In the world of food photography, lighting is everything. It can transform a mundane dish into a mouthwatering masterpiece or render even the most delectable delicacy unappetizing. When it comes to lighting, photographers often face a pivotal decision: should they use natural light or artificial light? Each type of illumination has its own unique set of advantages and challenges, making the choice a matter of careful consideration.

The beauty of natural light

Natural light, as the name suggests, is the illumination provided by the sun. It is revered by many food photographers for its ability to enhance the visual appeal of dishes. There are several reasons why natural light is often considered the gold standard in food photography:

Soft and diffused light

Natural light, particularly during the golden hours of sunrise and sunset, offers soft, diffused lighting. This gentle illumination minimizes harsh shadows and creates a natural, inviting ambience that showcases food beautifully.

True colors

Natural light is known for rendering colors accurately. When photographing food under natural light, you can expect your images to capture the true vibrancy of each ingredient, enhancing the visual appeal of your dishes.

Texture emphasis

Natural light brings out the texture of the food, highlighting every crumb, grain, and condensation droplet. This can make the food look more enticing and real to viewers.

Fresh and appetizing

Natural light has the power to make food appear fresh and appetizing. It imparts a sense of realism that resonates with viewers, making them feel like they could reach into the photo and take a bite.

However, there are some drawbacks to relying solely on natural light for food photography. Natural light is inconsistent, and dependent on the time of day, weather, and geographic location. This makes it challenging for photographers who need to maintain a consistent look across multiple shots or work in a controlled studio environment. Other things to consider when using natural light, what direction is the light coming from, is it direct or indirect. Different times of the year can also affect the color of the light.

The versatility of artificial light

Artificial lighting, on the other hand, offers greater control and consistency, making it a preferred choice for many professional food photographers. Here are some reasons why artificial light can be a boon to your food photography:

Consistency

Artificial lighting allows you to maintain the same lighting conditions throughout your shoot, ensuring that your images have a uniform look and feel. It doesn’t matter whether it is constant or flash, you can set the desired light and it will stay the same all day.

Flexibility:

You can adjust artificial lighting to suit your creative vision. Whether you want a soft, diffused light or a dramatic, high-contrast setup, artificial lighting can be tailored to your needs.

No weather dependence

Unlike natural light, artificial light is not reliant on the time of day, year or weather conditions. This makes it perfect for food photographers working in a controlled studio environment.

Shaping light

With artificial light, you can use various tools like softboxes, diffusers, and reflectors to shape and control the direction of the light, creating stunning highlights and shadows.

Despite its many advantages, artificial lighting does come with its own set of challenges. The most significant is the potential for an unnatural or sterile look. To avoid this, it’s crucial to carefully adjust the artificial light’s color temperature to match the setting and type of food you’re photographing. A common mistake is using overly harsh lighting, which can wash out colors and obscure textures.

Is the hybrid approach the perfect blend?

While the debate between natural and artificial lighting continues, many food photographers have found success in blending these two approaches. By using natural light as the primary source and incorporating artificial lighting for fill or accent, photographers can achieve the best of both worlds.

For instance, you can set up your scene near a large window where natural light floods in. Then, use artificial lighting to fill in shadows or create highlights in specific areas. This hybrid approach offers the benefits of both natural and artificial light while mitigating their respective drawbacks.

Choice of lighting depends on a number of factors

The choice between natural and artificial lighting in food photography ultimately depends on your style, goals, and available resources. Natural light is cherished for its softness, authenticity and ability to render true colors. Meanwhile artificial light offers control, consistency and versatility. Many photographers find that a combination of the two provides the ideal balance, allowing them to capture the essence of the dish while maintaining control over the visual narrative.

Ultimately, the best lighting for food photography is the one that helps you achieve your artistic vision and effectively communicates the deliciousness of the dishes you’re photographing. Whether you choose natural, artificial, or a blend of both, the key is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and use them to your advantage. With practice, experimentation, and a discerning eye, you can make any dish look irresistible in the perfect light.

