We all learned about triangles in preschool or kindergarten, but they’re also powerful photography tools! Place three points of interest in the picture, and the eye naturally travels from one to the next to the next and back again, which keeps the brain (and viewer!) engaged. The points can be close or far apart, although the former is generally more effective. It also helps to use the same color for all three tips of the triangle.
Triangles are commonly incorporated into food photos through garnishes, such as morsels of goat cheese or sprigs of parsley. Photographers also orient three of the same thing into a triangle, such as muffins, cupcakes, or even dinner plates.
Below I included a few of my photos with triangles incorporated. I do love trios of baked treats!
Now it’s your turn to practice triangles! Feel free to post any questions, comments, or tips in the comments section below!
AH this is another trick I tend to do with my cookies, or cupcakes that I had NO idea was a trick!! HAH! I’m a natural ;). Just kidding! Good to know that this is something that draws people in!
Brittany, you are totally a natural. You beat me to leading lines, and you’re already using triangles — go you!! 😀
HI – I’m loving this series. These tips are so simple and easy to understand. Very helpful!
I’m so glad to hear it! I learned these tips in a photography class a long time ago, and I’m happy that I can pass them along to others.
Hi Amy,
We’ve communicated on the instagram very briefly, and this is a first time I am visiting your beautiful blog. I went over the whole series of these posts, as well as the recipes. One word – stunning! :).
One thing I’ve stumbled upon when trying to make a good photo image is what they call a “one man show” problem. Usually, in professional sets, there are 3 different people doing the work – chef, stylist and photographer (speaking of a triangle 🙂 ). Judging by your photos, you have mastered all three and an art of combining them all together! For me, the combination is the hardest.
Anyways, loving the shots, the recipes and your blog. You have one more fan as of now :).
Edward
Thank you Edward! I’m touched by your kind words. It’s one thing for my mom to compliment me, but it’s even more special to be recognized by fellow bloggers as talented as yourself!
You’re completely right about the triangle of people contributing to an image. It’s hard to feel successful at all three for every recipe/photo shoot, but it’s something I can work on for the rest of my life. 🙂
And thank you for following my Facebook page! I hope you remembered to download your free cookbook too!
Oh yes I did :).
I only sorry all my recipes are published in Hebrew. I am sure you’d love them 🙂
Me too! 😉 I browsed around your site today and admired all of the photos. Maybe if you added a translate plug-in to the sidebar, us English speakers could read them too!
My blog is still hosted on a .com site… which means not much of a playroom there for plug-ins… I am working on moving the blog to a self-hosted server but as you know… takes tons of time which is not really available :).
I can definitely relate — I just moved my blog to a self-hosted server in February! I wish we had an extra 3 or 4 hours every day… I’d probably just use them to catch up on sleep though!
Oo I love this little trick! I’ve been running into a rut with my food photography, will incorporate some triangles next time 🙂
Thanks! I run into ruts too. I’ll feel like I’m setting up the same shot, just with different food and different plates. It’s fun to see what other people are doing and get inspiration from them!
Fascinated by the triangles concept! Never heard of this or even noticed it! Going to have to look out for this now that I know about it!
It’s one of the lesser-known photography techniques, but once I heard about it, I started noticing it all the time. You photos already look fabulous, so I’m sure you’ve been “accidentally” doing it subconsciously! 🙂