Lenses for food photography

[haring]

My wife has made a few beautiful dishes for my daughters birthday. I have tried to take a few amazing pictures but they didn't turned out as well as the pictures taken by professional food photographers working for food magazines...Surprise, surprise!!!

My question: what kind of lenses do food photographers use? I have an idea about lighting setups.
I guess 45mm tilt shift, 90mm tilt shift...WHAT else? Do they use medium format cameras?

 

[Derrel]

Large format cameras are commonly used for very demanding types of shots, where it's desirable to do in-camera correction of distortion, or to correct keystoning on things like tall candlesticks or bottles that rise up high off the table. A LOT of the food photography market has become less technically and less artistically demanding than it used to be, and there's now a LOT of lower-end web-based and giveaway-magazine type food photography that is shot with d-slr's and pretty basic pro-level stuff like T/S lenses. High level food photography demands skilled lighting, skilled camera handling and lenswork, and good food styling. There is a lot of average food photography on the market these days, and the really GOOD stuff is wayyyyyyyy above the majority that makes it to print or the web these days. Don't be too hard on yourself if you cannot create spectacular food photographs--you probably could not stay tire to tire with Jeff Gordon either, even if you had his front line car and he was driving his back-up car.

 

[Cheffriis]

I'd be interested in feedback on this too actually. I have googled this several times and there are some good articles out there to be read :

My Food Photography Gear | David Lebovitz

Flickr: Discussing Which lens(es) do you use for your food shots? in Professional looking food photography

Theres a couple worth reading but again remember everyone may have a different opinion so don't forget to shop around n experiment.

 

[David Dvir]

Well, we do shoot food quite a lot... in fact my online portfolio is in desperate need of an update but I'm ever so lazy. We indeed use DSLRs, mostly for food using a D3X, lighting is always crazy, and the setups can be as complicated as 6 lights, product boxes, kitchen sets etc to as simple as 1 light and a tabletop. As far as lenses, my favourite trick is a TS lens . These guys are underutilized, we use a 24mm 45mm and sometimes an 85mm TS for food, as well as macro lenses, and the occasional extension tube. Derrel has some good points though as at the end of the day, even my shots that are "awesome" suck... food photography is an amazing art. Oh we also always have at least 1 food stylist at the studio for these shots as well.