A few tricks and tips to jumpstart your way to photography stardom... Top 10 Ways To Improve Your Food Photography.

I don't feel completely worthy to write this post.  I'm a small fish plankton in a very large pond.  There are food photographers out there that are so much, much more talented than I.  People I look up to.  People who's photographs inspire and motivate me.  Like Katie.  And Naomi.  And Tieghan.  And Matt.  And Marcus.  The list goes on and on.

But then I realize, heck, maybe someone out there, in their own little corner of the interwebs, could possibly-kinda-maybe fast forward through the painful mistakes I made make behind the camera and fast track their way to photography stardom.

Just do me a favor.  If you make it big... take me along for the ride.  I'd like to meet famous people at swanky parties and stuff like that.

Thanks.

I can still remember my early posts.... confidently holding my point and shoot camera stuck in automatic mode, using the ever-so-romantic orange glow of kitchen overhead tungsten lights and the perfectly diffused built-in camera flash that made the food glisten ever so slightly.

Yes, that's what sarcasm in print looks like.

I was totally an idiot when it came to photography.  Actually, you can't even call what I did photography.  It was food murder.  With one click of a button, I swiftly took all life and beauty from what was on the plate.  Wait, I can prove it to you.  Check below the legitimate terribleness (is that even a word?), and how I am very slowly making progress.

Then... and Now

Oh my gosh.  I can't even.  What was I thinking back then?

Apparently not much.

So if you're new to all of this, you might find my An Introduction to Food Photography helpful.  Or boring.  Or both.  Once you endure that snooze-fest super duper helpful tutorial, here are the top 10 ways I improved my food photography.

1) Natural Light.

If you have one of those built-in flashes on your camera... I'm sorry.  It's useless.  In fact, that's the most common weapon used in order to commit food murder.  If we were playing Clue, it would sound like...

Me, in the kitchen, with the built-in camera flash.

Those overhead high-hat lights you have turned on in your kitchen.  Yea, those are no bueno either.

The #1 way to improve your food photography?  Find great light.

My wife and I just moved into a new house.  The first thing I did with my camera was test out the light in numerous different rooms and windows at various times of day.  It’s amazing how utterly different the food looks in different areas and at different times.

The way the sun enters your home.  The size of your windows.  How many windows you have in the room.  Heck, even the paint color on your walls can influence your photographs.

Get the lighting right, and your photos will instantly improve.

Personally, I enjoy light that is pointed and one directional (lighting the food from the left, right, or behind).  When light comes from every direction, such as a place in your house with windows on several sides of the room, the image never seems to come out as well for me.

There’s a tiny window in our kitchen that I thought was going to be absolutely useless, but it’s actually one of my favorite spots to shoot.  The light is super pointed, so it’s fun to play around with illuminating just a specific part of my frame.

Once you find that great light, remember that you can manipulate it with black foam core boards (to block light from hitting certain areas of your frame) and white foam core boards (to bounce light back into the frame and fill out some shadows).

2) Use a Tripod and Remote Trigger.

One of the biggest things I've changed in my food photography over the last year?  Consistently using a tripod and remote trigger.

A while back, I felt like using a tripod was majorly annoying and limiting.   It was a pain in the rear to set up, and if I wanted to photograph at a different angle, I needed to adjust the entire tripod.  Ain't nobody got time for that.  

But honestly, the extra 60 seconds it takes for me to set up my tripod has made a tremendous difference.  With the camera in a fixed position, I can work on setting up the frame exactly how I see it in my head.

This is how I used to shoot...

• Throw Carefully place props and food on a backdrop.
• Look through lens.
• Test shoot for exposure and prop placement.
• Put down camera to move food and props to where I think it should be.
• Pick up camera.  Test shoot.  Now my angle and position is slightly different, so still not happy.
• Put down camera to move food and props to where I think it should be.
• Grrr, still not right.
• Repeat over and over until I give up, just shoot a bunch of images, and pray to the food gods that one image will be acceptable.

Yea, obviously not the best workflow.  I wasted so much time, was never entirely happy with the images, and since I was shooting handheld, had to keep my ISO on the high side (or have a ton of light coming through the window) to get the proper exposure.

