If you’re wondering how to improve your iPhone food photography lighting, you’ve come to the right place. As a professional food photographer, I have experience with a variety of lighting equipment. Whether you’re interested in natural light tips or artificial light tips when using your iPhone camera, I’ve got you covered in this post.

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iPhone Food Photography Lighting

Exposure Adjustments

Before we dive into iPhone food photography lighting tips, did you know you can adjust the exposure of your images right within the standard iPhone camera app? It’s a pretty handy tool when you want to adjust the exposure of your image quickly and can be a great place to get started.

To adjust the exposure, tap the screen where you want to focus. You’ll see a yellow square appear with a sunshine icon on the screen. If you move the sunshine icon up, you will make your image brighter. If you move the sunshine icon down, you will make your image darker. This is a really great way to experiment with the exposure of your iPhone food images quickly.

Take An iPhone Food Photography Course

One of the best ways to significantly improve your food photography skills is to take a course. And, I’m excited to introduce you to my signature course, Mastering iPhone Food Photography. This is the only food photography course available that focuses on using your smartphone camera.

All the other food photography courses focus on using a DSLR or a Mirrorless camera. So, by avoiding the steps of buying and learning a totally different camera, you’re going to see results so much faster (not to mention, you’ll save a ton of money). This is a beginner-friendly, comprehensive course that will help you fast track the learning process behind iPhone food photography so you can stand out online. I hope to see you in the course!

Natural Light Tips for iPhone Food Photography

It’s very common to rely on natural light when shooting food photos with your iPhone. The ease of being able to grab your iPhone camera and take a picture quickly is pretty awesome. However, many people struggle with lighting issues when using the iPhone. This is because natural light is changing throughout the day and there are only so many hours of daylight to work with (especially in the winter). Sometimes the light is too bright and sometimes there isn’t enough light to work with. If you want to take more control over natural light, it’s going to require some extra tools to help you.

Diffusers for Photography

When shooting iPhone food photography with natural light, you must be set up next to a window. And, while this is a pretty easy tip to follow, sometimes the light is way too bright coming in, causing harsh shadows or hot spots on your food.

This is when a diffuser will come in handy. A diffuser gets placed right over the window. This will not block the light, but it will help soften the light and spread it out more evenly over the food.

Diffusers are one of my favorite tools to use when shooting with natural light. They can come in a variety of sizes and shapes. When deciding what size to get, think about the size of your window. It doesn’t need to cover the entire window, but it will need to soften the portion of light hitting your food. I have used a variety of sizes, but the size I gravitate towards the most is 40×60.

White Foam Boards

Ok, so you’re set up next to a window and you’re using a diffuser to soften the light. The side of your food next to the window is really nicely lit, but the side of your food that’s furtherest from your window is too dark.

This is when white foam boards will come in handy.

A white foam board can be placed near the darker side of your food (opposite the window). The light from the window will hit the white foam board and bounce light back to your food, helping you make the other side brighter. It’s such a cool lighting tip and I highly recommend trying it out. I recommend having a variety of sizes on hand including 11×14 and 20×30.

Black Foam Boards

Now that you’re set up next to a window, you’re using a diffuser to soften the light and you have white foam board bouncing light back to the darker side of your food, what if you want to add some shadows and contrast?

This is when black foam boards come in handy to help you direct and shape the light, adding more shadow and contrast to your food images.

I recommend moving the black boards all around your food to see how different placements will add shadows and contrast. I recommend having a variety of sizes on hand including 11×14 and 20×30.

HOW TO SET UP FOAM BOARDS FOR FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

To make your foam board stand up right so you don’t have to hold it in place, you have three options:

1. Use a clamp and attach it to the base of the board.
2. Create a v-flat using two pieces of board taped together to create a ‘book’ with the tape down the middle of the two boards. It will open like a book and will balance upright on the table.
3. Use a light stand and clamp your board to the light stand.

READ MORE ABOUT: NATURAL LIGHT TIPS FOR FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

Artificial Light Tips for iPhone Food Photography

If you want to take full control of your iPhone lighting, the ultimate tool to have on hand is an artificial light. This does not include the flash on your iPhone (keep this turned off) and it does not include using your overhead lights in your space (keep these turned off too).

