I always gravitate towards shooting my food images in a vertical format. When I’m teaching classes, this is when I notice almost everyone is holding their camera horizontally when shooting their food photos.
The first time I taught a food photography class this shocked me. So I asked the students why they were all holding their cameras horizontally. Each student looked at me and said they had no idea. So we talked about it and since then, I always incorporate this in class.
Turns out they all agreed, it was much more comfortable to shoot that way. It had nothing to do with what the image was going to look like. I couldn’t believe it. So there it is, I had to change their mindset about that.
But in the meantime, they literally have 100’s, if not 1000’s of images that were shot horizontally. So, here’s a fun assignment – take some of your horizontal images from the past and give them new life! Crop the crap out of them! Crop away some plate, some background, and get right in on your food and share them below in the comments. If you don’t have software yet to do this, keep reading.
Your blog is all about your food, not your props, not your backgrounds, not your surfaces, as lovely as they may be. That is not what your blog is about.
Now, of course there are some exceptions to this, where there’s an environment that is beautiful and contributing to your story. That is totally different.
I’m talking about those images where there’s hardly anything in the background worth looking at. Maybe even shots where some props are distracting and taking away from your food. Rework those those images and see if you can create a new way of seeing them.
Here’s some examples with before and after:
In the shot above, I think the fork is distracting so I cut that out. Crop into the plate, bowl, or platter. That automatically makes your attention go to your food. You don’t have to show the entire plate, that’s not what you are selling.
The image above was done for a restaurant. If any food bloggers out there shoot restaurants, listen up! Many restaurants plate their food for presentation, not for shooting, which is exactly what they should be doing. So, many chefs love putting their beautiful food on big, bulbous, round plates. Which is awesome for presentation, and not so great for shooting. Again, I am not chef bashing here at all. This is their job and they do it well.
When in this situation, try to think how you want that final image to look. In the image above, the huge dish helped us. I was able to crop in to make the food float on a white space. It’s all about the perfectly cooked black cod, not the huge dish it’s in.
The fun thing with cropping your images is that you can make it any size you want.
Above is the full frame vertical shot of the same dish. Notice how I put some water glasses in the background to break up the white space and have a little something going on back there. If I were to use this vertical shot, I would probably crop some of the bottom out, or put text in that area. That’s a lot of dead space we just don’t need.
Side note: When I shoot at restaurants, I always bring many fork, knife, and spoon options with me in case their flatware doesn’t shoot well. People, it is REALLY hard to place a simple fork into a shot. I probably have 15 shots of this one fork in different positions. Many times I fire the fork – take it out, because it doesn’t work, meaning it takes away from the food. So if you struggle with this, welcome to the club! We all do.
Now, here’s an example of the first shot of a dish where the chef saw it and recognized it needed some tweaking. This chef had a lot of shooting experience so he totally knew the drill. Which is awesome.
Notice how he moved the beef slices to look more appealing. Then I asked him what the dressing looked like. You see, I always shoot a dish before the dressing is applied so I can get a sense of the structure of the dish first. When he showed me the dressing I noticed it was quite thin and might look strange had we just poured it on, then shot. So we decided to do an action shot.
Try Shooting Vertically Next time
This vertical shot was not cropped in from the first shot. I turned my camera to be vertical. I wanted to allow room for the container that the chef was pouring from. We did test shots where there wasn’t anything in the container so the chef knew where he needed to be in the frame. Then we filled up the container and poured. I took several frames of this action.
If this was a horizontal shot, it would not have looked as exciting as the vertical shot because there would be too much space around the dish to allow for the container.
If you are one of those horizontal shooters, try to do some of your next shots vertically. I’m sure you’ll like how it will look. And, don’t forgot an important thing – vertical shots show up much bigger on your blog. Just look at all your favorite food bloggers who you admire. Most of their shots are vertical. Try it!
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How To Crop Your Photo
If you are not a Photoshop or Lightroom user yet (what are you waiting for??), you are wondering how to crop your images without software. There are loads of great online editing websites out there. You simply upload your images, crop them, apply text if needed, then output them at the size you need for your blog. Each editor is a little different, but you get the idea.
Google “Online Image Editor” or “Online Image Crop” and see which ones look fun for you to use:
Here are just a few, there’s literally pages of them on google now:
Now, once you’re using one of these online editors, look for the cropping tool – it always looks something like this:
One tip – always save your original file if you are using your own software on your computer. If you choose to crop one of your images, do it as a copy so you can always go back and change things if needed from the original.
About this images shown: The two salads were shot on a system equivalent to a 100mm macro lens on a full frame sensor 35mm camera. The restaurant images were shot with my Canon 5D Mark iii and a 100mm macro lens.
I hope I inspired you to go through some of your older images and give them another try. I’d love to see them in the comments below. Please share your images and if they are live, share links to those as well.
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Happy shooting everyone!
Disclaimer: The photoshop and Lightroom link is an affiliate link with amazon. All other links are not affiliates.
Vicki Bensinger
I’m posting my comment and question here since I didn’t see a space under camera equipment.
I started to take a studio photo class and realized that my camera won’t work. So I asked the guy teaching the course who also works at a photography store here in town if he could get me a price on the Canon 5D Mark III. This is what he said to me. I’m curious what your thoughts are on his comments. He said: The Canon 5D Mark III sells for $3195 with the 24-105 mm zoom lens. By itself it’s $2599. I think this is overkill for your needs; like buying a Ferrari to commute to work.