Here’s my process now:

• Set up camera on tripod for either an overhead shot, straight on shot, or ¾ shot.
• Plug in remote sensor and put remote trigger in my pocket.
• Set up plate and other props while maintaining that fixed camera location on the tripod.
• Test shoot for exposure and prop placement.
• Add food.   Test shoot for exposure and make little adjustments to props as needed.
• Using remote trigger, have hands free to jump-start my hand modeling career (i.e. pour dressing, drizzle syrup, or hold a fork or glass), or to hold foam core boards to manipulate light.

And since I'm on a tripod, I don't need a ton of light coming into the room and can keep my ISO down (which gives a clearer image and improves the color).

For those interested, here's the camera remote and trigger I use.  It's all of $20.  And it rocks my socks.

3) Embrace Messiness and Shadows.

The old me wanted the food to look perfect.  Everything just so in the exact right spot.  But you know the phrase, "it looks too good to eat?!"

Yea, that's not what I want to achieve in my images.  The reaction I want to get when someone looks at a photo on Shared Appetite?

• Ermagherd I want that so bad right now.
• ::immediate drooling::
• I want this for dinner.
• Pinning!!!

I always try to make the food look natural, complete with drips, spills, and other imperfections.  Controlled messiness can be good.

When Tyler and I are photographing weddings, our goal is to capture natural moments.  Dramatically over-posed images make us cringe.  Now that doesn't mean we don't pose couples.  We do.  But the emphasis is always on natural situations and comfortable body angles.  The same goes for food.  I want my photographs to make sense... naturally.

On the same lines of making food look pretty... shadows are my newest friend in photography.  I love playing with shadows.  When I first started, I felt like I wanted everything to be big and bright.  Now I love to embrace mydark side 🙂  You can see below what happens to a photo with a white reflector bouncing light back onto the image vs. no reflector.  It's a personal preference really...

4) Get Lightroom.

I used to edit all my photos in iPhoto... a simple stock application that comes pre-loaded on the Apple computers.  #amateurhour

Guys.  Lightroom is the bomb dot com.  All my photos are edited using Lightroom.  It's incredibly user friendly (unlike that Photoshop thingy I still have yet to learn to use) and you can do SO many things with it.

Here's a little inside peek.  The photo on the left is straight out of camera.  The photo on the right is what the finished photo looked like after editing in Lightroom...

Big freaking difference, right?  Lightroom is a really fantastic investment that I really, really recommend.

5) A Few Quality Props.

There was a time in my life that I wanted to hoard every single serving dish, utensil, and other cutesy kitchen item I found.  The lady at Home Goods knew my name.

Guess where the majority of that stuff is right now?  Taking up space in a closet somewhere.  Not being used.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm still a HUGE fan of props  It's just that in the recent year, I found myself relying on certain props over and over again. Ones that really seem to photograph well, are versatile, and match my style.

So now I really try to be super selective in my prop purchases.  I love to try to find props that will provide good contrast and will provide lots of different textures.  Textures and layers typically equal great photos.

Smaller plates and bowls are usually better when it comes to photography.  It's easier to fill the plate and maintain a small scale photography set-up.

You can see a few of my favorite props in the images below (and if you look through all my posts in the last year, you'll probably notice that they make appearances in almost all of them)...

Let's break it down.  Here's what I end up using 99% of the time:

• mini cast iron skillet (about 5-6" wide...)
• little burlap cloth
• vintage looking fork (garage sale find!... can find on eBay also)
• shallow white bowl
• cool looking small metal/pewter plate (found on eBay)
• random scrapbooking paper with cool patterns
• little mini dessert bowls
• one highball glass
• wooden spoon
• small white plate
• three trusty kitchen towels
• a few good backdrops

Let's talk backdrops.  You totally have some options.  Some people like to shoot on their marble or granite countertops.  Go for it if you can, but most times the natural light in a kitchen is scarce.  I've seen some really beautiful images shot on marble countertops though.

What I used early on were some DIY backdops.  I wrote up a little post about it here... How To Make Your Own Food Photography Backdrops.  Basically I used old fencing or store-bought plywood (cut up into strips) from Home Depot and then got my painting skills on.

