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Have a food question? Ask it here, and someone (probably Maia or Chris) will answer it.

• Maia, how do you take such pretty pictures of food? Do you digitally enhance them later? Mine are always out of focus and dull looking. -Laurel

The only digital enhancement that I do is adjusting color temperature, and possibly a bit of contrast or brightness levels. The dull look you're getting might come from the flash. As with all photography, there are two key elements: light and composition.

Light: Most of the time, you will be taking pictures of food in the evening and inside, when the lighting conditions are not optimal for nice sharp photographs. Using a flash makes the food look fake, but often it's hard to find enough available natural light to make a sharp image. Try moving the food to a well lit spot (say, lit by a bright desk lamp or two). Be careful with using one harsh source of light, as it can make some odd shadows. The best lighting is a bright main light and a slightly dimmer secondary light. Play with their positioning until you like where the shadows fall. Also remember that your camera is set up to read sunlight as "white," while indoor lights tend to look yellow, because they have a different color temperature. This can make the food look weird. You can usually correct this in your camera, by changing a light color temperature setting.

Composition: Food looks best when it is bright, fresh, and fills the frame. That being said, food is small, and it's often difficult to get your camera to focus close enough to make the food fill the frame. I have a macro function on one of my lenses, which allows me to focus on objects very close to the lens, but if you don't have such an option, you might try shooting a sharp image from a bit farther away, and then cropping it using a digital editing program. Also, try to get down low and shoot from an angle. Shots from straight over the plate are almost always unappetizing. It's nice if you can see the shape of berries bubbling over the pie, or bits of vegetables sticking out of the dish. This creates texture, which helps the food look like you could just dig in and eat the photo! Also, don't be afraid to slice that pie or stick a fork in those veggies. Food photos look great when you can see crumbles and oil and things oozing from them!

Hope this helps. -Maia

• What are some general guidelines for choosing a wine? Also, what are some rules of thumb for pairing wine (or beer) with food?