The Perfect Burger Photo

For a past school project I combined my love of cooking and photography to make a food blog. I learnt a number of important points about successful food photography. This is one of my favourites.

You will need:

- A photography tent or a plain white background

(A photography tent will help to soften the light with little to no shadows, if you do not have a tent, baking paper or white cloth can have the same effect)

- DSLR Camera

- Matt black fabric to line the tent

- Additional lights (optional) - I just have cheap strip lights

For the burger you will need:

- Lettuce

- Tomato slices

- Two Cheese slices

- Burger patty (any type of patty)

- Burger Bun

For the best results choose well shaped, vibrant coloured ingredients

To prepare the burger, grill the patty

Place one slice of cheese on the bottom of the roll.

Layer with the patty and second slice of cheese

To achieve a "melted cheese" look, microwave on high for 20 seconds.

Add two slices of tomato on top, placing them 2-3mm back from the front of the patty

Repeat this step with the lettuce, placing 2-3mm back from the front of the tomato

Finally, add the bun top, again 2-3mm back from the front of the lettuce leaf

The burger should look as shown in the photograph, when viewed from the side

Using a squeeze bottle with a thin tip, strategically add sauce to decorate.

Set up the photography tent, lining with the black fabric.

Place the burger on a white plate in the tent, as shown.

If needed use strip lights to provide additional lighting.

Take the photo from directly in front and at the level of the plate. You should be looking directly at the burger rather than from beneath or above.

Use a tripod if you have one

The aperture is an important part when taking a photo. The aperture changes the amount of the photo that is in focus. As the aperture gets smaller the background will become more blurred.

When taking this I set the aperture to f/3.8. This makes the burger the main focus of the photo. (giving the background a blurred look)

Because my photo came out quite dark, I used a simple online photo editor, pixlr.com.

Through this website you can either choose to use auto fix or change the settings manually.

I have shown both in the pictures above.

I prefer to set mine manually, because you can control the small changes that you want to make.

Crop to preferred size

Now you have a hamburger photo that looks good enough to eat!