I've also found success in using scrapbook paper and metal baking trays.

99% of the time at this point, though, I'm using vinyl backdrops that are made to look like wooden boards.  I got mine from Swanky Prints on Etsy.  They are relatively cheap, are super easy to move around, wipe down, and transport.  Although I definitely like the look of that authentic distressed barn wood type backdrop, this is a really great and convenient alternative.

And I'm constantly on the look out for my next big prop/backdrop find.  Garage sales and thrift stores are great places for great looking pieces at cheap prices!

6) Set Up Your Shot Before Food Is Ready.

The old me didn't plan very well.  #typeAfail

Ugh... the ice cream is melting already!!!  How am I supposed to photograph this?!  

I've quickly learned that a successful shoot is all about the planning.  Unless I'm shooting something that can sit around without melting. coagulating, or looking downright nasty (i.e. cupcakes, etc), I make sure to plan out my frame prior to the food being done.

I set up the camera on a tripod at a location in the house where the light is just right.  I get my backdrops and props in place.  I think about color palette (when I actually remember to), textures, and trying to make the scene look natural and not overly posed or forced.

And then I use a stand-in for test shots.  It's perfect for those quickly deflating/melting/runny things that never seem to cooperate for us food photographers.  For drinks, I might stuff the glass with some paper towel.  For ice cream, some balled up wax paper in the bowl.  You get the idea.

I use those test shots to make sure my exposure and all that technical stuff is in order and to make sure I'm happy with my frame (i.e. all my props are in the exact spot I want them).  Then all I need to do is plate the food and get my shot.

A few tips...

• Ice Cream and Frozen Treats - to avoid a melting catastrophe, I scoop ice cream ahead of time and lay them all out on a wax-paper lined baking tray.  That tray then goes into the freezer until really firm.  Then I use those frozen scoops to photograph.  For ice pops, I remove them from the mold, then freeze them in a single layer on a baking sheet until rock solid.  If at any point the ice cream/popsicles start to melt on me while photographing, I take a 20 minute recess and put 'em back in the freezer.  A pain, yes.  But worth it in the end.
• Meats - it's all about that glisten and shimmer.  Right when meat is done cooking, it has a bit of shimmer to it due to the fat/oil on it's surface.  Once it rests a bit, that glisten fades and you're left with dry-looking meat in your photographs.  To regain that glisten, you can play with brushing on a very little amount of oil to wherever you want that glisten to happen.
• Fresh Veggies/Fruit - it begs for a little spritz of water.  Not a dunk in water, but a fine mist or couple droplets of H2O on fresh produce makes them look way more appetizing and "fresh".
• Melted Cheese - is your melted cheese getting all gross and coagulated as it sits waiting to be photographed?  Use a kitchen torch to lightly melt it again.

7) Compose Dish At Level Photographing.

This is a tip that picked up along the way from someone that does some food styling for Chef Jamie Oliver.  It's simple, but it was one of those palm to forehead type moments for me.

Sometimes the hardest part of making food look great isn't the props or the backdrop.  It's the actually food on the plate.  Food styling is a full-time job all in itself.  Us food bloggers need to cook, photograph, write, AND food style.

So when you are plating your food, do so on the level at which you want to photograph it.  Shooting from overhead?  Then layer your ingredients looking straight down on the plate.  Want a straight-on shot?  Then get on the same level when plating your food.  Look at it from that perspective and it really, really helps.

When choosing at what angle to photography, think about the shape of the food.   If it's piled high like a stack of donuts or a sandwich, you may want to emphasize that with a straight-on shot.  If you are shooting a bowl of soup, you really can't do straight-on because all you'll see is the side of the soup bowl.  ¾'s or overhead might be the best.  And when it doubt, experiment!

Well what if I want to shoot some overhead shots and some straight-on?  

Sometimes it'll just work out that you can do that... but sometimes that means going back into the kitchen and re-plating the food.  A bit of a pain, but it can take your photos to a whole new level of awesome.

