The beauty of food is in the tiny details. 

Taking close-up photographs of food is a wonderful way to record the edible art you have created.  The macro setting on most digital cameras can be turned on quite easily, and pictures such as the ones in the slideshow are fun to take as an amateur photo buff.

To take your close-up photography to the next level, these helpful tips for shooting professional quality macro photos come from Eric Thomas, an expert in photography and technology.   

1. When shooting in macro, there is often no background in the traditional sense – the background is the rest of the subject. The camera is trying very hard to find the sky on your macro shot and it just might do that and adjust exposure in a totally stupid way. Just check on the LCD and adjust with the exposure +/- control until you are happy. Bright subjects need plus exposure and black subjects need minus.  It depends on the camera too, you have to play it by the ear as you shoot.

2. If you have a Nikon, go in the custom settings and set the color to VIVID or maybe VIVID +1. It will make a big difference with the kind of shots you have. You may want to reset it when doing pictures of people but personally I don’t. I guess I would if I did a formal portrait, especially in a studio. But “in the field” you often have bleak lighting and need more color. If you have a Canon, there is a similar camera setting.

3. Fold a sheet of white canvas or cloth so that it makes a corner and set it for instance where your kitchen countertop meets the wall, use tape if needed so that it stays put. Ideally in a relatively bright spot. Then place the item to be photographed there. Kill the flash, punch in +0.7 or maybe just +0.3 exposure and see what you get. The canvas has to be out of focus so that it makes a white “high key” background with the texture not visible. The idea is to create even light without buying an expensive ring flash or other fancy contraption that either costs a lot of money or doesn’t work. Or you could make some kind of diffuser out of translucent fabric and use the power of the summer sun to turn it into a light box. It doesn’t have to be particularly big, it just needs to be big compared to the size of the object.

For more information about close-up photography, please check out Flowers and Macro Shooting.