Best lens for food photography

greentea

Hi everyone! Newbie here, both to the forum and photography. I have the Nikon 3200 and still getting used to it. I am a food blogger looking to improve my photos. I've been reading a lot of tips, but I'm still confused. When I try to photograph a plate of food (I want to see the entire plate), I use my tripod and zoom in with the 18-55mm kit lens. If I don't, the plate looks very far away and the picture ends up looking huge! Why do I see other pictures in magazines where the whole plate is shot, but it doesn't seem so zoomed in and close up like mine? Is this where a macro lens comes in?

ohyeahar

Sounds more like a composition problem rather than a settings or gear issue. If you’re going to shoot at 55mm, back up your tripod until the plate of food just fills the frame, or perhaps just don’t zoom in that much. Try the shot at 35mm which on our DX cameras is roughly the field of view of our eyes.

I don’t think a macro lens is what you need if you want to get the entire plate of food into the frame. If you want to get a really close up shot of a single morsel of food, that's when a macro lens would be handy.

greentea

Hi ohyeahar - thanks for taking the time to reply. That makes sense.

When I use the 18-55mm kit lens, how do I know I'm at 35mm? Is there something on the lens on viewfinder?

I am loving the 55mm lens!

ohyeahar

There's some markings on the lens itself near the zoom ring. You should see the numbers 18, 24, 35, 45, and 55. These are indications for focal length. Just line up the white dot with whatever focal length you want.

bruto

The shorter the focal length and the closer you are, the more obvious perspective there will be. Think of those funny shots of a dog with the disproportionately enormous nose that have become fashionable. Those are shot with a wide angle lens as close as possible.

If you want the plate to fill the frame with minimal perspective distortion (i.e. looking relatively flat), you want the longest focal length possible, and you might even consider taking the picture from further away and cropping it to the plate size.

With the D3200, try the lens at 55mm and get a fairly high elevation so you're looking down at the plate. The closer the plate is to the camera's plane, the less problem you will have maintaining focus across the entire plate, and the less perspective distortion you will see. There is, of course, a compromise between this and getting some sense of depth on the plate, but something in between might help.

greentea

@bruto - thanks for taking the time to respond. I appreciate the tips!