Invest in Lenses to Make Food Photos Pop

I've been doing a great deal of research on Food Photography of late to improve the food photos I have on my BBQ Smoker site blog.  I know food photography is a topic others also find interesting, so I wanted to start sharing some of what I've found so far. Before I get started, I want to give a shout out to Hubpages Author John D Lee, who posted a nice article about food photography for restaurant owners. It's one of the better food photo hubs I've found here, so do check it out.

Now, on to what I'm finding out about food photography so far. First, I have to laugh when I see it, but there's a dirty little term floating around out there pertaining to mouth watering food photos. The term is: Food Porn. I think this is great, because it fits so well! I mean come on, who doesn't get a case of the eye poppers when they see a masterfully executed "Phood" shot? Glistening, steaming, fleshy, seductive... I think food porn is the perfect label for these shots. After all, our goal as budding or established food photographer is to entice our viewers into lingering as long as possible over our shots, is it not?

So what makes for the best food shots?

What single element is most important overall when trying to get that perfect food photo? Well, based on what I'm finding out, when it comes to digital photography of food, it appears that it's all about the lens.

I was surprised by this, as I always thought the body of the camera was most important, especially for digital cameras.  

The question remains:  Which camera lenses are best for food photography? 

From what I've been able to figure so far, the Canon EF 50 mm f1.4 lens is the standard bearer for creating high quality food shots with that lovely blurring used to highlight the food portions we want to keep in focus.

Is this a popular lens choice among food photographers?

Well, from what I've been able to ascertain via research online, yes. Intermediate and advanced food photo pros alike feel that this lens performs like a champ providing sharp photos in multiple lighting conditions. They love that it's small, light, inexpensive and - most importantly - fast, thanks to it's f1.4 aperture.

What does aperture have to do with camera speed? Well, a quick hop over to Wikipedia provides a clue:

The aperture stop of a photographic lens can be adjusted to control the amount of light reaching the film or image sensor. In combination with variation of shutter speed, the aperture size will regulate the film's or image sensor's degree of exposure to light. Typically, a fast shutter speed will require a larger aperture to ensure sufficient light exposure, and a slow shutter speed will require a smaller aperture to avoid excessive exposure.

Thus, the Canon EF's f1.4 aperture equals speed.

Here are some other reasons why food photo folks like this lens:

The Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Lens is regarded as providing excellent sharpness and color contrast.  Also, the 50 f/1.4's 8-blade aperture allows for solid foreground/background blur quality, which is a characteristic of many great food photos.  

This lens does not add a lot of weight or size to your camera.  Coming in at a weight of just over 10 oz. and size dimensions of WxL: 2.9" x 2", it's not out of the question to say that you might fit this into a jacket pocket for using as needed.  

At just under $600, this lens may be out of budget range for some, but it's actually value priced for what it offers.  

It's not all sunshine and roses with this lens, though it does seem that the good outweighs the bad. To keep things fair and balanced... let's take a gander at some of the things reviewers tend not to love about the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Lens:

The completely plastic construcction of this lens tends to give it a less than quality "feel" in the hand.  Compared to others in its class, the relatively low price also means you get a slightly limited ability to handle flaring from certain light sources, and color is rated by most reviewers as only "adequate."  

Overall, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Lens is a "middle of the pack" option, but a good one for those with a limited budget who want their food photos to "pop" a bit more than they might do with the stock lens their camera came with.