Composition in all forms of art is incredibly important. Photography is no exception. Food photography composition is a bit different in terms of the compositional process vs. other niches that are incredibly fast-paced.

Depending on your photographic niche, moments unfold quickly and are gone in an instant. This is especially true for event and wedding photographers.

Other types of photography, especially those that are studio-based do have more flexibility.

For instance, any form of still-life photography (such as food or product photography), photographers have the luxury of putting a scene together and changing elements as we shoot. With other types of photography, it is a consistent flow of shots, one after the next.

I would argue that composition can be intuitive if you have a firm grasp on other aspects of art such as design, color, and lines. That being said, it is a perpetual practice and it is something that all photographers should strive to continuously improve.

In my face-to-face photography courses, I do an exercise where the students have to pick a subject and work the scene, shooting anywhere from 40-50 photos of the same scene and objects.

The goal of this small assignment is to instill the idea of moving round a scene in the students. The more photos you take while learning photography and composition, the more you will see and even feel the composition.  It is my hope that you’ll shoot many more than 50 frames if you plan to give this composition exercise a try!

There are a few compositional techniques that will help improve your food photography. I’ve only included three elements to create compelling food photography in this post so that we could dig into each of them. There is so much more to photography composition that I would encourage you to explore and these are truly just the beginning.

#1 Viewpoint and Camera Angles

What is a viewpoint?

The viewpoint is the physical location that you are shooting from. If you step over a foot or two, you’ll have a completely new viewpoint and the scene in fron tof you will look a bit different.

I struggle with this one a lot and tend to use the same viewpoint over and over, which can get a bit boring. This tends to happen when the photographer gets comfortable with the specific placement of the camera in relation to the food in the scene. If something is working, why not continue to do it?

Because of that mentality, creatives can get stuck in this type of rut. It’s great to break out of our comfort zone, and try new points of view and angles! If you are shooting food for a client, or even your food blog or other online publication you should make sure you have optimal coverage in terms of angles.

This means shooting the same dish in at least three different ways. Are there more angles than just 3, yes absolutely! And there are unlimited viewpoints. But these three will give you a good place to start.

What is the difference between viewpoint and angle?

Viewpoints and angles are similar in terms of composition, but they are a bit different, all at the same time. The viewpoint is where you are in relation to your scene, the angle is how your camera is tilted and pointed towards the scene. You can have the same angle pointed towards the food, but have a different point of view all at the same time. They can ( and do) go hand-in-hand while discussing composition.

Common Angles to Consider for food photography

There are 3 main angels that I use in my food photography, but there are many more that you should consider and practice utilizing. This is mostly to give you a starting point while considering

90 degrees/Overhead

Take a look at the first image above with the leaves and a bite out of the donut.

45 degrees

The photo above was shot around 45 degrees.

0 degrees/straight on

The last image of the donuts was shot straight on.

Should you shoot horizontally or vertically?

Deciding if you should shoot horizontally or vertically is another task that will improve your images.

My advice is to shoot both horizontally and vertically for each of the three ways listed above.

This will ensure you have a lot of different viewpoints to choose from during post-processing and it gives you options.

Some will work better than others and it will become clear which images to use as you go through the culling and editing process.

#2 Depth

What is Depth?

If you are able to create a foreground, middle ground, and background in an image, you have just created depth.

It is helpful to think of a photograph as a story, in this case, all stories have a beginning, middle, and end, similar to the depth in a photo!

When we talk about depth in terms of composition, we are really talking about two things: the background blur (the depth of field) and where objects are placed within the frame. We’ll dig into both below!

How to Create Depth?

One way to use depth in your food photography is to use a layering tactic to place objects within your frame.

You’l;l start by determining which objects you’d like to use to support the food in the shot. Then take these different objects a place them into the three planes of a photo in a pleasing way. You can even put some of these objects such as a bowl or a spoon halfway out of the frame.

It’s okay to leave some parts of the photo up to the viewer’s imagination.

You’ll want to play around with the position of each object and move them around your scene as you shoot. You’ll also want to move your camera, tripod, and your own body around the scene to find the very best angle, as discussed above.

You’ll also want to work on playing with the depth of field of your images.

What is Depth of Field?

The other is to create depth of field. When you see an image with something really sharp in the one part of the image, let’s say the foreground, and the rest of the image becomes increasingly blurry this is usually referred to as shadow depth of field or bokeh.

To obtain this aesthetic you have to set your aperture (f-stop) to a low number or “wide open” as this creates a larger opening.

This will result in a shallow depth of field (parts of the image are out of focus/blurry, typically the background in food photography!)

I’d start out with a f/5 and work my way down to f/2.8 (your lowest possible aperture depends on your lens. Some lenses only go to f/4 while others can go to f/1.2.)

#3 Negative Space

What is negative space?

Negative space is when specific sections of your photo are empty. In other words, there is nothing interesting happening in that area of the image. Designers often refer to this as white space. There really isn’t anything super interesting going on and all of the exciting stuff in the photo can be found in other areas, also referred to as Positive Space.

Negative space is your friend! Especially in food photography where we know that as bloggers, we’ll want to leave some room throughout the photo to add text and call out the recipe. This text is helpful for image-based search like Pinterest. The negative space does not draw the viewer’s eye to it, essentially it is there as a backdrop to let the positive space shine. For food photographers, positive space is the star of the image: the food.

While taking images try to think of the purpose of that specific image. Here are some specific questions to ask yourself while you’re in the moment:

• Will there be text or other graphics?
• Are you leaving enough room for them to be added?
• Where do I want the viewers attention?

If you were shooting for a magazine that had the text for the left side of an image you might do something similar to the photo below on the right side.

This would be nice negative space for a recipe or for teaser content for what’s inside, think the cover of a magazine!

How to add negative space to your food photo

1. Cut down on the use of props
2. Use depth of field to your advantage (as illustrated above)
3. Zoom out to add more of the background
4. Find a blank background to shoot your food against

You can utilize a combination of the above techniques to help you add negative space to your food photography.

Negative space can also help you tell a story.

Remember that every time you set up a scene to capture, you have the ability to focus on storytelling elements.

In the photo above, I’ve focused my positive space on the mug of tea and the negative space became the fireplace and the surrounding area. I’ve also used depth to ensure that the fireplace is just a bit out of focus, furthering the negative space.

What kind of story does this tell? I believe it sets the stage for a cozy winter evening, perhaps at a ski lodge or some other type of winter wonderland. If I had added more objects to the small table, perhaps a book or a second cup of tea, the story would be a bit different.

Negative space helps convey an emotion

Sometimes, it is all about what you don’t say that plays with people’s emotions. THe same is true for photography. If you leave specific elements or information out (by using negative space instead) you are allowing the viewer to create their own story and feelings based on what is not there.

Negative space can add tension to a scene, depending on how you utilize it.

Deciding on your positive space first will help you create negative space

When you already know what your positive space will be a stack of pancakes, then you can use other elements around you, and other compositional elements such as balance and depth to create negative space.

Negative space will help you balance out an image

Balance is another compositional element that deals a lot with negative space.

In a way, they go hand in hand. In order to have negative space and positive space working together to create a compelling image, you will be trying to achieve balance.

Viewpoint, depth, and negative spaces are three compositional elements that you can use to level up your food photography. If you’re finding yourself in a compositional rut, or you are just getting started, my advice would be to pick a few techniques and really focus on them one by one to get the food photographs of your dreams!