Composing a Masterpiece

Creating a mouth-watering food image isn’t just about clicking the shutter, it’s about crafting a story through light, texture and colour. Last month I photographed some ladoos (Indian sweets) to celebrate Diwali.

Here’s how I composed this masterpiece… and how you can apply these principles to your own food photography.

Setting the Scene

Every photo begins with a story.

For this shoot, I wanted to evoke the warmth and joy of Diwali, which is a time filled with colour, tradition and indulgent sweets. Celebrating a festival of light for me meant choosing props that were bright and vibrant. From the colourful embroidered textiles, pink decorated divas, glistening golden beads and of course the hero of the image; the ladoos.

Each prop was chosen not just for its beauty, but for context too. They tell the viewer where the food belongs… in a festive celebration.

Balancing Light and Shadow

Despite wanting to create a light, bright image, it was one of the darkest and gloomiest days we’d had in October. Unable to achieve the desired look with natural light, I used a soft, diffused artificial light coming from one side to create gentle shadows that give the ladoos their shape and depth.

Ensuring I didn’t lose the details within the brighter areas of the image whilst still illuminating the darker areas enough was done with careful placement of my light source as well as by blocking some of the light in desired areas.

Colour Harmony

The goal was to let the ladoos shine, so everything else in the frame had to complement that.

I used pinks, greens and warm golds in the fabrics and divas; colours that beautifully compliment the yellow-orange hues without stealing the show.

Adding some flakes of green pistachio, delicate pink rose petals and flickers of gold leaf to each ladoo added both colour, flavour and a sense of luxury to the image.

Composition and Depth

I arranged the props and plates in layers to create depth and draw the eye through the image. The scene was set as one might expect during Diwali celebrations with scattered rose petals, fabric and golden beads adding movement and softness, preventing the scene from feeling too staged.