How to take good food pictures without a fancy camera?

Regardless of what camera you are using, there are some points which you must always, yes ALWAYS keep in mind while clicking pictures of food. Those are the basics which will help you through even if you don’t have a fancy camera like a high-end DSLR.

There are ways of using your point-and-shoot camera, your phone or iPad to click pictures that are as mouth watering as the food itself. Sure, in terms of picture size and resolution, you might lag a little bit behind the big brother, but that is alright as long as your composition is great.

If you are a professional chef or baker, avoid taking pictures by phone. You might want to make your portfolio one of these days and low resolution pictures taken by a camera phone might not work in your favour, no matter how great those pictures are.

1. Get the lighting right. Point-and-shoot cameras work best when there is ample of natural light where you want to shoot your food items. Do not use the built-in flash, not even if you are shooting with a camera phone. Kitchens are usually well lit during the day, so you can shoot there. Or any other place near the window where the light is soft and subtle.

2. Use the Macro settings in your point-and-shoot. New mobile models of some selected companies have started introducing the macro mode in mobile cameras as well. This mode allows you to click great close-up photos.

3. Take pictures from all possible angles and in landscape as well as portrait. This will give you options to choose the best photo from.

4. DSLRs allow you to play with the settings in a way which will suit your needs. This is especially needed since you are using limited light. In case of digital point-and-shoots or camera phones, that might pose a problem. So to avoid shaky pictures, which usually happen in low light, use a small tripod. You can also pop your elbows on the table and use both hands as a tripod.

5. Any flaws that might creep into your photos can be taken care of during the editing process. All new range smartphones come with a basic photo-editor installed in it. You can also transfer all photos to your computer and edit using a good software like PhotoShop or LightRoom.