Food Photography Tips, Part IV.

Part IV – The Continuation of the Composition of Food Photography

Today I’ll be covering the Rule of Thirds and Perspectives in Food.

1. Rule of Thirds

This rule doesn’t just apply to food photography, it applies to all types of photography. It was created by painters in the Renaissance, who found that the eye doesn’t rest on the centre of the photograph. In addition, photos following this rule seem more professional looking. Below is a picture to depict the Rule of Thirds. Your main object of focus should fall within the 4 green dots.

Source: photoinf

Here are some examples of mine.

Notice that the marshmallow ‘cloud’ decoration on the cupcake (at the bottom left) is the focus of this photograph and that it falls within one of the ‘green’ dotted area, with reference to the earlier photograph. 

However, rules can always be broken! It really all depends on the photographer’s judgement. Let’s take a whole cake as an example. If you feel that a photograph of the entire cake right in the middle of a photograph would best express the message you want to bring across, by all mean ignore the Rule of Thirds. It is merely a guideline for you to follow.

This mini-flower cupcake was photographed to be in the middle of the photograph. It doesn’t follow the Rule of Thirds but in my opinion, I feel that it brings out the cupcake’s simplicity and uniqueness.

2. Perspectives in Food

Each person can have very different perspectives in life, and that applies to food too. Which perspective of a particular dish do you want to highlight? The choice is entirely up to you.  For owners of compact digital cameras, Kejie (one of the instructor from the course) advised us to zoom out first and then move the camera physically towards the food, before you take the photograph.

For this garlic fish dish, I wanted viewers to be able to picture themselves actually eating the fish.

For this amazing Chinese dinner prepared by my grandmother, I wanted my viewers to sense a family gathering. I included the chopsticks and individual dishes in this photograph, instead of just focusing on one particular dish.

Oh my goodness, this post is making me hungry. I did not manage to have a proper dinner today. *Scans the dining table for food.

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