May 16, 2025

What is Commercial Food Photography? 10 Tips for Better Shots

photo of a dessert - Commercial Food Photography

Imagine you’re scrolling through social media, and you come across two posts featuring the same dish. The first has dull, lifeless photographs, while the other looks so mouthwatering that you can practically taste it. What is the difference between these images? Professional food product photography. Commercial food product photography is the best way to make edible products look appetizing, regardless of flavor or color. This blog will provide valuable insights into food product photography to help you achieve your objectives, such as learning about commercial food photography and tips for better shots.

While there’s no substitute for good food, high-quality imagery comes close. At Caspa, we specialize in commercial food and jewelry photography to help businesses make their products look as appealing as possible.

What is Commercial Food Photography?

taking a food photo - Commercial Food Photography

Commercial food photography is all about capturing food in its most appetizing, compelling form with a clear goal: to sell. Whether for restaurant menus, cookbooks, product packaging, websites, delivery apps, or social media campaigns, commercial food photography turns culinary creations into powerful marketing assets.

Beyond Deliciousness to Strategic Branding

Unlike casual food snapshots, commercial food photography is a professional discipline that blends artistic direction with brand strategy. It's not just about making food look delicious; it’s about presenting it in a way that:

Resonates with the target audience
Fits the brand’s identity
Drives engagement or conversions

The Power of Visuals in Modern Dining Decisions

In today’s digital-first world, it matters more than ever. A recent survey found that 45% of diners actively search for food images before choosing where to eat, and the percentage climbs even higher among Gen Z and Millennial consumers. For these audiences, a mouthwatering photo can be the tipping point between scrolling past or making a booking. This is why commercial food photography isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a key ingredient in building brand awareness and trust, influencing buying decisions, and creating an emotional connection with your audience. Done right, it doesn't just make food look good, it makes it sell.

The Impact of High-Quality Commercial Food Photography

High-quality food photography is crucial to how food businesses attract attention, shape perception, and drive sales. In a digital-first world, customers often see a dish before they taste it. When it comes to food, looks do matter.

Why Visual Appeal Matters

In the world of food photography, visual appeal is everything. It’s often the first thing a potential customer notices, and that first impression can be a deal-maker or breaker.

Making Food Look as Good as It Tastes

Great photography brings out the best in every dish. From the rich colors of fresh ingredients to the crispness of a perfectly grilled sandwich, a high-quality image can make people stop scrolling and start craving. It’s about capturing more than just the food:

Conveying texture
Temperature
Taste through visuals alone

Shaping Customer Perception

People tend to trust what they see. So when your food looks good in photos, customers are more likely to assume it tastes good, too. That sense of quality and care can help establish trust, especially when a customer chooses between you and a competitor.

How Imagery Influences Choices

It’s not just about grabbing attention; it's about holding it. Compelling food photography helps move people from interest to action.

Sparking Curiosity

An eye-catching image of a beautifully plated dish or a perfectly gooey dessert draws people in. It piques their interest and encourages them to learn more, click further, or even place an order.

Creating Cravings

The best food photography doesn’t just show the food—it makes people want it. It taps into emotions and cravings when done right, turning casual browsers into paying customers. It creates that “I need to try this” moment that drives conversions.

Business Benefits You Can Taste

Professional food photography doesn’t just look good—it delivers real business results.

Boosting Sales

Photos that make your food look irresistible can directly lead to more orders, whether on:

Restaurant menu
Delivery platform
Social media feed

Good visuals make people hungry, and hungry people spend money.

Strengthening Brand Reputation

Investing in high-quality photography shows that you take your brand seriously. It signals professionalism and builds trust. Customers who see consistent, well-executed visuals will likely see your business as reliable and high quality.

Building Visibility and Recognition

In a crowded market, standing out is everything, and strong visuals can help your brand rise above the noise.

Becoming Instantly Recognisable

Consistent, polished imagery helps build a recognizable brand identity. Whether it’s your website, Instagram feed, or marketing materials, a cohesive visual style makes your business memorable.

Connecting Through Visual Storytelling

Good food photography doesn’t just sell products; it tells a story. It helps people connect with your brand on an emotional level, forming bonds that go beyond just one meal. When customers feel something, they remember you, and they come back.

