8 Tips for Photographing Baked Goods

Photographing baked goods can be both fun and challenging.

Whether you’re a food photographer, a baker setting up a business website, or an enthusiast who likes to share their creations on Instagram, your goal is to make the baked goods look as delicious as they taste.

Since baked goods can be savoury or sweet, big or small, soft or crunchy, you have to make sure the viewer identifies all the qualities just by looking at them.

You need to engage all the senses just through the eyes – that’s what makes it challenging.

In this article, I’ll share some tips to help you master this type of photography.

Tips for Photographing Baked Goods

Highlight textures

Highlighting texture is essential when photographing baked goods. First, it gives the viewer more information, which helps make the image more authentic. Is it Crumbly? Crispy? Chewy?

To the more informed viewer, the texture also helps identify the ingredients and method of preparation. Alongside this information, you’re also engaging more senses in the viewer – they can imagine how it feels to break that bread or to bite that cookie.

The senses may also awaken memories, which will help the viewer connect with your image.

Lastly, texture adds depth to a photograph, making it more visually appealing. To showcase the texture, you need to choose the right angle of view and use light to enhance it.

Styling is key

Credit: Lulizler

Photographing baked goods is not so different from any other type of food photography in terms of styling.

First, you need to prepare your dishes for the camera, not the palate. While taste and looks are always important, in this case, aesthetics take precedence.

Sometimes, this means that your products won’t be edible afterwards or may not taste good. This is because food stylists have plenty of secret tricks for getting food camera-ready.

You also need to consider the styling of the scene. It’s essential to think about the background, the plates, and all the props that will help you highlight your subject and tell a story.

Remember that styling not only makes the subject look mouthwatering but also allows the viewer to identify the flavors, understand the scale, and access other vital information.

Patterns

Credit: Taryn Elliott

Any single-portioned baked good can be used to create a pattern. It doesn’t matter if it’s cookies, cupcakes, petit fours, or croissants – this is a great way to display them.

We naturally look for patterns and find them visually pleasing. This is why they’re so effective in photography and design.

If you want to make the image more interesting and add a focal point to direct the eye of the viewer, you can break the pattern.

You can do this in any number of ways, such as placing a differently shaped cookie among the others or breaking one of the croissants in half.

Angles – to each its own

Credit: Pixabay

There isn’t a single vantage point that’s best for all photographs. As you know, baked goods can be big or small, flat or layered. So, you need to find the best perspective for each shot.

First, you need to consider the subject’s shape and the characteristics you want to showcase. Think about a cake: if you’re going to display the decoration, you may want to shoot from above.

Instead, to highlight the layers or the side decorations, it’s better if you place the camera at table height. Do you need both? Then, try shooting at 45 degrees.

Secondly, consider the depth of the picture. Do you want to showcase the scenario and give a bit of context? The camera angles, focal length, and framing are all connected.

Play with shapes

Credit: Maria Fernanda Perez

Baked goods are the ideal subject to use shapes for a more dynamic composition.

Let me give you one of the most classic examples – think about a flat-lay composition of a cake (circle) where you cut a slice (triangle) and place it on a rectangular plate – or a round plate on a rectangular placemat.

The combination of geometric shapes adds visual interest to an image that, without depth, would risk being dull.

This doesn’t just refer to the shape of the objects – you can also create shapes when arranging the elements inside the frame or by using the negative space.

Preference odd numbers

Credit: Life of Pix

Did you know that we find images more appealing when the composition has an odd number of elements?

In photography, there’s a composition guideline called the rule of odds. This means that whenever you photograph multiple subjects, you should always arrange them in groups of 3, 5, 7, etc.

This is because our brains find a group of odds more interesting and dynamic than a group with an even number.

If you must use an even group, you can separate it by arranging it in groups of odds – for example, one element is sharp in the foreground, and the other three are blurred in the background.

Focus on details

Credit: Tobias Maschtaler

Photographing the entire subject or a group isn’t the only way to capture baked goods. It’s also a good idea to highlight specific details. This may be as the main picture or as a variation to complement the series.

If the subject is already small, capturing details may be tricky. To do it, you may need a macro lens. If you don’t have one, you can try using extension tubes.

Alternatively, you can capture a more significant part of the subject but highlight the detail with selective focus. You can achieve a shallow depth of field by using a telephoto lens and a wide aperture.

Post-processing

Credit: Valeriya

Sometimes, things aren’t perfect either in baking or photography – that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.

However, the photographs do need to look perfect. This is when post-production kicks in.

You can use the Heal tool to remove a crack on a cookie or remove extra crumbles. You may also use the Liquify tool to make macaroons rounder if they don’t rise properly.

You can use many retouching techniques to make photographs of your baked goods ready to publish or print.

Even if you don’t need to retouch because you were working with food stylists and art directors, you still need to ‘develop’ your raw file and do some basic editing.

So, always pass your files through your favorite photo editing software to achieve professional-looking results.