Food Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots

chAPTer 4: sTYling & ProPs 95

Canon 7D

ISO 100

1/100 sec.

f/4

70–200mm lens

FIgure 4.11
For these pasta dishes I used a dome of Styrofoam to bulk up the food. Pasta can be slippery,
so Styrofoam works well if I’m using the food only for photography (and not to eat afterward).

Another quick tip is that if you’re photographing a bowl of soup with ingredients

such as noodles, veggies, or meat, try adding a handful of decorative rocks to the

bottom of the bowl to push up all the tasty ingredients to the top. I prefer to use

clear rocks to avoid any potential colorcast in the image, especially in a clear or

broth-based soup. That way instead of being sunk to the bottom, they’re hanging

out at the top of the bowl in clear view of the camera (Figure 4.12).