Hunting for food is one of the things I do very often, be it breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper. And if you haven’t notice already, I tend to share them across various platforms whenever I find a dish worthy of your taste buds.
Armed with a Samsung GALAXY Camera as my weapon of choice these days, I want to show you aspect of food photography which coincide with my favorite category in Samsung’s This is My Moment, Live campaign – the top down view of some of Malaysia’s Best foods.
I always love this angle of view when it comes to food photography, it represents the diner’s point of view when food is presented on the table. You get to see everything, the glistering fats, the contrasting colors, and sometimes even a hint of steam rising from the hot dish.
Here are five food photography tips using photos taken with Samsung GALAXY Camera, resized for this space.
1. Go Close
Sometimes you want to get close while still incorporating everything. The sambal, cockles, cuttle fish, prawns, tofu, noodle, and those coagulated pork blood all within the frame. It spells a delicious bowl of Penang curry mee (SS2 Restauran Okay)
2. Divide and Conquer
It’s often effective to snap photos of the dish after it’s separated to serving size. This makes the photo less busy and further enhances the main ingredient(s), in this example, the massive river prawns. (Pan Heong, Batu Caves)
3. The Little Things
Don’t forget the little things in your photo. The example above includes the chop sticks and sambal condiment, and sometimes you can crop away the dishes a little bit to avoid the photo looking dull. However, you should also try not to have anything irrelevant creeping into the photos, such as the glove at the top left corner of this photo.
4. Contrast
Contrasting colors make for visually striking photos. Red bowl, black table top, yellow noodle, and green chili featured in this wantan mee dish. (Jalan Brunei off Jalan Pudu, next to Caltex) The only missing major color is blue, which isn’t a color associated with food anyway.
5. Everything In It!
Lastly, the simplest way is to include everything on the table in one shot. This is especially useful when you want to convey the size of the dish, like this big breakfast set with two extra side dishes and a piece of pie at Antipodean (Bangsar). Try to arrange your dishes so it fits into the frame properly, and do make sure that there aren’t too many distractions (tip #3).
So if you’re like me who takes a lot of food photos to share, consider submitting them to This is My Moment, Live. Two person who’s 5 pictures submissions have been selected by Samsung will get a RM 100 cash prize!
Good luck and happy clicking!
KY,
No matter hard I try to have a picture taken of me I look pretty bad in it. Try makeup and hair style etc. I look so sick at time in photos also some friends said like drunk looking. Now I just don’t take pictures anymore
Vickie: haha portrait I cannot help at all :/
hehe… reality check sucks, eh?
Chairman Meow: haha be nice!
I tend to make crappy food picture, besides the quality of my camera not being very good, the other half is me and my inability to take a good pic. Thanks for the tips
Jade: pleasure is mine 🙂
May I know where is that Mee Rebus from??
Ding: It’s from Hoi Kee at Segambut, opposite Hong Leong Bank – click here – https://kyspeaks.com/2011/06/17/ky-eats-pork-nasi-lemak-at-hoi-kee-segambut/
Good tips! Sorry for the long spell of silence as I was away for 2 weeks in london. Gosh so many posts to catch up with!
eiling: thanks, and welcome back! must be a great trip. 😀
I love Antipodean’s big breakfast set. Addicted to it.. 🙂
Thina: is nice 😀