Food Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots

chAPTer 4: sTYling & ProPs 105

Adding sTeAm

Food looks tastier when it’s fresh, and if it’s hot, it is more appealing if you can see

that it’s hot. Food that is fresh out of the oven or right off the pan usually has steam

rising from it, but once it sits for a minute or two the steam dissipates. If you want to

keep that “freshly cooked” look, you can always add the steam yourself.

A fun (and easy) way to add steam to a food item is to use a hand steamer. They are

typically used for steaming and straightening clothes, but they work very well with

food photography. In Figure 4.23 (left), I show how I used a hand steamer to give this

shrimp the appearance that it is still hot and fresh, and after a few attempts I got the

perfect “steamy” look (Figure 4.23, right). (See Chapter 7 for a behind-the-scenes on

creating a similar “steam” photograph).

Canon 7D

ISO 100

1/125 sec.

f/8

70-200mm lens

FIgure 4.23
I used a portable hand steamer to add steam to this shrimp on a fork.