What is the first element that needs to be communicated in the dish? That can save the reader from reading a food photo that appears unintuitive. A camera angle isn’t just an aesthetic choice, it’s about what information you want the viewer to read immediately: the bowl shape, drink height, dessert layers, or plate placement. When your chosen angle isn’t the best fit for your food, everything else in the photo, from the window light to the styling, will never quite sit right.
Plates are usually best from overhead, since they lay across a plane. A salad, piece of toast, breakfast plate, piece of pizza, or arranged snack board are often readable from above, which allows you to read how the different elements on the plate are placed, the spacing, colors, negative space, and placement of cutlery, although you are losing out on any sense of height. If the dish relies on being layered or stacked, or has a steamy garnish, it will look less impressive in an overhead shot than it actually is.
Bowls are often better shot from a three-quarter angle, since the contents of a bowl are inside of a rim. If you shoot a bowl of soup, noodles, oatmeal, or curry from above, you’re just looking at a circle of color, lacking depth and dimension. From too low, the rim can obscure the contents inside. A three-quarter angle gives the viewer a peek inside the bowl while still seeing shape and height. It also allows you to place your focal point on the most appetizing element, for example, fresh herbs, sauce drizzle, glossy sheen, or spooned food that protrudes from the bowl.
Drinks and tall desserts are best shot from eye-level, or at an upward angle. A lemonade in a glass, parfait, slice of cake, or stack of pancakes depend on the height and form. Shot from above, you can’t see the layers of a parfait, only the rim, surface, or decoration of the cake. From straight-on, you can see the side of the glass, a layer of whipped cream, a texture of crumbs, or the dripples of a syrup. Watch out for glare on any glass or cutlery from this angle, since bright lights bounce off them very quickly.
A great trick is to shoot any one food from three different angles before moving your props. Take one food item, a bowl of fruit, a plated sandwich, a drink, a dessert. It really just needs to be simple. Choose a food that you’d like to photograph. Get it set on a nice surface. Take one shot from above, one from 3/4, and one from eye-level from the same window spot and without any props. Then, don’t edit anything. You will be able to see which shot explains the food better. Is the shape easy to tell? Is the focal point in the right spot? Is the surface visible or hiding what you need to see?
Another thing that you will find with each angle change is how different your props react to it. A napkin on a linen may feel lovely in overhead, but it can turn into a huge fabric rectangle in a lower angle. Utensils can nicely angle toward the food from above but cause a flash of glare from a lower angle. A nice flat plate, centered beautifully from 3/4, can feel very centered and flat from overhead. Before you try to add more props to the setup, change your angle. Very often your composition needs to be in a better spot, not another spoon, glass, or napkin.
Good framing and composition make the dish easier to understand before you see the props. Bowls reveal their contents, plates have space around them, drinks keep their height, and desserts keep their layers. When looking back over your images, think about why you chose the given angle. What did it highlight? What did it miss? You’ll develop a stronger sense of which angles suit your foods over time, instead of relying on one favorite angle for every food that you photograph.