8) Have a Bag of Tricks

Tweezers and chopsticks are really great for placing and moving around different ingredients when you are trying to style a dish.

A spray bottle filled with water keeps fruits and veggies looking super fresh.  A dry strawberry doesn't look as appetizing as a strawberry with a few drops of water on it.  #truth

Ahh, the kitchen torch.  One of my all time favorite kitchen tools... it's just so bad donkey.  It's fantastic for roasting marshmallows, caramelizing stuff, melting cheese on top of a burger, and a bunch of other things I can't think of right now.

Although I haven't tried it, I've heard of people using a kitchen torch to super heat metal skewers, which they then press on meat/chicken to give perfect grill marks.

Toothpicks and wooden skewers are amazing for keeping things in place, especially on sandwiches.  You have no idea how annoying it is to get lettuce, tomato, and avocado to stay in place without some assistance.

A funnel can also be super helpful if you are trying to pour items into a skinny glass or bowl and down want to spill on the sides.

A neat trick... wet some cotton balls and microwave them until steamy.  Place behind the food you are photographing and if you have a dark back ground, you should be able to see steam rising up from the food.  I've tried this only once and it didn't work out (I didn't use a dark background... duh), but I heard it's what cool people sometimes do.

9) Practice and Get Inspired.

No... that's not me.  That dude has way too much hair.  I'm more... thinner in the hair department.  Hey!  At least one part of me is thin. 🙂

That photo is from a food photography seminar I gave for a bunch of people in a photography community group Tyler and I run at our church.

Anyway, practicing.  This is the one tip that no one wants to hear.  But it's true.

Taking great photographs requires a ton of practice.  So get out that camera and shoot... a lot.

Something that really helps me?  Look at other work by photographers you admire.  Ask yourself...

• what's the light doing in this photograph?  where's it coming from?
• reflector? no reflector? are they manipulating the light in anyway?
• what kind of props are they using?
• how did they style their shot?  where does my eye get drawn to and why?
• what is making me love this image?

The greatest form of flattery is imitation.  Try to replicate the photographs you love gawking at.

And don't be afraid to reach out to those people.  Email them questions.  You'd be surprised how many times they respond to people that are inspired by their work and are asking meaningful questions!

For an absolutely amazing resource with tons of photos, videos, and lots of "nuts and bolts" content about food photography, check out Lindsey's amazing eBook!  Click here to visit Pinch of Yum - Tasty Food Photography eBook.

10) Have the Right Equipment.

Having the newest, most expensive camera isn't going to make you a better photographer any more than me buying new running shoes is going to help me in running a marathon 5K mile down my driveway.

It's all about practice.  Patience.  And perseverance.  A lot of it.

But I have to be honest, having the right equipment certainly does help.  If you're interested in what I use and recommend, you can check out My Favorite Food Photography Gear.

Top 10 Ways To Improve Your Food Photography

Does your brain hurt?  It probably will in a second.

If you're here, most likely you are just starting out in the world of food blogging.  Heck maybe you even want to know how to start a food blog.  When I was first starting out, reading about the technical aspects of food photography made my head spin.  I wanted to get better, but all the gibberish just didn't make sense to me.

Aperture, f stops, white balance, ISO... huh?  What?!  Ugh...

The best piece of advice I can give you?  Dive in and do it.  Don't just read.  Practice.  Over and over and over.  Pick up your camera, put it on manual, and shoot everything you can.  Experiment.  Take 100 photos a day.  The more you just do it, the faster you'll learn.

But here we go.  I'm going to try to give you the very basics, in a way that doesn't make your brain (or my brain) hurt.  And after that, pick up your camera and start practicing 🙂

So here we go.  An introduction to food photography.

Grab some coffee.  Or if you're like me, some chocolate.  Dark chocolate to be exact.

Shoot Manual.

Your camera has all sorts of settings.  Most likely you started on the auto setting.  The good thing about auto?  The camera pretty much makes all the decisions for you in order to produce an "acceptable" photograph.  The bad thing about that: the camera pretty much makes all the decisions for you.

And as scary as this sounds, you want to be in full control of your camera.  That's right.  Own it.  Embrace it.  The camera isn't the talent.  YOU are the talent.

