Taking a good picture of a piece of food is trickier than it seems like it should be. After all, it isn’t moving, you don’t have to convince it to smile, and odds are you like it because it tastes good. Heck, your camera might even have an entire shooting mode devoted to food. (My wife’s Olympus point and shoot does.)

So why is it that when most people try turning their photographic eye towards their entree, the pictures end up less than appetizing?

I’m a Minneapolis portrait photographer, but this year I’ve been combining my love of photography with my love of eating. It’s been a blast, and has gotten me behind the scenes for some really fun chef portrait sessions, as well as into some beautiful dining rooms for some fun food photographs. In the process I’ve identified a few basic tips that I think anyone can apply.

Tell a story.
Let’s say you’re in a restaurant. You’re eating this amazing dinner, and you decide it’s so good that you want to document it with a photo. Odds are, it’s the entire experience that’s worth documenting, not just the scallops. So instead of zooming in as tight as you can on the plate, use a wider perspective, lower the camera to the level of the table, and include some of the dining room in the frame. Including more context in a photo tells more of a story, and will produce a more effective memento.

Turn off the flash.
One of the things that makes photography in restaurants tricky is the moody (read: dim) lighting. If your camera is set to a program mode, by default it will try to help you out by triggering the built in flash. Problem is, in most situations the built in flash is. . . ugly. Flat, red eye and weird highlight producing. Not good. So turn it off! How do you get more light on your subject, you ask? Two options:

• If you’re comfortable with having people wondering what you’re doing carrying your food across the restaurant, move it to a place with more light, like a window or underneath a pendant light.
• Stabilize your hands by leaning in to the table and live with the longer shutter speed.

Either way, your food will look like it belongs in the dining room where you actually are, not some strange brightly-lit netherworld.

Think about what you really like about the food.
Is your steak done just right? Was the reduction sauce spooned artfully around the protein? Is the morel placed just so? Whatever it is that makes you love the dish, take a moment to appreciate it. Then experiment with the angle of the plate and place it on the table in a way that makes that element stand out. Is it a red sauce or garnish? Find a way to include something red in the background to create a repeating color element in the composition. The sheen on a tuna roll? Notice where the lights in the room reflect in the sheen and position the plate appropriately.

Talk to the chef.
If you’re like me, food is entertainment, it’s anthropology, it’s sociology. It’s one of those amazing things that defines a culture and brings it together, and chefs make it happen. They’re rock stars! Taking the time to say hello to the chef gives you insight in to why a good meal was put together the way it was. And the more you know about something, the more you can appreciate it. The more you appreciate it, the better your pictures will be.

Hungry? Please visit my blog for how I use my own tips to produce great food photography.