My 5 Food Photography Mistakes

5 food photography mistakes such as glare, overexposed, reflection & focus and. My little food photography & styling fails and some inspiration & ideas for food blogging and Instagram photography. 

Mushroom Soup Food Photography Mistakes by Healthy Laura. HealthyLaura @healthylauracom food photography HACKS for food styling & composition, my photography cheats & favorite food blogging tips for inspiration. My mistakes with glare, reflection, horizon, exposure & focus.

My editing frustration

Every time I sit in front of my computer and start editing I notice some of the common mistakes that I make quite often. So, I thought I’m going to share some of my thought that usually go through my mind while I’m editing in Lightroom.

How to fix it? I started to shoot tethered to see my mistakes right away!

Tethered capture with Lightroom by Healthy Laura Food Photography & Styling. Camera connected with laptop @healthylauracom HealthyLaura food blogger tips & inspiration as food photographer & foodblogger. My  experience and tips for food photography as a food blogger. #foodphotographytips #foodstylingtips #photogaphyworkflow #foodphotography #foodstyling #foodblogging

My Instagram stories @healthylauracom (tethered capture)

Learn from my mistakes

Sometimes I honestly feel like I don’t like some details on my images and I just ignore them because otherwise, I would never publish anything. I feel like it’s a journey and we can’t get everything right at the beginning. I believe that sometimes it’s important to publish some of the images to get feedback and learn from the mistakes to get better.

Rice Semolina & Food Photography Mistakes by Healthy Laura. HealthyLaura @healthylauracom food photography HACKS for food styling & composition, my photography cheats & favorite food blogging tips for inspiration. My mistakes with glare, reflection, horizon, exposure & focus.

Rice Semolina

Typical Internet Disclaimer

Before I go on, I need to make a little disclaimer because photography is very subjective and these are just my thoughts and critics on my own images. I’m quite sure that some of you who are reading this might think otherwise and have different opinions. However, I believe that different views are just part of photography.

All the solutions for these mistakes are my own approach & these are just the things I like to tell myself. 

Nice Cream Jars & Food Photography Mistakes by Healthy Laura. Instagram @healthylauracom food photography mistakes with glare, setting, light, highlights, depth of field, reflection, horizon, exposure & focus. #foodphotography #foodblogger #foodblog #foodblogging #foodblogtips

Chocolate Almond Butter Nice Cream Swirl

My 5 food photography mistakes:
#1 Headache: Glare

You might notice that these images here have a little glare. It might not be that hard, but once I see it, then it starts to bother me. I find that some of the hardest things for food photography are forks and glasses. It just gives that glare that doesn’t always have to be there.

Glass & Pouring Juice & Food Photography Mistakes by Healthy Laura. Instagram @healthylauracom HealthyLaura food photography mistakes with glare, setting, light, highlights, depth of field, reflection, horizon, exposure & focus. #foodphotography #foodblogger #foodblog #foodblogging #foodblogtips

I get rid of the GLARE with a circular polarizing (read my post here).

Sometimes it might be okay, but other times it’s just so annoying that I can’t digest it. I read that the best solutions here are some white cards or a circular polarizer filter that always saves the day.

MY SOLUTION? Circular polarizer filter

#2 Headache: Comfort zone

Yes, I’m still a human. I get trapped in my comfort zone and try to get things done as quickly as possible. I’m just used to my usual routine, and I forget to try new “tricks”. However, when I have time I usually promise myself to try something new and I even write down some new ideas for the future.

MY SOLUTION? Take a long breath and try something new!

Donut & Food Photography Mistakes by Healthy Laura. @healthylauracom HealthyLaura food photography mistakes with glare, setting, light, highlights, depth of field, reflection, horizon, exposure & focus. #foodphotography #foodblogger #foodblog #foodblogging #foodblogtips

Keto cinnamon donut for a client.

#3 Headache: Reflection

Reflection is one of the things that is quite annoying for me. I know that you can always use it as a creative tool, but sometimes it just drives me crazy. All the forks, glasses, and shiny tableware are a challenge!

Usually, I will get my window or tripod reflection on my glass or cutlery. Therefore, I try to use the polarizer filter or white cards save the day.

I know that some people use all kind of crazy trick with chemistry?! However, I personally still would like to eat the food I make. So, I try to skip these kinds of tricks. Maybe someday I will think otherwise.

MY SOLUTION?? Circular polarizer filter 

Food photography glare & reflection by Healthy Laura. Instagram @healthylauracom HealthyLaura food photography HACKS & ideas with circular polarizing filter. #foodphotographyglare #foodbloggertips #foodblogideas #foodphotographyreflection

How to fix it? Read my post here.

#4 Hangry: Focus error

That usually happens when I’m rushing with my shoot. Sometimes I’m just hangry, or I have planned too many tasks for my day. So, I try to get things done as quickly as possible. However, I still forget to double check the focus with 100% zoom. Above all, I notice my mistakes when I’m editing, and I might be mad at myself for doing that.

Learn more about #foodphotography with my 21-day challenge

MY SOLUTION? Never shoot hangry!

I usually use the back-button for my focus (AF-L). That’s one of the best things I discovered once I started to notice my focus problems.

Matcha & Food Photography Mistakes by Healthy Laura. @healthylauracom HealthyLaura food photography mistakes with glare, setting, light, highlights, depth of field, reflection, horizon, exposure & focus. #foodphotography #foodblogger #foodblog #foodblogging #foodblogtips

Coconut Matcha Latte

#5 Headache: Overexposed

When I overexpose my images and raw files, then I lose a lot of information while editing. That’s precisely my typical mistake. Mainly, it happens when I’m in a room that has A LOT of light that is always changing.

