Food Photography How To

Food always looks great in TV and magazine ads, right? That’s usually the case whether we’re talking about a cheap burger at a fast food joint or an expensive steak at a nice restaurant. Well, we hate to break it to you but some of that appetizing food you drool over in ads isn’t really edible at all.

Long, long ago in a land far away, photo hobbyists often used yellow filters on their lenses when shooting black-and-white film. Monochrome film was a bit more sensitive to blue light back in those days, and that caused skies and clouds to blend and become an indistinguishable mess. For reasons we’ll see later, green filters were often used for portraits.

Editor’s Note: Food photographer Lou Manna has spent over 30 years creating images of all things edible. We recently asked Manna to share some of his wisdom with Shutterbug’s readers he provided us with the following helpful tips for how to shoot the best food photos. You can see more of Manna’s work on his website, or read his thoughts on food photography and see more images at his blog.