I've taken photographs of food with my point-n-shoot camera for some time now, but none seem to capture the food as I see it in person.  Sure, every once in a while I get a diamond in the rough, but the majority are plagued with odd saturation and other anomalies.  After a bit of research, it turns out I don't need to invest in an expensive SLR camera, but with a few tips, food photos with a point-n-shoot can turn out pretty great.

These connected articles were helpful in providing essential tips for any food photographer - a food porn discussion on flickr and blog post with many helpful comments by Kyle Cassidy.  Both touch on my biggest food photography fear, lighting.  Anyone with a day job can relate that most of their photos will be taken at night, and lighting is sub-par.  There are suggestions for full spectrum natural lighting, but that's quite an investment. A few of the other tips include:

• Use the greatest optical zoom the camera supports to better frame the object
• Read cooking magazines for styling ideas
• Use a tripod

Okay, so the last two tips seem kind of obvious, but I found the first tip intriguing.  The camera I use is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5K 9MP w/ 10x Optical, so I set up my cheapo tripod a ways back and zoomed on in. I'm pleased with the framing acieved, so I'll keep this tip in my bag-o-tricks for a while.  If using a smaller 3x optical zoom (which seems to be more of a standard these days), I'd probably pick up a Gorillapod Flexible Tripod to set closer to the food.

The other 50% missing from my shots was plating.  A small amount of effort went into making the food look decent, but not nearly enough.  If you read food magazines or watch the Food Network, more effort is put into making the food look good than making it taste good.  Crazy.  Nobody's going to eat the pretty leaves and scraps tossed around the food on those plates, but it sure does bring some life to the party.  I tested this out a bit by placing some leaves from the celery stalk around and on top of my Creamy Vegetable Beef Soup.  It seems to help a bit, but I didnt eat the leaves on the plate :)

Similarly, I took a single shot of Jessie's Wheat Waffles with Spiced Apple Topping from over her shoulder as she was eating, and she fortunately had a small pile of spiced apples near the waffle.  It brings diversity to the plate, if nothing else.  I would've taken more photos, but she ate it all.  As for my last shot of the day, I attempted to sauce the plate and stack some jalapeño peppers on top.  It's a step in the right direction, but saucing a plate straight from the bottle is a bitch.  The photo here was my second attempt.  I ate both attempts.  If you've any suggestions on saucing a plate, I'd love 'em.

The last thing I should include is rarely talked about in photography... post-processing.  Nobody wants to admit to doctoring up their photos, but if you want the colors to be just right, 99.99% of the time you'll need to adjust saturation, contrast, and all sorts of other levels to make sure the picture you took looks like it does in person (or better!).  I used my trial version of Adobe Lightroom which was recommended by photo guru Tim Leonhardt.  Google's free Picasa software can help if you're on a budget.  I find that even if you think the picture is fine, using an "auto-correct" feature can bring some life to your food.

Craig Dugas