What lenses for food photography

JeffSlade wrote:

AchilleasEmm wrote:

lehill wrote:

AchilleasEmm wrote:

Good evening

I want to get into some amateur food photography. I will mostly shoot for a blog I intend to start around recipes , which i want to accompany with a nice photo of the particular dish.

After searching a little bit almost everyone recommends a macro, a 50mm and a 35mm. The latter two I will definetely buy as soon as they become available in my country. I don't know if I should buy a macro lens though. I know it is mostly used for a tighter crop on flat lays and a flattering 45 degree photo.

Considering that i will not use it professionally just for my personal usage is a macro needed? I would love to hear your opinions.

You don't say what camera these lenses are for. "Everyone" should have recommended a fast lens (like f/2.8 or faster) too.

I am in the process of buying RF glass. I have at the moment the 15-35 2.8 and intend to buy by the end of the year the 70-200 and a 50mm

• Those focal lengths are suggested so you can be reasonably close to the food instead of 6 ft away (bad if you're at a crowded restaurant or don't have a high ceiling). They also don't have much noticeable perspective distortion.

I am not a pro food photographer. I will do it at my home with some basic setup and lights. I have bought and have crafted a few interesting backgrounds for the photos and want to buy a small strobe but thats it.

• A macro lens is usually suggested for food photography because you want to get a frame-filling photo of that hamburger or egg or blueberry or whatever. A regular lens can't focus that close.
• A plain ol' kit zoom lens could work sometimes - they're designed to be versatile and can focus kinda close. But they're usually too slow to work inside a dim restaurant without using flash and disturbing other patrons.

Put these all together and something like a 50mm f/2.8 macro hits a sweet spot for food photography. What hits the sweet spot for you could be different depending on the list above.

i dont intend to be a pro. Just for my personal use and enjoyment. I mostly shoot landscapes and travel. But i want to merge my passion of cooking with my hobby of photography

My wife has a passion for cooking so we started a YouTube channel in March 2020 and we now have 428 subscribers. I learned a lot about video and audio in the process.

I know you are focused on photography and I think you said blog. That's great!

Just saying people passionate about food who are willing to learn simple video and audio are doing really well on YouTube!

Have fun!

Thats really nice! What lenses do you use??