Food Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots is dedicated to “…foodies, food bloggers, home cooks, and chefs…and to anyone who craves a delicious meal, chases beauty, and wants to make people hungry with their photographs.” That certainly includes me! 🙂 So I was glad to have the chance to review this very helpful, comprehensive guide to taking better food photos. Author Nicole S. Young specializes in commercial photography and is an accredited Adobe Certified Expert, so she has lots of expert advice and tips to share!

This book has seven chapters…

1. Photography Fundamentals
2. Photography Equipment
3. Lighting
4. Styling and Props
5. Framing and Composition
6. Processing Images with Adobe® Photoshop®
7. Behind the Scenes

The chapters cover everything from getting the right camera equipment, using the right camera settings, creating the best lighting and composition, helpful food styling tips, and photo editing techniques with Photoshop. The last chapter, Behind the Scenes, is especially interesting because it goes into detail about how some great food photos were created.

Throughout the book, there are also photo tips and how-tos highlighted on various pictures…

I thought these pages were really helpful!

Overall, I think this is a great book to have if you’re wanting to improve your food photography skills. Don’t worry about having to get the newest, most expensive equipment…Nicole recommends working with what you have while you’re learning before you run out and buy anything new. My own camera is about 7 years old (it’s a Canon Rebel XT), but I’m still going to be using this for awhile!

I feel like I still have a lot to learn when it comes to photography and I’m really excited about trying out what I’m learning from this book!

What about you–do you enjoy photography?  Do you know a lot about it, or are you more of a beginner?