Composition in food and product photography

Composition is what makes an image stand out. It follows the laws of nature, what is the human eye automatically attracted to? There is so much to tell about composition in product and food photography. I’ll cover a few key elements here, that will help you create better images:

• Angles

• Rule of Thirds

• Rule of odds

1 . Angles

First of all, I would like to mention something about angles. Even though they are technically not ‘composition’ elements, they do have an effect on the overall image. The most popular angles would be overhead, 45 degrees and straight on.

• Overhead photography

This technique is great for platter or different dishes, items that need to be photographed together. The advantage is that all elements are in focus and it really allows you to play with the different composition techniques. 

All items are in focus in this images that is taken from overhead.

• 45 Degrees

The 45 degrees angle suits most dishes as it give a good overview of the object: it shows a bit of the top as well as the bottom. The cames is placed at an angle of 45 degrees in relation to the object. It can be a bit boring from a composition point of view.

• Straight on angle

This is a very common angle in product photography as it shows the product from the side. Most ecommerce photos are taken at this angle. In food photography it is great to photograph stacked items at this angle, such as sandwiches or anything that is layered.

2. Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds can be applied for any type of photography. The guideline proposes that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. Aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject.

3. Rule of Odds

Lastly, images become more interested if you use an uneven number of items in it. So use 3 rather than 2, etc. It creates an imbalance in the images that attracts more attention than an even number would:The total number of items is 7. This creates a bit of an imbalance that makes it more interesting for the eye.There is so much more I clould tell about composition and I will cover more aspects in a future blog. For now I believe that the techniques which I described above will be a great guideline to help you take better images.