Why Professional Photography Matters

Professional food photography helps businesses present their offerings in the best light. It ensures consistency, reinforces branding, and helps turn your food into something people don’t just want to eat, but share, tag, and talk about. In short? High-quality food photography is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have for any business in the food industry looking to:

Grow
Compete
Connect

AI-Powered Jewelry Photography for Cost-Effective, Stunning Visuals

Caspa helps eCommerce brands create stunning jewelry photography with AI, eliminating the need for multiple tools, photographers, and models that traditionally eat up to 20% of revenue. From creating ultrarealistic product shots with human models to editing existing photos, Caspa's all-in-one AI product photography platform handles everything from background removal to upscaling, letting brands produce professional marketing visuals in seconds. Whether you need custom stock photos or complete studio editing capabilities, Caspa streamlines the entire product visualization workflow into a single, cost-effective solution. Get photos of jewelry products that increase your sales for free today!

The Best Equipment For Commercial Food Photography

Commercial food photography requires sharp, high-resolution images highlighting your culinary creations' colors, textures, and details. A high-quality camera with a prime lens will help you achieve this objective. Prime lenses have a fixed focal length and perform better than zoom lenses in commercial photography settings.

Achieving Depth and Perspective

They produce crisp images with beautiful depth of field, making them perfect for professional food photography. A 50mm lens is popular for food photography because it offers a perspective closely resembling what the human eye sees. Nevertheless, wider lenses are also helpful for shooting in tight spaces or capturing flat lays. In any case, prime lenses showcase the details and textures of food, making dishes look irresistibly appetizing.

Tripods: The Secret to Sharp Images

Tripods are essential for any kind of product photography, including food photography. A sturdy tripod will stabilize your camera and allow you to achieve sharp images, especially in low-light situations or during long exposures. In food photography, consistency is key. Using a tripod helps ensure your pictures stay sharp and consistent across a series or collection of shots.

Achieving the Perfect Overhead Shot for Menus and Marketing

This is especially important if you shoot images for a menu, advertisement, or packaging. An overhead arm can also be attached to a tripod, allowing you to position your camera directly above the food. This setup is ideal for capturing clean, symmetrical flat lays and process shots, which have become popular in food photography.

Lighting Gear: The Key to Making Food Look Delicious

Lighting is one of the most critical elements of commercial food photography. Consistent, controlled lighting allows you to highlight the features of food that make it look appetizing. Natural light is ideal, but it is not always available or predictable. A reliable artificial lighting setup (continuous or strobe) allows you to control:

Shadows
Highlights
Overall mood

Diffusers and softboxes can soften the light, avoiding harsh contrasts and helping highlight the food's natural appeal.

Backdrops and Surfaces: Creating the Perfect Setting for Food

The surface beneath your food plays a significant role in the overall aesthetic of your image. Clean, neutral backgrounds are popular for commercial photography, allowing the food to take center stage. Depending on the brand or campaign style, the following materials can create mood and context:

Matte boards
Wood
Stone
Textured paper

Dedicated shooting tables or light-diffusing surfaces also control shadows and reflection.

Props and Styling Accessories: Enhancing the Food, Not Distracting From It

Props are used strategically in commercial food photography to support the visual story. Simple, clean tableware, utensils, and linens can help establish mood and context without distracting from the main dish. The goal is always to enhance, not overshadow, the food. Styling elements should be consistent with the brand’s tone:

Minimal
Rustic
Elegant
Playful

10 Best Tips For Better Commercial Food Photography

person with high tech camera - Commercial Food Photography

1. Use Natural Lighting Whenever Possible

When it comes to food photography, lighting is everything. Knowing how to use the light separates the amateurs from the pros. Now, most food photos are taken in restaurants, and they don't often look great because of one big reason: Restaurants generally use fluorescent lighting, which is stiff and unflattering.

Harnessing Natural Light for Soft and Flattering Food Photography

It’s also usually tinged with a green or yellow colour cast. Instead of relying on artificial light, position your food near a window. Natural lighting can offer soft, flattering light. It's essential to think of how your lighting is placed as well. Ensure the sun isn’t too bright; you don’t want it to cast harsh shadows unflattering to your dish.

Optimizing Window Light for Ideal Angles and Avoiding Harsh Shadows

If you are sitting near a too-bright window, you can place a small screen between the window and the food or simply move it until it’s out of the direct sunlight. Once you’re positioned near a window, notice the precise direction of the light. The best lighting generally comes from the side or behind the food, so reposition your camera until you get the perfect angle.

2. Food Styling

Food stylists use all sorts of tricks to make food look better in photos, and you can use some of those ideas to make your dinner look amazing on social media. Make sure you take the picture before you eat the food. Take time to arrange the food on the plate to look appetizing. Ensure there are no splashes of sauce on the edges of the plate. If you’re using props like cutlery or tablecloths, make sure they’re clean and look harmonious together. Move any dirty forks, napkins, or ugly salt shakers out of the frame before shooting.

