Top 5 Lighting Tips

When I studied photography, I remember our teacher saying, “Photography is the art of capturing light”. That’s it in a nutshell. Simple. Yes, but not necessarily easy. But that’s the challenge of photography: working with light.

Studio lights can be controlled but, in my humble opinion, food looks best when photographed in natural light because it makes your recipes look more natural and inviting.

And that’s the hard part – unless you learn to flow with Mother Nature and not against her. Understanding the differences between morning and afternoon light is the key to capturing beautiful food shots. Morning light is soft, afternoon is hard light. Morning light is blue and afternoon is yellow. There’s a lot more but if you simply remember these basic things, your photos will not only improve, but your enjoyment will too.

When shooting blue tones, shoot in the morning. When shooting yellow and orange, shoot in the afternoon. If you do it the other way around, you can get unsightly green tinged photos. You can always adjust color temperatures in editing, but it can be difficult to get it just right.

The direction of light has a powerful influence over the success or otherwise of your photo. It will influence the highlights and shadows of your image that play an important role in defining, refining and transforming not just what your viewer sees, but often how they feel about the food.

Backlighting adds more light to the image from the front and throws a glow or halo effect over the food that can create a more luscious feel and accentuate shadows in the foreground. This will emphasize the light and dark shades thus improving the overall dynamic range of your image. And dynamic range is what the subconscious eye sees as appealing. 

Use side lighting, coming in at approximately 90 degrees to the left or right of the image, to illuminate the shape and textures of your food. It will also create longer and more dramatic shadows, and most useful in dark and moody photography. 

Front lighting is the least favorite of most professional photographers because it looks flat, and this makes your food less appetizing.

Dark and moody food photography has taken on a life of its own. When it comes to capturing the senses, dark and moody stands alone. No wonder its popularity is ever-increasing!  

Dark and moody lighting adds beautiful shadows and highlights to your food, exactly where you want them, bringing your food to the foreground and allowing everything else to recede backwards. 

Simple steps for creating beautiful dark and mood lighting include:

1. Use natural light.
2. Overcast days or morning light is best.
3. Block off most of the ambient light other than what lights your focal point,
4. Have just one light source.
5. Use side lighting to create longer and more dramatic shadows. 
6. Use dark backgrounds and props.
7. Best used for darker, rich-toned foods. 

There are other types of mood lighting of course, such as light and airy, that you can use to complement your food.  So try experimenting until you find the style that best suits your aesthetic. 

Another trend that's been around for a while with increasing popularity is shadow photography. You can add a lot of creativity to your shoots when you start to play around with shadows, both natural and those you manipulate by blocking off sources of light.

Shadow photography is another way you can draw attention to, add more drama, and evoke more emotion in your food photos.

Things to remember for your shadow food photography:

1. Natural light is best, especially for all the reasons outlined above.
2. Afternoon light is harsher than morning light and therefore creates stronger shadows.
3. This is where you cannot always leave things to chance and will require more upfront planning.
4. Place your layout in front of a window or open door to control your source of light.
5. Backlighting your subject works best.
6. Don't overcrowd your layout. You don't want to end up competing with the shadows. Less is definitely more in this regard.
7. You can sculpture your shadows by using only one source of light and using boards, doors or blinds to block off part of this light. 

Developing a style to suit the types of food you shoot will make your work more identifiable and memorable. Ideally, you want to stand out from the crowd, and have your followers or clientele easily identify your work. 

Developing a style starts with identifying the type of foods you want to specialize in, who your target audience is, and looking at ways to niche down. For example, popular food blog niches of recent years include Health Food, Longevity Foods, Family & Budget Meals, Baking, Mediterranean Diet, Sourdough Breads, and Low Allergy foods. For more on how to find your target audience, see my blog post here:

How to Find Your Target Market | Milleflore Images

Next, using the lighting tips above, match your photographic style to the type of foods. For example, dark and moody goes well with the Mediterranean Diet and Sourdough breads, and light and airy may suit Family and Budget meals. 

You can have more than one style to suit different types of food. In fact, if every one of your photos end up looking almost identical, this can go against you, especially if you are trying to appeal to a wider market. 

Images can invoke memories from our childhood and help us reminisce decades back in the past. With this in mind, it is important to present your food photography in the most delicious and memorable ways possible.

Understanding how natural light works, such as what time of day to shoot and when the best direction of light will highlight the food, goes a long way to creating the scrumptious images you need to entice followers and clientele to take notice of you. Factors such as back- and side lighting play a big role in helping you create the most attractive images.

Mood lighting, whether it's dark and moody, or light and airy, should match the type of food that you are specializing in, and help you to develop a style that will appeal to your target audience. 

Planning all of this ahead of time and deciding on what niches you will be specializing in will help you target your work and allow you to focus on creating the best recipes - and most memorable photos - to increase your following or clientele.