Did you know that a lot of common iPhone food photography challenges are caused from holding your iPhone? The solution is to use a tripod. This post shares the best iPhone tripod for food photography that will help stabilize your iPhone camera for food photography.
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Why Should You Stabilize Your iPhone Camera?
It’s very convenient to hold your iPhone camera and take a quick picture. But, in food photography, a lot of issues are caused from holding our camera – and in this case – the iPhone camera.
Using a tripod for your iPhone photography has a lot of benefits including:
- SECURES YOUR CAMERA IN PLACE
- FREES YOUR HANDS FOR CAMERA SETTING ADJUSTMENTS
- FREES YOUR HANDS TO FRAME THE FOOD TO THE CAMERA
- FREES YOUR HANDS TO PLAY WITH DIFFERENT COMPOSITIONS
- MORE FLEXIBILITY WITH CAMERA SETTINGS, LIKE SLOWER SHUTTER SPEEDS
- HELPS YOU CAPTURE IMAGES THAT ARE IN FOCUS
- HELPS YOU FIND THE “RIGHT” ANGLE FOR THE FOOD YOU’RE SHOOTING
- HELPS IN POOR LIGHTING SITUATIONS
Popular Ways To Stabilize the iPhone Without A Tripod
There are a couple of very popular ways to stabilize your iPhone that are not very successful options. One is simply holding the iPhone and the other is using a selfie stick or a GorillaPod. Let’s talk about the pros and cons of these options.
Holding The iPhone
Since the iPhone is something that we all carry around with us, it’s natural to just hold it to take a quick picture. But, constantly holding the iPhone for food photography poses some problems.
PROS
- Convenient and easy to hold
- Easy to take a quick picture
CONS
- Holding the iPhone causes “camera shake” (blurry images)
- You have to move the camera to frame the food rather than frame the food to the camera
- Your hands aren’t free to make adjustments to your image composition, lighting or camera settings
- Difficult to find the “right” angles
READ MORE ABOUT: IPHONE PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS
Selfie-Sticks & GorillaPods
There are a lot of selfie sticks and Joby GorillaPods to stabilize your iPhone. I’ve tested quite a few and have not been impressed with any of them. Let’s talk about the pros and cons of the iPhone-specific tripods on the market.
PROS
- Small, easy to carry with you
- Easy to use
- Affordable
- Relatively flexible
CONS
- Not very secure
- Cheap feeling in functionality
- Height limitations
- Unable to shoot the popular “overhead” or flat lay angle
The Best iPhone Tripod for Food Photography
After testing a few different ways to stabilize my iPhone and not getting the results I wanted, I decided to get creative in my home studio and discovered an awesome tripod for iPhone food photography.
PROS
- Solid, secure tripod setup
- More height flexibility for shooting above a table
- Ability to shoot at any angle, including overheads and flat lay shots
- Frees your hands to adjust your food composition
- Helps produce sharper images
- Helps reduce grain in images shot in low light situations
- Easy to set up
- Easy to take down
- Easy to carry with you
CONS
- A little more expensive
- A little more equipment
Equipment for the iPhone Tripod
Let’s walk through exactly what you’ll need when it comes to the equipment for this iPhone tripod for food photography. You’ll need the following things:
- TRIPOD WITH CENTER COLUMN
- BALL HEAD
- METAL iPHONE TRIPOD MOUNT
- REMOTE SHUTTER (OPTIONAL)
1. Tripod with A Center Column
First, you’re going to need a good tripod with a center column. The center column is necessary because it allows you to position your iPhone securely for overhead and flat lay images. Overhead and flat lay shots are incredibly popular in food photography and a lot of iPhone-specific tripods aren’t designed to accommodate this popular angle.
There are a lot of different tripods with center columns to explore depending on your budget, but the one I use is the Manfrotto 055 with Center Column and Ball Head.
2. Ball Head
The tripod I linked above already comes with a ball head, so you wouldn’t need to purchase that separately if you bought that particular tripod. A lot of tripods with center columns don’t include the ball head, though. You’ll want to be sure you get one that will securely attach to your tripod. The ball head allows you to adjust the angle of your camera or iPhone with ease. It easily rotates to accommodate any angle you want.
3. Metal Phone Tripod Mount
A metal phone tripod mount is a great option for attaching and securing your iPhone to the tripod. It’s made of metal (not plastic), adjusts from vertical to horizontal shots easily, accommodates different smartphone widths and won’t interfere with your lens or your screen.
5. Remote Shutter (Optional)
A remote shutter is optional, but it has been super helpful for me with this iPhone tripod setup. A remote shutter helps you take a picture without actually touching your iPhone.
It comes in handy if you are not near your phone, want to be in the picture or if the buttons on your iPhone are obstructed. It also helps to avoid camera shake and blurry images. You’d be surprised how the iPhone can pick up camera shake just by tapping it to take a picture, especially in low light situations.
This remote shutter is super small and easy to carry with you. I highly recommend it, but it’s not mandatory for this iPhone setup.
Your camera, no matter what camera you use, is a valuable piece of equipment, so it’s important to invest in gear that will help protect it and make your photo shoots more successful at the same time. I have found this setup to be the absolute best for iPhone food photography. It’s secure, it’s reliable and it helps tackle a variety of issues that are caused from holding the iPhone while taking pictures.
I hope you found this recommendation for an iPhone tripod for food photography helpful! Reach out with questions anytime and be sure to follow me on Instagram!
Happy Creating!
This post may contain 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 and equipment that I actually use for my photography business. Your support helps me continue to produce educational content about photography. Thank you!
All images ©Regan Baroni 2022.
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