It’s easy to snap a picture of your dinner with your phone to post on social media, but capturing truly impressive food photographs takes a little more effort than that. If you want your pictures to be of professional quality, there’s a certain set of equipment you need for food photography. This article will introduce you to the basic equipment you need.

Camera and Lenses

One of the first steps to excelling at food photography is to choose a quality camera and lenses. While pictures that a skilled photographer takes on a smartphone can turn out amazingly, it’s best to use a high-quality camera instead, such as a DSLR or mirrorless camera. Even with a suitable camera, you’ll still need the right lenses. Choose a quality prime lens or one with a shorter focal length—you won’t want a superzoom lens to photograph food.

Tripod

A tripod is another piece of equipment you need for food photography. Having a tripod helps to stabilize your camera and allows you to set up your shot easily. It’s not terribly expensive, and you’ll be glad for the extra steadiness it maintains during longer photo shoots.

Overhead Camera Rig

Often, food photographers like to take their photos from above to give the shots a unique perspective and showcase a complete food layout. For this type of shooting, an overhead DSLR rig is the perfect piece of equipment. Photographers can simply suspend their cameras from the rig, which hangs over a subject of interest, then easily photograph from this angle.

Lighting Equipment

Good lighting is an essential part of any form of photography, and food photography is no exception. On your shoots, bring along the right lighting equipment. This includes your light source itself, a diffuser, reflectors, and bounce cards. These supplies will help you achieve appealing, natural lighting of your subject in any environment.

Color Correction Cards

To make the food in your photos look as delicious as possible, you should aim to achieve appealing color balances in your shots. A gray card or set of color correction cards will help you manually set the white balance to make the colors of your shot appear warm and natural.

Once you’ve gathered all this helpful equipment, you’ll be well on your way to becoming an accomplished food photographer. For overhead camera rigs and other photography and filmmaking essentials, visit Glide Gear’s store. We’ll help you find the equipment you need to make your photography shine.