5 Tips For Food Photography While Traveling

Food tourism has become a very popular form of traveling. The world has some amazing dishes to offer and those who value a great bite use this as a guide on their travels. However, most people want to capture the moment before they take the first bite of a particular dish. In that respect, knowing how to take good quality food photos is as important as treating your palate. If you want to be a foodie traveler and need some helpful tips on capturing the best food images, keep on reading.

1) Avoid direct flash/light

In general, using a flash is a big no-no when it comes to photographing your plate. A flash can create an unfavorable glare on the plate, which will, in turn, result in an overly bright and washed out photo. The same goes for natural light, even though you should definitely strive to photograph your food outside or near the window. The key to successfully using natural light is to actually photograph your plate in the shade while being exposed to the sunlight. If you have to use a flash no matter what, try to bounce the reflection on a surface other than your plate.

2) Simplicity for success

If you want to truly capture the richness and texture of your dish, it’s important that your composition is fairly simple. In general, your dish needs to be the centerpiece of the shot. Avoid using other elements in your shot if these are overly colorful since they can reduce the quality and desired effect of your main photo object, which is the food itself. Of course, it’s recommended that you experiment with both landscape and portrait orientation in order to find the best possible solution for the particular dish.

3) Practice and prep

If you want to make some really professional-looking food photos, you need to equip yourself with a great camera, patience and plenty of free memory. Basically, you can reduce noise and sharpness of the images by keeping your hands steady, but also with the clever use of different shutter speed and depth field. What’s more, you probably won’t have the studio lighting at your disposal during your travels. This means that using RAW mode for photography can provide you with enough freedom to correct the colors, contrast and lighting afterward. Still, RAW mode takes up quite a lot of space, so make sure that you actually have enough memory to store the photos.

4) Get a good angle

You should never take food photos from above but always look for a nice angle to capture everything on your plate. That way, you can avoid the flat appearance of your dish. What’s more, you can always crop your photos in order to really focus on your dish ingredients. This can look especially effective when there are many colors on your plate.

5) Capture the magic of it all

If you started your travels in order to capture a great variety of food that the world has to offer, then you should definitely take the time to photograph the process of food making as well. This can add a completely new feel to the final result. Thanks to its rich history and multicultural background, the Land Down Under has plenty of incredible dishes for you to capture. In that respect, check out Australian food photography because this will truly inspire and educate you on the best possible compositions, style, angle and, of course, the must-try dishes in the Oz land.

As a foodie traveler, it’s important that you know your priorities. Going on a really long journey and changing countries all the time is not very productive. Focus your attention on one country at a time so that you can pack and utilize all your camera essentials, without having to worry about a number of clothes you’ll bring or the storing capacity of your equipment.

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