I have a food blog since 2009 so use my camera often. Up to now I’ve pretty much had a point and shoot although 2 years ago my husband got me the Sony DSC-RX100M2. Apparently the teacher said it won’t work if I want to use studio light and it doesn’t appear it can be tethered.
Christina Peters
Hi Vicki! Sorry for the delay. Here’s the thing, everyone will have a different opinion about what you need. I appreciate that your teacher is not automatically up-selling you everything. That’s a nice change. Yes, the Mark III is a great camera and there are many more cameras above that level. If you never plan on making a printed book, then you can get away with a cheaper camera. Here are my requirements for a camera.
1. MUST have as many focusing points as I can get – this is expensive
2. When using a high ISO, it’s a much cleaner file than the cheaper cameras – this is expensive.
3. Must be able to shoot RAW for better editing options
4. I must be able to put the ISO onto Automatic in certain shooting modes – this is hard to find.
I suggest renting the camera first and trying it out. Get the manual for it – either google it or get it from where you are renting and READ it. The Mark III is very complex, if you feel you’re not there yet, that’s ok. Take a few steps down and get a Rebel. They are great for bloggers, for online work.
ANY new camera you get will have a huge learning curve. They all use different interfaces and every camera moves settings and buttons around. Cameras are not intuitive and you should think of them as a new computer system that has an entirely different operating system AND language. You are learning a new language.
Vicki Bensinger
When you say book do you mean like a cookbook? That’s on my list but not for a while.
I’d also like to try tethering. I have a laptop that still has Windows 7 that I’m using. A hand me down of all things from my kids. I mostly use a PC. I’m taking that photo workshop in October and they suggested downloading Lightroom since they teach it. I don’t know it or even understand if it will work with both my laptop and PC and if I will be able to tether it with the camera I have or Lightroom let alone maybe learn a new camera. I desperately want to improve my photos which in turn I believe will increase my readership. I’m also changing my site to all white as you and many others have said was needed along with other improvements.
I’m doing so many things and quite frankly most of which I’m clueless on (new camera, Lightroom, tethering, Photoshop). I guess I need to learn it at some point so bows as good a time as any.
Christina Peters
Yes, like a cookbook – any printed form actually. You just have to remember, you’re learning a new skill AND a new language. These things take time. There’s no instant weekend food photographer class I’m afraid. Tethering is awesome. I have a post about it. I think your first thing is to learn your new camera, then focus on one thing at a time. With practice, you’ll get there.
Alexandra
Really interesting post and different to all the other food photography ones that are out there…thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Christina Peters
Thanks Alexandra!
Vicki Bensinger
I just recently started shooting my food vertically since my advertiser suggested it. I makes a huge difference, IMO.
Do you shoot much overhead? If so what type of arm attachment would you recommend for the tripod that is good and will last?
Christina Peters
I have a blog post all about that – How to do an overhead shot.
Vicki Bensinger
Great I’ll check it out. I love your site it’s so helpful!!!
Christina Peters
Glad it’s helping you!
justin
Doing this adds so much more texture and nuance to the food!
Christina Peters
Hi Justin, it can be a way of making a blah image to much nicer one!
Stella @ Stellicious Life
Thanks for the incredibly useful post! I especially liked that you showed us through several photos the different outcomes and possible shots. I still need courage when it comes to cropping, but I’ll try not to be afraid to cut off parts of plates and utensils. Thanks again for the tips and advice!
Christina Peters
You’re welcome Stella!
Randi
I admit that since starting my blog I am really struggling with getting used to shooting vertical. I am so used to horizontal that it’s tough to figure out how to get everything in the picture AND make it look good. This post comes at a great time for me. Thanks!
Christina Peters
Hi Randi, Glad you liked the post. Just remember, you won’t become an excellent food photographer overnight. It takes a lot of practice. You can also do a test shoot with food that you don’t spend time on, not for a great shot, just practice using your camera. The more you shoot, the more you will learn. I have two degrees and have been shooting since I was 8. I’m still learning fun new things all the time. That’s the fun of it!
Marinus Hoogendoorn
Hi,
Interesting post, I crop my pics quite often to get rid of unwanted issues. My question, why do you crop in one of those editing sites, I do use Pixlr for some spot repair here and there, but find it not so user friendly for cropping.
First you have only one image to work with and when you don’t like what you did you cannot undo, you only choice is to reload the shot and start again.
I prefer to use windows photo gallery, for one all my shots of the subject are there, I can easily undo and refer back to a similar shot before cropping and compare the two.
Marinus
Christina Peters
Hi Marinus, I suggested those online editors for those that don’t use Photoshop or Lightroom. They all work differently and they all have their pros and cons. The point is to use anything you are comfortable with to start cropping some horizontal images to see if you might like them better.
Alexander DiMauro
Yes, a lot of the cropped shots definitely do look better, thanks for the tip! It’s a simple tip, but works well to make the food the star of the shot, as it should be.
I think I can offer a reason as to why people tend to take horizontal shots. I think it’s because that’s the way we naturally look at food. We don’t turn our heads sideways, we look horizontally. So, I think it’s just a natural instinct. People look at the food horizontally, then just bring the camera up to their faces and shoot without even thinking about it too much. Breaking out of this instinct and learning to see from different angles is a great lesson! Thanks.
Christina Peters
Hi Alexander, very good point you bring up. Our eye ball view is horizontal. Glad you liked the post and thanks for reading!