Zoodles Pot & Food Styling Mistakes for Food Photography & Food Styling by Healthy Laura. @healthylauracom HealthyLaura food photography HACKS for food styling & composition and my photography cheats, favorite food blogging tips, inspiration, ideas to blogging inspiration and resources. My best cheats, tricks & hacks for food bloggers to create instagram photography. #foodphotography #foodstyling #foodcomposition #foodblogging #foodblogtips

Save it! 🙂

My first year of photography I didn’t even read my histogram in my Adobe Lightroom. Somehow I was ignoring the manual mode and didn’t want to learn technical things. Big mistake! After I started to get more comfortable with Lightroom, then I noticed that my photography got better. Editing is just so big part of the photography.

MY SOLUTION? Read your histogram.

Overexposed & Food Photography Mistakes by Healthy Laura. My food photography mistakes with glare, setting, light, highlights, depth of field, reflection, horizon, exposure & focus. #foodphotography #foodblogger #foodblog #foodblogging #foodblogtips

Here you can see one of my raw files for the breakfast bowl. I OVEREXPOSED the image, and in the end, I lost a little bit too much information. The image on the right is a little bit better, and I managed to get some more information with editing.

Wanna learn more? Take part of my 21-day challenge about food photography mistakes. How to avoid food photography mistakes? 😬 Find solutions to common mistakes! 180+ pages & interactic PDF format.

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Comments

  1. well… your mistake images are MUCH better than my best images! haha 🙂
    I loved the tips and insights! I too hate when I notice things on lightroom that I didn’t see while shooting. One of my future goals it to get my camera tethered to my computer so when I shoot images I can see them big on my computer and hopefully notice things better.

    P.s. I didn’t even notice the glare or reflection in the glass cup until you pointed it out! 🙂

  2. Thanks for sharing your ‘mistakes’ Laura. And yes, I put them in between ‘ ‘ because I think they are hardly to be called that, the pictures still look amazing and even though I see what you mean, I only see it because you pointed them out 😉 But on the other hand, I’m making the same mistakes (and more) myself as well. Small steps to become better and better. Oh and that horizon-issue… Boy, how I’m still struggling with that! It feels like I really don’t have an eye for straight lines. *facepalm.

    • Oh, Eva! Your food photography is amazing! I’m so flattered by your lovely comment! I agree small steps make the difference! I totally get the horizon-issue. Sometimes I personally blame my glasses because of that! 😀

  3. Hey Laura,
    Thanks for sharing. However if I take the photos using my samsung note 8 and doesnt have any of the filter. Coud I still make high quality photos?

    Wawi.

    • Hi, Wawi! Yes, absolutely you can still shoot some great images! I would say that all of these mistakes can still be on phone images as well. When learning the composition and essential lighting, then your phone works great as well. The light is one of the key elements in DSLR photography and phone photography. Nowadays the phones have an amazing quality already. However, when you would like to get the next level, then I would suggest you get entry-level DSLR. Good luck with your photography! 😉

  4. A very helpful post for a budding food blogger and photographer like me. I end up getting stressed and berate myself later. It’s heartening to know I’m not alone. And I can especially relate to ‘Focus’ issue.

    • Oo, thank you so much! I can totally relate to that stress part but I always tell myself that it’s a journey! Mistakes always push as forward! 🙂 So happy to hear that it was helpful for you.

  5. This was extremely helpful Laura!!! Through, I still think those “mistake images” still look FANTASTIC! :)))))) I found that the setting mistake more specifically the ISO setting, really resonates with me! Im still learning how to use these functions but I thought that setting my ISO really high was important and it could be one of many reasons why my photo turned very fuzzy.

    • Thank you SO much, Ria! I’m happy to hear that it was helpful. Also, my ISO is usually as low as possible indeed (around 100 or even lower). So, I hope that you will get some crispy images with low ISO. 😉

  6. I’ve been reading through your blogs all day and this one I found to be the most informative! I am definitely saving this one for future reference, as I am just starting a health and wellness blog! One critique is the copy editing on your posts- have you thought of hiring someone to edit the grammar and spelling? I’d be happy to help, if so!

  7. These have been really wonderful tips. I tend to rush. Plus I really hate my tripod so I don’t use it. Any suggestions on good tripods? Your photos are incredible.

  8. Thank you so much for all these amazing tips. I recently found you on pinterest and I have learnt a lot from you already. I couldn’t agree less with Emily’s comment. Your mistakes are better than my best images. Haha.

  9. I loved this post! My food photography skills are pretty basic and this was so useful for directing my learning if that makes any sense!

  10. I am not a professional photographer. But this article has been used by my friend. When I first saw this article I showed my friend Macau. We 2 were very pleased with this article later. Which solves some of our mistakes. My friend has been a fan of your website since watching it. he has read every one of your posts.

  11. Hi Laura! Thanks so much for sharing your experience! I love cooking and photografy! I write a blog with the recipes I create for my alergic daugther, and is very difficult to take good photos, mostly with my phone. But as you said internet is full of tips for the ones who wants to learn.
    I am following you at Instagram!

    • Awesome expected post you shared here, I will require it many times, and here the outstanding selection of topic also makes me more jolly, please hope more blog post we get from you. Thanks advances!!!

  12. Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more information? It is extremely helpful for me.

  13. Thanks for sharing your mistake, Laura. I feel strongly love learning on this topic. I have picked up helluva helpful tips out of this amazing blog. I ad love to visit it again and again.

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