Want to learn more about food photography? Why not check out my self-paced online classes? I even have a brand-new one coming soon too!

I’m not the only person for whom the Canon AE-1 was their first camera. It was, after all, one of the best-selling and most ubiquitous cameras ever made. However, it was more than just a first camera to me; the AE-1 was my gateway drug not just to taking photographs, but to making photography my career. 

I’d always coveted my dad’s Canon AE-1, in its handsome steel flight case with flashgun, power winder, 50mm prime and telephoto zoom lens. I also coveted the beautiful book, The 35mm Photographer’s Handbook (by Julian Calder and John Garrett), in its snazzy plastic jacket styled after a strip of film. 

• These are the best film cameras ever made – including the AE-1!

Thankfully, when I left home after graduating college, he gifted them both to me. And so I wondered off, with the world’s most comprehensive manual to a camera I had no idea how to use. But boy, was that Canon AE-1 beautiful – and I wanted so dearly to take beautiful images with it. 

Truth be told, while I love the process of shooting film, I’m glad that film is a thing of the past. Young photographers today, for whom film is niche and exotic and a fun passtime, romanticize film photography. But for those of us who grew up when it was the norm, the only option to create a picture, to be liberated from it is a joy. 

Still, learning how photography works on a Canon AE-1 was a gift (literally). All manual everything, so your camera craft had to be sound. Thirty-six exposures, so you had to be mindful and efficient. Locked-in ISO sensitivity, so you had hard limitations to work within – and you knew what you could and couldn’t get away with.

Mirrorless is the death of all that. Your camera craft can be crap, but image stabilization and autofocus will save you. You can slap a 1TB card in the slot, so you can take a thousand shots and one of them will probably be decent. You can shoot in RAW, so your settings can be disastrous and Photoshop will still rescue your exposure.

But turning pro in the mirrorless age, having cut my teeth in the film era, made all the difference. When I started working for Olympus (fittingly enough, my second ever SLR was an Olympus OM-10) I chose 1GB memory cards, because that “36 or bust” mentality in a professional environment is still crucial – nobody pays you more to overshoot. 

Learning how to expose properly still mattered, because we were doing test shoots and ad campaigns using pre-release and prototype cameras. Adobe Camera RAW wouldn’t be updated until the bodies went on sale, so we had to shoot everything in JPEG. Billboards, magazine adverts, everything we was a JPEG – so you had to get the exposure right. 

Years later, when I’d interview famous photographer (and infamous photographers, like Stephen Berkoff), the Canon AE-1 would often come up as a reference point when discussing first cameras or the glory days of the industry, too. 

So today, as that camera sits loved but largely unused on my shelf, I am forever grateful to that shiny hunk of silver and black – which continues to inspire me every time I look at it. Even to the point where, if I’m not shooting with it, I want to make it the subject of a shoot – like I did with the photos above (taken with its great grandchild, the Canon EOS R). 

Thank you, Canon and the AE-1, for leading me to and guiding me down the path I’m privileged to walk today. 

The SLR has had its day, but these are the best Canon cameras of today – both DSLRs and mirrorless – along with the best Canon RF lenses and best Canon DSLR lenses.

Disney‘s weird and nostalgic Pop Century Resort hotel in Florida has been captured by Arnau Rovira Vidal in this photography series.

Rovira‘s Fantasia Resorts photography project pictures holidaymakers and workers among the fantastical, retro-themed structures at the entertainment conglomerate’s Walt Disney World near Orlando.

Opened in 2003, the 2,880-room hotel is themed on American pop culture between the 1950s and the 1990s. It is organised into five areas, each styled around a specific decade.

Motel-style buildings were emblazoned with common catchphrases from the corresponding eras and interspersed with enormous replicas of objects that were popular at the time.