3. Choose the Right Angle

Try shooting your scene at 90 degrees instead. This will create a beautiful image with lots of depth and minimal visible distortion. Alternatively, you can shoot from directly over the food, looking down. A 90-degree approach also lets you show more food in the frame, which is excellent for shooting full table spreads. Note that 90 degrees is not an excellent angle for tall food, like burgers or stacks of pancakes. Shoot those subjects from low down over the table to show off the layers.

4. Use Minimalistic Compositions

Complex tablescapes are fun and appealing, but often difficult to photograph. It can take a lot of careful arrangement to make a pleasing composition, and by the time you get it right, the food may no longer look appetizing. So instead of relying on wide, sophisticated compositions, go minimalist. Keep it simple and feature a couple of food items and a prop (like a utensil or a piece of linen). Spread them across the table so the eye is drawn around the frame. This minimalist approach usually works well, especially if you’re a beginner. It’ll keep the focus on specific food items.

5. Pay Attention to Your Food Composition

The best food photos boast carefully ordered backgrounds, carefully positioned food items, and carefully positioned props. They use good composition. Food photography composition is a complex topic that can take weeks, months, or years to master. There are a few simple compositional guidelines that you can use to arrange your food for great results.

The Importance of Negative Space for Visual Breathing Room

First, include an empty area where the eye can rest briefly as it moves through the image. If every part of the image is covered with ingredients or props, it’ll confuse the viewer and create claustrophobia. Negative space will provide breathing room and help the viewer focus on the main subject.

6. Leading Lines

Another compositional tool to use is leading lines and diagonals. Leading lines are subtle or not-so-subtle straight or diagonal lines in an image that draw our eye to the main subject, in this case, food. Think of good food images you are drawn to look at. Do they have a serving spoon or cutlery placed in the image that draws your eye from the edge to the food?

Strategic Use of Lines and Diagonals for Visual Flow

You can use serviettes, cutlery, tableware, or other props to create leading lines into your food. Diagonal shapes in photos are also pleasing to the eye. The serving spoon or cutlery is often placed slightly diagonal in the image. The diagonals usually come out of one of the bottom corners of the image and lead towards the main subject.

Deconstructing Composition for Visually Appealing Food Photography

Sometimes, tableware or props are placed to create a loose triangular shape or shapes in the image. Square plates are often turned so that a corner faces the camera. Look at your favorite food photos and try to deconstruct them. What makes them good? Why is the composition visually appealing? Can you use some of these ideas in your food photos?

7. Don't Zoom In, Get Closer

You can zoom in on your camera, but if you're using the zoom function on your phone to get in close and fill the frame, you’ll end up with inferior image quality when you look at it closely. Try to get closer to your subject if you can. You can crop later in post-processing to keep your image quality and resolution high.

8. Edit Your Images

Most images will always look better with a bit of adjustment after they have been taken, even if it’s just to correct exposure, color, and contrast. Your phone will have a built-in editing suite to quickly adjust your photo's exposure, contrast, shadows, and saturation. If you're using your camera, there are a lot of free photo editing softwares online that you can use.

9. Controlling the Focus

You need to focus the image on the food, as our eyes are drawn to what is in focus. For example, if you have a bowl of soup and a slice of bread, you would focus on the soup instead of the bread—unless the bread is your main subject. Place your camera's focus point on the spot you want to showcase.

10. Tell a Story

Everyone loves a good story. If you can give your viewer a story that takes place in the frame or just outside, your shots will be far more compelling. For example, you can tell the story of the food’s creation by including various ingredients throughout the composition or by including the chef’s hands in the shot.

Storytelling Through Action and Consumption in Food Photography

This can be particularly great for baking—a picture of dough being rolled or of cookie cutters placed next to a floured surface shows how the finished dish is made. Alternatively, you might include a partially eaten element (such as a cookie with a missing bite) to tell the story of the food’s consumption, or you might include the hands of the server to show how the food made it to your table.

Get Jewelry Product Photos that Increase Your Sales for Free Today

A Streamlined, Cost-Effective Solution for All Product Visualization Needs

Whether you need custom stock photos or complete studio editing capabilities, Caspa streamlines the entire product visualization workflow into a single, cost-effective solution. Get photos of jewelry product that increase your sales for free today!

What is Commercial Food Photography? 10 Tips for Better Shots

Table of Contents