Oct
11
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably seen the leaps and bounds made in the area of food photography in recent years. Thanks to the advent of social media and the way that this has affected business in general, photography has never been more relevant.
However, while this applies to almost every business type out there, the food business is one which it affects more than most.
We’ve all heard the phrase, “you eat with your eyes”. This is as true as always. Anyone in the food business knows just how crucial it is to create food that not only excited the taste buds, but that also excites the eyes. With the right food photography, you can have your potential customers salivating at the mere sight of your food.
Don’t panic though. This doesn’t mean that you’ve got to find money to run out and hire an expensive photographer. In fact, creating your own images is much easier than you might think. With just a few minutes of planning, you can create images that look professional and take your website or social media platforms to the next level.
3 Tips for Food Photography
Lighting
Lighting is key in all forms of photography. While many people make the mistake of thinking this means that h3 lighting is best, it actually means that harsh, artificial lighting is the worst kind.
When photographing your food, natural light is the holy grail. Unfortunately, kitchens tend to be short on natural light, but that’s ok. Why not try bringing your creations outside to photograph them?
One great way to do this is to lay a clean white sheet on the ground outside. Then place your food carefully onto the sheet and photograph it. Of course, you’ll need to crop the finished image to make sure that there’s no sight of the ground in the outskirts of the shot, but once you’ve done that you’ll be left with a beautifully light shot.
Layout
Food is always shot best from above in a flatlay style. This angel allows all of the items on your plate, chopping board, slate or other serving dish to be included in the image. If you’ve taken our advise above and are shooting outside, it’s important to shoot from above in an angel that will prevent any unwanted shadows in the shot. So move around and try different things.
Flatlay photography can be as simple or as cluttered as you like. Some people decorate their food with cutlery and a glass of wine. Others enjoy sprinkling some small salad leaves or delicate flowers around a plate. Others choose to place items such as a pair of glasses and a book next to the dish.
This is a time to experiment with different ideas and styles. Try taking inspiration from professional food photographers online, or from other food businesses whose images you love.
Editing
Many people worry that they don’t have the skills to edit their photographs well. But these days, there are countless apps available on Iphone and Andriod that make it as easy as pie. Some of our favourites include Snapseed, Facetune, Visco and Lightbox.
Most smart phones today have excellent editing capabilities themselves, so you may not even need to download a separate app.
Again, editing your photographs very much depends on the style that you want to create. Blurring out background items and highlight the details of the food itself will highlight the variations in texture of your dish. Increasing saturation will make the colours of each mouth watering morsal poop. Choosing to apply a “food photography filter” is, of course, a sure winner.
Whichever style you’re going for with your photography, playing around on different apps can not only be fun, but really help to take your images to the next level.
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