But I don't know what to do!!  

Patience, my friend. Patience.

You just have to decide to make the switch.  Go manual.  Do it.  You'll struggle for a bit, but then you'll get it .  And it will be glorious.  Glorious victory indeed.

On Camera Flash.

You know that thing that pops up from your camera?  It's worthless.  Actually, it's worse than worthless.  Those built-in on camera flashes on many cameras have the uncanny ability to ruin all hopes of getting a great image of food.

Don't trust me?  Jeez.  I thought we were cool, you and me.  hmffhhhh...

Well, just take a look at some of my absolutely stunning, breath-taking photographs from a few years back utilizing the on camera flash...

Ah, the beautifully diffused light.  Don't you just love how it just kisses the food in such a way to make it look absolutely irresistible?

Of course not!  That food looks ugly.  Unappetizing.  Gross.

Darn you on camera flash!!!  Darn you.

So do yourself a favor.  Step one to getting better food photographs?  Don't even think of using that flash.

How To Say Goodbye to Auto.  Forever.

Here's where you're going to need that coffee.  Or chocolate.  And chocolate?

Shooting manual basically means you are controlling, manipulating, and balancing 3 basic photographic elements.  Aperture, ISO, and Shutter Speed.  Here's a good visual diagram.

And those three things work in harmony with each other to produce your image.  It's your job as the photographer to balance the aperture, ISO, and shutter speed depending upon the situation and/or scenario of what you are photographing.

Aperture.

Aperture allows more light or less light to reach the camera sensor.  With manipulating the aperture, you can create a shallow or deep depth of field (lots of blur or not a lot of blur).

It's measured in f/stops (i.e. f/1.2, f/2.8, f/4.0, f/10, etc.).  Whoa.  That was a lot of words being thrown around.  Here's an equation for you to memorize.

large aperture (low f/stop)= shallow depth of field = more blur in the photos

small aperture (high f/stop) = deeper depth of field = less blur in the photos

Warning.  With blur comes great responsibility.

Careful of f/2.8 and other very low f/stops in food photography.  Because there will only be a small amount of your image in focus, it may become difficult to get enough of the food in focus to create appetizing images.  I rarely go lower than f/3.5.  

Notice in the photo below that as the f/stop gets higher, more of the food is in focus (look at the waffle fries).

pictured: Stuffed Jalapeno Popper Bacon Cheeseburgers

A word about aperture and light.  If you don't change anything on your camera except for your aperture, you'll notice that at lower f/stops, you don't need as much light as higher f/stops.

Low f/stops = less light needed

High f/stops = more light needed

In situations where light is scarce (like at many restaurants), you may need to keep your aperture large (low f/stop) to produce a properly exposed photograph.

ISO.

Take a close look at the above photo.  You'll notice that in the ISO 400 image, it's clear, smooth, and clean.  The other two images, however, are grainier.

ISO basically controls how sensitive your camera is to light.  ISO typically goes as low as 100 and depending upon your camera, can go up to around 10-25K.  

The higher the ISO, the better the light sensitivity.  Basically, that means the camera is capturing more light.  This is great when you are in a dark environment, like those two restaurants I was in when capturing the two photos in the above left.

But here's the catch. As the ISO increases, so does the grain or noise in the photo.  In addition, higher ISO's will also mess with the color in the image a bit.

Lower ISO = more light required = smoother, cleaner images

Higher ISO = less light required  = adds grain to your images

It's also importnat to note that ISO affects cameras differently.  When you purchase a more high-end camera, it can handle higher ISO's better (show less grain and capture better color).

Bottom line... always try to keep your ISO on the low side.  I typically try to keep it around 400.

Shutter Speed.

The thing you hear clicking when you take a photo (cchhkk, cchhkk)... that's the shutter.  And its speed will determine how long your camera sensor will be exposed to light.

If you are taking a photo of something that is moving, a faster shutter speed will be needed to freeze the image.

Shutter speed is measured in seconds.  1/60th second.  1/125th second.  So on.

