Your photo will look like this if you are shooting under tungsten light such as a light bulb and you don’t set your white balance to TUNGSTEN

Your photo will look like this if you are shooting indoors with a flash and you have set your white balance to DAYLIGHT

Your photo will look like this if you don’t set your white balance to CLOUDY. This setting adds a little yellow and orange to compensate for the color of this light source

Your photo will look like this if you don’t set your white balance to SHADE. This setting adds more yellow and orange to compensate for the color of this light source

Your photo will look like this if you are shooting under fluorescent light, found in most commercial kitchens, if you don’t set your white balance to FLUORESCENT

Custom White Balance adjusts the presumed white point for digital cameras. Aim the camera at a white card and capture the white balance setting so that anything white will be white in your photo. I always set the white balance to manual mode. Often, I create a custom white balance to get better color rendition. Sometimes when using electronic flash, the white balance has to be set manually because the light doesn’t exist until the flash goes off. A setting for daylight is usually close.

Food stylists  are required to create beautiful dishes that can hold up for several hours on and off set, not to mention withstand hot, harsh lighting conditions.

To create the effect of grill marks on food, some stylists use metal skewers heated over an open flame, while others prefer to use an electric charcoal starter.  The electric starter makes a wider mark and minimizes your chances of burning yourself.

Having a food stylist to work with is a great asset, since they are artists in their own right and very knowledgeable in how to make the food look more appetizing.  They are an integral part to making a photo shoot successful.  The photographer captures the story, the food and prop stylists are the artists who create the story.  It is a team effort.

To find a food stylist in your area, look to various organizations such as the Association of Stylists and Coordinators (www.stylistsasc.com)

Avoid using too many objects that crowd the space.  Try to keep it simple most of the time, simplicity rules; less is more when it comes to food photography.  Determine the key mouthwatering element in your image, and compose your photograph to draw the viewer’s eye to it.

This is an old-fashioned technique of placing the key element smack in the middle of the photograph.  The use of concentric shapes pulls your eye into the middle of the photo.

We read from left to right, our eyes naturally tend to scan pictures in a clockwise fashion and then spiral in to the area that has the whitest and brightest colors at its center.

If you keep the “a” in mind, you will automatically create interesting compositions.  This will help you balance the elements in a photograph, creating a yin-yang effect.  The “a” leads the eye in a clockwise fashion, similar to a spiral, pointing it to the main subject, which is slightly off-center.

You can use flash when you shoot outdoors in sunlight to show some detail in the harsh shadows, its called Flash Fill

Use household items such as aluminum foil (as a reflector) and wax paper (as a diffuser) to change the type of light

Use gold reflectors to add warmth to the shadows

Using mirrors and backlights helps to add dimension, gives more shadow detail, and creates specular highlights on the food or setting.  With them, food can sparkle like jewels.  Specular highlights attract attention to the food’s freshness, color, and texture, giving it appetite appeal.