Olympus Visionary Lou Manna shares his top photography tips for shooting mouthwatering images of your holiday confections.

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White Balance

You spent two days baking all of your holiday goodies. Now you want your sweet labor to translate well in photographs. White balance is a key player in the quality of your picture. I usually set the white balance to manual mode or I create a custom white balance setting. Sometimes when using electronic flash, the white balance has to be set manually because the light doesn’t exist until the flash goes off. A setting for daylight or flash is usually just right. The pictures of your cookies will look good enough to eat!

Composition

Avoid using too many objects that crowd the space. Try to keep it simple; less is more when it comes to food photography. Whether the subject is a glazed turkey or a steaming apple pie, compose your photograph to draw the viewer’s eye to it. One technique that I use is a spiral composition that leads your eye clockwise into the food. Another is the Rule of Thirds in which you divide your frame into a tic-tac-toe design and place your subject at one of the intersecting points. Composing your photo this way helps to create more dynamic movement. Your feast will come alive!

Tips for the Perfect Picture of Your Holiday Treats

• Use a brush with light oil to add shine to meats, pastries, cookies and fruit
• Consider contrasting colors, shapes and height of your food items
• Manipulate small elements—like the sesame seeds on bread or the raisins in pudding—with tweezers
• Put your platter’s best face forward: clean up any distracting crumbs or grease with q-tips and paper towels