Faster shutter speed = less light coming in = freezes images quickly

Slower shutter speed = more light coming in = can be blurry

If you are taking handheld photos with your camera (without a tripod), plan on shooting at a minimum shutter speed of 1/100. Anything slower than that and you run the risk of a blurry image due to camera shake.... unless you have crazy steady ninja surgeon hands.  In which case, I hate you. #kiddingnotkidding

I use a tripod and remote for almost all my photos at this point because it helps me to create more consistently clear and reliable images, and also aids in the composition and food styling.  It also allows me to shoot at slow shutter speeds (and keep my ISO low!) while maintaining clear images.

JPEG vs. RAW.

When photographing, you have two choices.  

Innnnnn this corner, weighing in with consdensed, smaller files, is JPEG.  

Although it is a tinier file, it doesn't allow for a lot of room for post-processing (i.e. editing your images in the computer). 

And in this corner, with much larger files and potential for editing, is RAW.

This is how I photograph every image.  Although it does take up a whole lot more room, raw files capture all the information the camera receives when you click that shutter.  That way, you can enhance and edit your images in post-processing (I highly recommend and personally use Lightroom).

Taking Your Photos To The Next Level.

What is a great food photo?  In my mind, it's something that catches and holds your attention, and generates emotion in you... preferably intense, uncontrollable hunger.   I want people to say... Ermagherd!  I want to eat that.

Like here.  Or here.

So here are some things to get that type of Ermaghred! reaction.

Light.

As you can tell in the above photo, just photographing with the overhead kitchen lights on is pretty nasty.  We already know that automatic flash stinks.  Natural light is totally beautiful.  And in a pinch... if it's dark out, those Lowel EGO Lamps do an okay job (and are what many food bloggers use when they need to photograph something at night).

When it comes to light, you've got options.  Don't take it lightly.  

Get it?  Get it?  

I said lightly.  And we are talking about light.  I crack myself up.

Be serious, darnit.  How you use and manipulate light is the most important aspect of photography.  No pressure or anything. 

My favorite type of light is the au naturel  kind (i.e. the sun).  Specifically, beautiful diffused sunlight (not harsh, direct sunlight).  Harsh natural light will wash out your subject and cast heavy shadows, making the food look bleh and unappetizing.

So how do you make sunlight look good?

If it's cloudy out, nature pretty much already did the job for you.  Clouds act as a natural diffuser.  If it's sunny, you could use a diffuser (that's the one I personally use and love) or a pure white sheet/ fabric to soften the light.

Light is pretty darn important.  It's the thing that professional food photographers are masters at.  Finding the light.  Stalking the light.

You have homework.  Ready?

Try shooting at different times of the day and in different locations of your home to figure out what window gives you the best light... and at what time.

Directional Light.

Once you find that killer light, it's time to think about how you want it to hit your food.  We call it... directional light.  I know, so fancy.

And you have options.  Above is an example of what it looks like when you light something from the left or the right.  Do you see where the shadows falls?

You can also light images from the back or the front.

If you want a good rule of thumb about directional light, you pretty much never want to light your food from the front.  Food looks best lit from either the back, one side, or a combination of the two (i.e. back + right or back + left).

Reflectors.

And obviously when food is being lit from one side, it will cast a shadow on the other side.  Duh.

Now, shadows are not a bad thing.  It's personal preference.  I see and love beautiful, bright images without shadows.  I also love photos that use shadows to create mood and shape an image.

I've been experimenting more and more with using dramatic and creative shadows in my images, but many times you will want to lighten up the dark side of the image at least a little bit. That's where reflectors come in.  You can use basically anything white.

White foam core board and white oak tag both work well.  Basically, anything white that can bounce light back onto the food to fill in the shadows will work.

In the image below, light entered from a window on the left side.  I used a white foam core board on the right side of the sundae in order to minimize the shadows in the right image.  Which look do you prefer?

pictured: The Ultimate S'mores Sundae

When I'm photographing food for Shared Appetite, I always try it both ways.  With reflector and without reflector.  That way I can make the final creative decision later on while editing images on my computer.

Oh, and do me a favor.  Make sure when photographing to turn off those overhead lights.  I can't tell you how many times I was utilizing natural light for my images but totally forgot to turn off the kitchen lights. When you mix light sources,  it becomes virtually impossible to white balance your photos.

