I am a semi-pro photographer and was looking to expand my photography. Food photography from what I've heard is an advanced art. But this book covers too much basic photography and not enough on how to shoot food.

The chapters on food and prop styling where good. The chapter on composition was also good with lots of examples from the bad shots to the keepers. The lighting chapter was a joke with no real advice on how to best light food. His description of lighting ratios was less than half a page and didn't explain how to setup the lights to achieve the ratios.

His Photoshop retouching examples are very-very basic. The last chapter on "Getting into the Business" has very general and basic business advice.

If you are new to photography and looking for your first photo book, this book could be helpful. Amateur and advanced enthusiast photographers should look elsewhere.

This is THE book to get when you're starting down the path as a food photographer. Lou Manna is a New York-based shooter who also offers workshops every other month or so in his studio (see: [...]). Lou's comprehensive book covers not only photography, but also such important factors as: how food photography is used (editorially, in marketing and on packaging), the role of the food stylist and the role of the prop stylist. His no-nonsense talk about food photography covers gear, composition, lighting, retouching and how to get in the business.

This book is a must if you are looking to do what most people buying 'subject' specific photography books do, that is have someone shorten the learning curve with really USEFUL tips/short cuts. In particular, I believe it is chapter 6, Composition, where this books earns 5 stars; instead of just telling you how to do what 'should' work in-theory, Lou Manna teaches the essential skill of problem solving by process of step by step refining of the previous shots. This is by far the definative book on Food Photography, by a very well seasoned professional TEACHER. I look forward to more books from Lou and continued learning from a great photographer!

Some good tips but as I shoot only RAW format, I disagree the basic method.

Lou Manna does an excellent job giving out the food photographer's "secrets" to making the food look good. I will be taking his food photography workshop in May 2008.

Lou Manna is my new hero... what he doesn't know about food photography is not worth knowing and yet he is incredibly generous with his knowledge. The devil is in the detail, but Lou is angelic in his ability to succinctly capture the elements that go to make a great image. That's why Olympus has awarded him the honour of making him one of their top 30 Visionary Photographers. His book clearly demonstrates the various techniques that can be used in photographing food, including tips and tricks for food-styling. The book uses a "Show and Tell" approach with images and captions rather than reams of text to communicate ideas. This makes it an extremely useful studio manual, as it is easy to access the information at a glance and see exactly what kind of effect you are aiming at. The book has advice that's relevant to the amateur enthusiast as well as the more advanced photographer wanting to unpack some of the secrets of food photography. I'm personally having enormous fun in my kitchen since reading this book and my photos have taken a noticeable jump in sophistication after feasting my eyes on the images in Lou Manna's Digital Food Photography book.

Thanks Lou - you are a Legend!

The book is more on food photograhy than food styling, but has some good food tips

This book is a great tool for all food stylists, photographers, prop stylists, etc. it has lots of tricks of the trade and a lot of information on how to make perfect digital food photography. no wasted space in this book and Lou Manna did a great job putting this together

lou manna leads you in a very friendly and clear way to the world of digital photography with the tips and insights of great professional photographer and teacher.

Digital Food Photography is an good choice for the amateur or beginning professional photographer looking to break into food photography. It mixes strong writing, a talented photographer (Lou Manna), and an excellent business acumen to create a recipe for your success. It covers a wide range or topics:

-Equipment.
-Styling Techniques (photography).
-Food Styling, Cooking, and the cook.
-Image stylist and props.
-Composition.
-Lighting.
-Image processing.
-Customer Relation.

So here is the cautionary tale. This book is so well written, the techniques are presented with such refinement, the images are so well executed, and the information is so easy to grasp that they belay the true complexity of food photography.

So if you are really interested in food photography, step one is getting this book. Step two is practicing the lighting techniques until you understand the difference between the highlight and a specular highlight.
Step three is get yourself some clients and have some fun.

mr manna is incredible .. our son sam will be taking his class and what a treat .. it is on our browsing informative and brilliantly colored

I am new to food photography and was looking for a how-to book to help me educate myself without having to take formal classes. This book is it! It has a wealth of information, well-laid out and very clearly explained. In the words of a professional photographer friend, food photography makes most photographers break out in a cold sweat. This book will help you get over that fear. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning the ropes in food photography, which is a very different animal from all other types of photography.

I am a professional photographer, and I was greatly looking forward to receiving this book.

I was hoping to get some detailed information on lighting techniques, specifically for food. The additional sections on food and prop styling were handy extras.

What I did get was a nice easy read, and some useful tidbits of information that I can use. Some of the sections on Photoshop were useful (and would be more-so for serious amateurs and up).

What I wasn't expecting and was very disappointed with, were the large chunks of the text dealing with the relationship between ISO, aperture, and shutter. Come-on! This should be a book about digital food photography. Anyone who doesn't know about the basic photographic relationships should be reading a book on basic photography. There were other parts of the book that likewise contained very basic general knowledge I would not expect in a specific book.

Additionally, much spaced was used as almost a portfolio for Lou Manna rather than providing useful information. He does have some beautiful work, but that is not what I was paying for.

All in all, I was disappointed with this book, although it was not a total waste, especially if you were just wanting to get into professional photography.

This book starts off with a chapter called 'The Key Ingredient: Pixels.' Of course that's true, everyone knows that digital cameras make pictures composted of pixels but you don't quite get the importance of this until it is compared with film. It used to be that we all used view cameras. Then we put in Polariod film and shot until we got what we thought we wanted. Except that Polariod just didn't have the contrast, the lustre that real film had. Then we would switch to real film. And because we could never be sure we would shoot at the exposure we thought was right then under expose a couple, then over expose a couple in hopes of getting it right. (Anybody want to buy a view camera?)

With digital, the LCD readout on the back or through the viewfinder is as perfect as it's going to get. You shoot a lot of pictures, but you vary the placement, the lights, you move things a bit. You can look for yourself or show your client the picture on a display immediately. You can save a few hundred shots on a CD-ROM and keep them forever. And the new DVD's are even better.

Of course there's a chapter on selecting a camera. There are simple point and shoot cameras. Some of which are simpler than others. The top of the line have almost as much control as do the more expensive SLR cameras, including aperture, shutter speed, and the ISO setting you are using. The SLR camers have more pixels, more features, etc. Next year the current models will all be obsolete, the features of the SLR will be down in the point and shoot and the SLR's will have even more.

After these fundamental chapters, the next several chapters of the book are on shooting pictures of food. How to select hte food, how to position it, light it, what props to use, a complete lesson on shooting food.

Then it's to digital retouching to get the most out of an image. And finally some tips from a pro on how to make money in this business.

Food photography is a nice little niche of the photographic market. There are people even in small cities making a living taking pictures of food. Why. Look at the ads in the paper, look at the photographs in some menus. Somebody had to take those pictures.