around the table. That means get your mitts, hats, receipts, used napkins, etc out of the shot. Again, focus on the food, not what is around it. Unless the surroundings add something to the appetizing look of the food.

Here is one of the worst shots that I took of food. I had just got my 300D and like most was pretty happy to get some shots of us eating some Whale meat. The shot is as bad as the food itself.

Here are a few better examples of what I am talking about.

Notice how your eye is drawn into the guts of the Burger? If you want to show off the food, you want to put the focus on the food.

Bowls are a bit tricky, but try to get in there...

Another great example of how to shoot food can be found on Ulsan Online There are a ton of great articles (I know that most of the coffee ones are written by me) but check out Jason Wilson’s recent article and take note of how he shot the chocolate. Amazing photos there. Flash Parker also did a really excellent tutorial on taking shots of food and I think even better than mine. Take a look here

At any rate, enjoy playing with your food and have a great week!