I love working with artificial lights and I can confidently tell you that it will help you improve your iPhone food photography by leaps and bounds. And, I realize using an artificial light with your iPhone camera is extra gear and it might seem complicated at first, but I promise that it’s not that bad at all.

Continuous Light

The best light to use for iPhone food photography is a continuous light. A continuous light won’t flash. You set it up on a light stand with an umbrella or soft box, plug it in and adjust the position and the power. It’s really as simple as that. You don’t need any special cables or gadgets to connect these lights to your iPhone camera or anything, which makes them very easy to use.

You can adjust how powerful you want the light to be and you can adjust where you want it positioned. And, if you think about it for a second, that kind of control is really nice. When you are using natural light, you can’t change the power of the sun or where your window is positioned. So, think of the artificial light as your customizable window. 😉

Continuous Light Benefits

1. It is easy to move the light around to hit your food from different angles.
2. You can control how bright or how dark you want it to be.
3. You have a variety of light modifiers available to help you create different styles of light including direct light and soft light.
4. You’re able to shoot in any location and at any time of day while perfectly lighting your food every time.

Continuous Light Accessories

1. Light stand
2. Soft Box or Umbrella
3. Electrical outlet

Amaran Lights

Two continuous light recommendations when using the iPhone would be the Amaran 100d or the Amaran 100x with Bicolor.

The difference between the two is the Amaran 100d is daylight (a natural light look) and the Amaran 100x with bicolor allows you to control the color temperature (and comes at a little higher price point than the 100d).

Something to note is that Amaran lights are an offshoot of the popular Aperture brand, which is a highly reputable brand in the photography and video industry. So, you’re getting excellent quality despite the lower price point.

Amaran Light Benefits

• The fan is super quiet, so if you want to shoot video, you won’t pick up that extra sound.
• They are small and lightweight and very easy to move around.
• They have an umbrella hole and a Bowens mount to work, which offers a wide range of light modifier options at a variety of price points.
• They have bluetooth capabilities so you can control the light with your iPhone.
• They’re super easy to use, even if you’re a newbie to artificial light.

Light Modifiers

As I mentioned earlier, if you get a continuous light like the Amaran 100d, you will also need a light stand to hold the light at the height that you want, along with a light modifier to diffuse the light. Modifiers can be soft boxes in different shapes and umbrellas at different diameters.

Keep in mind that the larger the modifier, the more soft and spread out the light will be. The smaller the modifier, the more direct and less spread out the light will be.

Light Modifier Recommendations for Amaran

GLOW EZ MODIFIERS

I love the Glow EZ Lock modifiers because they are super easy to set up and take down. They open and close just like an umbrella. They’re also not as pricey as a lot of modifiers are on the market, but are still great quality.

GLOW EZ OCTA 36″ (COMES WITH A GRID)

This soft box is going to create a nice soft, natural look to your images.

NEEWER SNOOT KIT (COMES WITH A GRID AND GELS)

The snoot will create more direct light with stronger shadows. It also comes with gels if you want to experiment with different colors.

I hope these iPhone food photography lighting tips were helpful for you. The more control you have (whether you’re using natural light or artificial light), the more creative you can get with your food images. Always remember to stay true to the shooting methods that work best for you and your budget.

And, just in case you’re hoping to fast-track the learning process of iPhone food photography, consider signing up for my signature course, Mastering iPhone Food Photography. This food photography course is beginner-friendly and offers you a full suite of step-by-step videos, behind the scenes demonstrations, screen recordings, resources, guides, equipment recommendations and professional knowledge all in one spot, so you can learn at your own pace and start seeing significant improvements in your iPhone food photography. Sign up today!

Happy Creating and be sure to follow me on Instagram!

READ MORE ABOUT: IPHONE TIPS AND RESOURCES

This post contains affiliate links which means if you click or make a purchase through my site, I might make a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only promote products that I actually use and support. 

All images ©Regan Baroni 2022.