White balance?!

I told you your brain would start hurting...

White Balance.

Every light has a temperature, which results in a slightly different color.  Flourescent, Tungsten, Incandescent, and even natural sunlight each have a different temperature on the Kelvin Scale.

And even with natural light, the temperature (and color!) will change from blue to yellow/orange as the day progresses and depending upon how sunny versus cloudy it is.

White Balance is simply making whatever light your using look as close to pure white as possible.  You can do this in your camera or in your photo editing software on your computer (such as lightroom or photoshop).  

When photographing, I start by simply choosing the white balance temperature preset in the camera menu that's closest to pure white.  Each camera menu looks different, but here's an example:

And here's a look how each of those white balance presets will look...

pictured: Dark Chocolate Strawberry Smoothies

Obviously I would choose the upper left hand white balance preset (which I believe was "daylight" (the sun icon).

Even though the color (i.e. white balance) in that image isn't perfect, it's close enough so I can tweak it in Lightroom by using the two tools circled below.

Click the eye dropper tool and then click on a white or neutral gray area of the photo, and it will adjust the white balance accordingly.  That normally gets it closer to where I want it, and then I use the two sliders (blue to yellow temperature, and green to pink tint) to fine tune the color of the image.  When I'm done, it looks more like this...

pictured: Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Popper Hot Dogs

Here's another look at what white balance can do to a photograph.  No other editing was made other then correcting the white balance...

pictured: Vegetarian Beef Fajita Pizza

The image on the left was "as shot" out of camera.  On the right, I fixed the white balance in my Lightroom editing software.  What a difference!

Composition.

This is where your artistic creativity can shine through.  Here are some things to consider with regards to composition...

Point of View.

Whenever Tyler and I are doing an engagement session or photographing a wedding, our couples typically let us know that they have a good side.

Get me from my good side!

Food kinda has good sides too.  You can shoot your food from above, head on, or from a compromise of the two (¾):

When photographing a dish, I always try it at a few different angles.  I'll start with the vision I have in my head, and then will try playing around with it a bit.

Messy.

You want to be thoughtful and deliberate in your composition, but at the same time want it to look natural and unforced.  Super neat and clean images where everything looks absolutely perfect sometimes aren't the best images.  Sometimes, it's good to be a little messy 🙂

An artistic dribble.  An eaten brownie.  A spill of cocoa powder.  Broken graham crackers.  All of these things can add to an image.

Props.

Every movie needs supporting actors, even if it does star Vince Vaughn.

Don't just think about the main star.

Think about what props can act as supporting actors to create an oscar-worthy movie.  Maybe offer a pop of color.  Or some texture.  Or add information to what ingredients are in the dish.

Backdrops.  Plates.  Linens.  Utensils.  Kitchen towels.  Trays.  Even food!

Just be careful not to overdo it.  Sometimes less is more.  You want props that will enhance the image, not take over it.  Overly cluttered images can overwhelm the eye.

Rule of 3rds.  

Although I don't actively think about it, be mindful of the rule of thirds.  When you place points of interest in photos where the grid lines intersect, it apparently makes for a more balanced and interesting photo.

EQUIPMENT.

Listen, without a doubt, the most important equipment you'll ever own is YOU.  Cameras don't take great photographs.  You do.

But, having some great gear certainly does help.  Just click on that big fat image below and it'll take you to all the gear I currently use and love.

Check out My Favorite Food Photography Gear.

LEARN MORE.

I know.  That was a lot of info.  I'm sorry.  I remember how overwhelming it was when I was just starting out.  The good news is that it gets easier.  And if you want a super-duper, ridiculously awesome resource for pretty much everything you need to know about food photography (including great video tutorials), you'll want to check out Lindsay's Tasty Food Photography eBook.

I bought it awhile back when I first started out and it literally walks you through everything you need to know to start capturing amazing images.  The best part is that Lindsay's eBook is full of images, which demonstrates and gives you visual examples of everything she's talking about.

Just click on that beautiful book below and it'll take you to her page for more info...