What's the best Christmas meal ever? Get inspired with festive food photography

Man in Christmas jumper in front of a table full of festive food
(Image credit: Miriam Nice / Food Photographer of the Year)

Entries will soon be closing on February 5, 2023 for the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year competition. As we enter the festive season, now is your last chance (and the perfect time!) to start shooting some creative foodie images. 

To help with inspiration for your next food photography shoot, the competition organizers have put together a collection of mouth-watering festive food images from previous entries that will have you making flour angels in no time. 

• Look at our picks for the best cameras for food photography

The Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year competition also welcomes film submissions as well as still images, and the twenty-plus categories celebrate the range, diversity, creativeness, and breadth of food photography as a genre. 

New for 2023, the competition has announced a new category for food photographers to enter, titled The Pink Lady Moments of Joy category, for images that show or represent the joy experienced through cooking, preparing, serving, or consuming food. The category winner for Moments of Joy will be awarded the prize of £1,500 ($1,800 / AU$2,675 approximately).

(Image credit: Gabriela Sowajoffrey / Pink Lady Food POTY)

Other categories that you can enter in the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year competition also apply to the festive season, such as the Food for the Family category, as well as the Food at the Table, and Champagne Taittinger Food for Celebration categories. 

There's also a category called On the Phone that accepts images captured using your smartphone, when times call for you to put the "proper" camera away at the dinner table. These categories are all perfect opportunities for capturing your festive food photographs, as family traditionally comes together. 

(Image credit: Sabeen Riaz / Pink Lady Food POTY)

(Image credit: Maja Kowalczyk / Pink Lady Food POTY)

(Image credit: Simon-James Smith / Pink Lady Food POTY)

(Image credit: Kris Kirkham / Pink Lady Food POTY)

(Image credit: Andrea Gralow / Pink Lady Food POTY)

(Image credit: Solmaz Kanani Bahri / Pink Lady Food POTY)

(Image credit: Sabeen Riaz / Pink Lady Food POTY)

(Image credit: Judith Balari / Pink Lady Food POTY)

(Image credit: Paul Matthews / Pink Lady Food POTY)

Don't miss the deadline of February 5 to enter the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year competition 2023, and get your best food photographs entered for your chance to win a prestigious trophy as one of the several category winners, or £5,000 ($6,000 / AU$8,900 approximately)  as the overall chosen winner. 

You may also be interested in The best lenses for food photography, as well as the best books on food photography. Check out these 10 tasty food photography tips and discover how to use a white napkin as a reflector in our interview with food photographer, Emilie Franzo.

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Beth Nicholls
Staff Writer

A staff writer for Digital Camera World, Beth has an extensive background in various elements of technology with five years of experience working as a tester and sales assistant for CeX. After completing a degree in Music Journalism, followed by obtaining a Master's degree in Photography awarded by the University of Brighton, she spends her time outside of DCW as a freelance photographer specialising in live music events and band press shots under the alias 'bethshootsbands'.