How to Photograph your Bento Boxes

Have you taken a photograph of your bento in a brightly lit room, only to have the resulting picture a dull yellow? This is likely a result of your incandescent light bulbs. Then you try one with the flash on, and there is a glare off the plastic box, or the nori. There are many ways to prevent this, but the easiest thing to do is use natural lighting. Take your bento photos outside or in a sunny part of your home.

I'm not a morning person, so I usually make my bento lunches at night. In the winter, when it gets dark around 4:30 where I live, this poses a problem. Another solution for indoor photography is to filter your light. In a brightly lit room you can cover your flash with a small piece of tissue paper which diffuses the light, or create a light box out of tissue paper to diffuse the light.

So now your lighting is perfect, but your photos are blurry and unfocused if you get close to your bento. For close-up photos you need to use the "Macro" mode on your camera. Most digital cameras these days have a macro mode, symbolized by a small flower.

Here is the fun part! You have put so much time and effort into creating the cutest bento ever, and your photos are well-lit and focused, but they still look boring. Add some flare! I have a collection of cute chopsticks and doilies to put around my bento box to enhance my bento photos. Look in the scrapbooking section of your local craft store for decorative papers to use as backgrounds Look around your own home too. If you love everything cute and kawaii, I'm sure you have some accessories or knickknacks that will look great in your photos.

Composition is the arrangement of elements in your photograph. Good composition is aesthetically pleasing and makes for a more appealing picture. So how do you achieve good composition? Mix things up. If your bento box is rectangle, try taking the photo from straight above with the box perfectly lined up in your viewfinder. Then take the photo from an angle, with the cutest part in the forefront. Don't be afraid to cut off a corner, or leave things in the background out of focus. Move your bento around and switch up your accessories. You can always delete bad photos, so don't be afraid to take a bunch from all different views. As you get better at planning your composition, the less photos you will have to take.

I like to use my camera's viewfinder rather than preview screen. You are forced to shut out everything except your photo, and is easier to predict what the final product will look like. Be patient as you set up your shot. Once you think you have a good composition move the cross-hairs to the part of the bento you want to feature, like the cute-faced onigiri, and focus the camera (by pushing the shutter half way). Then move the camera back to your original composition and take the picture.