An Artist's Perspective On Food Photography

Digital-Photography-School.Com is a great source for information.  I subscribe to their list and receive emails every once in a while with tips and tutorials that I have found invaluable.  And all for free.  I just received one that included tips on food photography.  I admit I have tried taking photos of food and I suck. To be fair, it was only for fun, and usually spontaneously at a restaurant I happen to be eating at. This photo was taken at a restaurant in Quebec City while visiting for my parent's anniversary. It's colorful, but pretty boring.

For those interested in making something extraordinary and dramatic out of ordinary food photography, this article gives some great tips on approaching it from a painter's perspective.

Will Kemp gives us 5 tips to better food photography:

1. Use a Single Light Source


This is very effective when you’re painting because it really helps to give the illusion of depth and that is one of the trickiest things to achieve when your trying to convince the viewer of your subject.


When you use one light source you produce lovely shapes of what are called cast shadows, as in the shadow cast by an object. I often study the shadows more than the subject. You don’t need an expensive light, the photo above was lit using a $5 torch.


You can use this technique when composing your photograph to try and keep it really simple, that way it looks more dramatic .

Here are the other 4 tips.
I'm going to have to do some experimenting.