#2. Take Your Time
Take time to make sure you are focused. Blurry shots never work!. Photo from Yelp.
Rushed = sucks! Your shoot starts when you walk into the place. Pay attention to details (Tip #6). Are you taking one shot or going to tell a bigger story? Order your food wisely. Take a shot and then take the camera down from your face. Study the dish. Now take a different shot. IS IT FOCUSED? CHECK AGAIN! Then shoot your dish from still another angle (see tip #8). Breath. Recompose. Shoot again. Even after you learn decent composition skills (Tip #9), you don’t always nail it on the first shot. Sometimes you don’t know until you get home and look. As your skills improve it won’t take as long and even now you don’t have to shoot until your food gets cold. But, take your time. Spin the plate and look. Would that red tomato look better in the front? Re-position the food on the plate if it’s not just right. Change the angle again. Look. Cut into the dish and show the inside as though your viewer was eating it! All done? Eat!
Focus people, focus! Photo from Google Images
Would it be wise to order your dish mise en place (deconstructed) and assemble the parts yourself for a better photo? Some places will do it and others not so much. It doesn't hurt to ask.
Also, take time to consider who you go to dine with on a shoot. If your meal companion doesn't "get it" that you need to slow down a little and turn your attention to shooting for a little while, you might consider taking someone else or going alone. Non-photographers don't get why it takes time to get a great shot!
Along with taking your time, hurry up! Food, especially hot or frozen food, "wilts" on the plate and doesn't look good very long. Sauces congeal. Garnishes like parsley on a hot dish and salads with shredded lettuce wilt quickly. When you cut into a steak, the juices flow out and cover the plate quickly and bloody plates rarely look appetizing. Also remember, as warm meat cools it shrivels. In a studio food stylists undercook some foods because it looks better when cut. Not recommended in restaurants. Shooting ice cream or beverages with ice in them is hard because it melts so fast. Get ready to shoot before the food is delivered and get busy when it hits the table. Don't rush, but don't procrastinate either.
Burger open faced is a different shot from the stacked burger below. Taking your time means getting different shots to choose from when you get to editing
Assembling the burger myself after shooting it open faced gave me options for publication and allowed me to place the veggies and fries for the best photo.
Brittany Fish stew shot from above. Not that it's a bad shot but it doesn't show much dimension. Will this work for what you are looking for? Maybe. But try something else before you dig in.
Here's the same dish shot from the diners perspective. Notice the different "story" this image tells from the first. Not better or worse, just different.
Cutting this Alfajores open to show the layers on the inside is more inviting than just shooting the whole cookie.