Barcelona-based Rovira shot the series in 2018 but shared his photos with Dezeen to mark the entertainment conglomerate’s 100th anniversary today.

Rovira’s photos emphasise the absurdity of the architecture by capturing it juxtaposed alongside people staying or working at the resort.

Shot against the golden Florida sunshine, the images have an uncanny quality that makes it difficult to place them in time or be sure about whether their depictions are real.

“At those resorts, the fantastic world and reality mix all the time,” Arnau told Dezeen. “You don’t know what is fake or how is this made.”

“I try to capture this unreal world where things seem to be a 3D render and where the human scales sometimes don’t make sense,” he added.

A giant jukebox, bowling pins and statue of the Lady and the Tramp, the titular characters from Disney’s 1955 canine-romance film, all appear in the 1950s area.

The 1960s area features yo-yo staircases and a lotus-flower-shaped swimming pool while a giant foosball table and Mickey Mouse phone are stationed in the 1970s section.

A massive Sony Walkman is in the 1980s area, with the 1990s area features building-sized computer parts and an overgrown floppy disk propped up by a pool.

To mark the company’s centenary, Dezeen has also put together a roundup of the most significant Disney-backed architecture projects.

More of Rovira’s photography is available on his Instagram. Other photography projects previously featured on Dezeen include Doublespace Photography’s shots marking the Muralla Roja apartment building’s 50th birthday and Hayley Eichenbaum’s series documenting roadside architecture on Route 66.

The photography is by Arnau Rovira Vidal.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Currently, most pictures are taken digitally, either on a phone or digital camera, but one Lexington man is going way back in time, using a type of photography invented in 1851.

Lexingtonian Mark Cornelison has been taking photographs for over 30 years, but perhaps none more unique than the tintype photographs done using chemicals, tin and silver. He’s been doing it for just about a year.

“I drove to Elgin, Illinois (last November) and spent two nights and we had a 14 hour one-on-one workshop,” Cornelison said.

It’s a photography type started in the 1850s and popularized in the 1860 and 1870s. He learned the craft from Travis Linville, a former Kentuckian and now photography professor in Illinois.

Each chemical covered plate sits in a silver nitrate bath for around three to five minutes before it’s even ready for use. Cornelison said it takes 10 to 15 minutes to create one picture, which back in the day was an impressive feat.

“All this has to be done before; you got about five minutes before you ever even take a picture,” Cornelison said.

From there, into a cartridge under red light because the plate is sensitive to white lights. Once it’s loaded into the camera, then Cornelison is ready to take the picture.

Back under red light, Cornelison sprays a developing chemical and water on the plate and an image appears like magic.

It’s the same 15 minute process for every picture Cornelison wants to take of his subject. But he loves the old school way of shooting.

“It’s hard to know if you’ve nailed it every time and that’s part of the fun, too. It’s like photography used to be, we’d shoot ballgames and all this other stuff and you wouldn’t necessarily know you have it until you got back to the office and developed that film,” Cornelison said.

The old school, former Herald-Leader photographer said people are amazed to see the photos develop in real time.

“To be able to see that image appear out of nowhere, when you’ve never seen it, it does have a sense of magic to it,” Cornelison said.

Cornelison says unlike today’s cameras where you can take as many pictures until you have a perfect shot, there’s always an unknown doing tintype.

“I love the unknown. I love it when I’ve messed up as long as I have an image. There’s several images I have that are messed up and have chemical streaks or whatever but to me that’s part of it,” Cornelison said.

It’s a hobby turned side business and a way to meet interesting people along the way.

“Melt is the time that your subject arrives and as you’re shooting and talking, their inhibitions is melting away so you get to that real person there. And that’s what I’m trying to do, I’m trying to show the real personalities.”

Making family heirlooms, one flash at a time.

Tintype photography was used to photograph Civil War soldiers and President Abraham Lincoln.

Learn more about Cornelison and scheduling a session at his website.