Light and airy food photography is a really beautiful style. It’s incredibly popular in the food photography world, because the images evoke a fresh, inviting and appetizing look. If you’re looking to improve your light food photography, I have some awesome tips to help you out.

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Light and Airy Food Photography Tips

Tip 1: Adjust your exposure settings

Shooting in manual mode helps you control the exposure of your images in different lighting situations. Whether you are using a DSLR, Mirrorless or your iPhone camera, manually adjusting your exposure settings helps you control how bright or how dark you want your images to be. It’s a game-changing step to take this kind of control over the look of your images.

You can dive deeper on how to do this in the blog posts listed below. I have a post for DSLR & Mirrorless cameras and a separate post for the iPhone camera.

READ MORE ABOUT: HOW TO SHOOT IN MANUAL MODE (DSLR & MIRRORLESS CAMERAS)

READ MORE ABOUT: USING LIGHTROOM MOBILE FOR IPHONE FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

Tip 2: Get a tripod

Using a tripod really comes in handy in food photography no matter what kind of look/mood you’re going for. A tripod secures your camera, frees up your hands to make adjustments to your food photography composition and gives you a lot more flexibility with a variety of different exposure settings.

For example, when I shoot with natural light, sometimes I need to slow my shutter speed down quite a bit to accommodate lower light situations. If I’m holding the camera and I need to use a slow shutter speed, my images will pick up camera shake and turn out blurry. A tripod allows me to slow my shutter speed down without having to worry about camera shake or blurry food images.

MANFROTTO 055 WITH BALL HEAD

I have the Manfrotto 055 with a center column and ball head. It’s a sturdy tripod and packs up well for traveling on location. If you plan to shoot overhead with this tripod, you will need an extension arm as well so you can extend your camera far enough over the table. I also have another overhead solution listed next.

MY OVERHEAD SET UP

Here’s a little fun fact about my photography workflow. Typically, I only use my tripod for 3/4 angle and straight on shots. For overhead shots, I have a special setup.

I love having a separate setup for my overhead shots, because it’s simply more convenient. Not having to readjust my tripod for every angle I want to capture saves me a lot of time, because I can just move my camera from my overhead setup to my tripod. And, with as popular as overhead shots are in food photography, I think it’s well worth the extra equipment. If you’re curious about this setup, I share all the equipment you’ll need in the post below.

READ MORE ABOUT: MY OVERHEAD SETUP FOR FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

A TRIPOD FOR THE iPHONE

Even if you use your iPhone camera for food photography, I still recommend getting a tripod. In fact, I use the same Manfrotto tripod with my iPhone camera. The only extra piece of equipment you’ll need is a Metal iPhone Tripod Mount. This secures your iPhone to the tripod plate which snaps into the ball head. It doesn’t interfere with the screen and allows you easily switch between a vertical and horizontal orientation. I share the equipment you’ll need in the iPhone tripod post listed below.

READ MORE ABOUT: THE BEST TRIPOD FOR THE IPHONE

Tip 3: Use Brighter Surfaces & Backdrops

Using brighter surfaces & backdrops a really fun way to start experimenting with a more bright and airy food photography style. Switching between a bright and dark surface can affect your images pretty dramatically. If you’re going for a dark look, you’d use a dark surface. For a light and airy look, you’d use a bright surface. It sounds so simple, because it is!

READ MORE ABOUT: THE BEST SURFACES & BACKDROPS FOR FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

Tip 4: Use Brighter Props

Much like experimenting with brighter surfaces & backdrops, using brighter props is another way to start experimenting with a light and airy food photography style. And, the best way to show you how effective dark vs. light surfaces and props can be is to show you.

Check out the salad images below.

One uses a light surface and light props. The other uses a black surface and black props. The mood and vibe is totally different in each image.

USE CODE: REGANBARONI FOR 15% OFF YOUR ORDER FROM BEST EVER BACKDROPS

Tip 5: Lighting

Lighting is very important in photography. Whether you use natural light or artificial lights, there are two ways to control the light and make it do what you want it to do.

1. Use light modifiers
2. Adjust where your light hits the food

Use Light Modifiers

Light modifiers help you shape and soften the light so it’s more evenly spread out over the food. If you want more direct/hard light with stronger shadows and contrast, don’t use modifiers. Some modifiers I recommend for natural light and artificial light are listed below.

• BLACK FOAM BOARD
• WHITE FOAM BOARD
• 5-IN-1 DIFFUSOR & REFLECTOR
• SOFTBOXES (ARTIFICIAL LIGHT)
• UMBRELLAS (ARTIFICIAL LIGHT)

Adjust Where Your Light Hits the Food

Your light source is either the sun or artificial lights. If you’re using natural light (the sun), you will have to move the food or your table so the light hits it in different spots. If you’re using an artificial light, you just have to move the light to different spots.

What happens if you move further away from the light?

What happens if you put the light behind the food?

How does the food look lit from the side?

READ MORE ABOUT: HOW TO TAKE CONTROL OF NATURAL LIGHT

Tip 6: Edit your images

Editing is what brings your images to their final form. Most images appear really flat and muted without any editing, so take the time to experiment with this. Sometimes a little editing can go a long way and sometimes editing can save a poorly exposed image.

If you’re editing on a computer, I recommend Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom. If you’re editing on your iPhone, I recommend downloading Lightroom Mobile. Practice is key with editing, so take the time to play with different features and watch your light food photography come to life.

BEFORE AND AFTER EXAMPLES

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. 

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All images ©Regan Baroni 2021.