Tips for Taking Great Food Photos
Making the most of a margarita with a colorful, festive background, creative framing and the addition of contrasting color (cherries) to the glass.
Rey Azteca, Newtown Square, PA
Photo: Sarah Lockard/AroundMainLine
It seems improbable with technology these days that you can take a subpar photo of your food. But time and time again, I see on my social media feeds some pretty weak food photography. Whether you are casually dining out with a bunch of girlfriends on the Main Line or you are the sous chef in a Michelin-star restaurant in Mykonos, that image is about to be seen by the world. And whatever your motive (social media bravado or basic profit), you probably would like to improve on what you publish.
Over the 15 years of my company, AroundMainLine, I have worked with a bunch of professional photographers—many of whom specialized in commercial food photography. Working side by side with them, I learned key techniques for taking great photos of food. This valuable experience has allowed me to master creative strategies for outstanding food photography. It is something I truly enjoy doing! At the end of the day, my passion for capturing awesome culinary images for my clients is my ‘secret ingredient.’
If you need help with high quality and creative food photography for your local business, I am only a phone call away! 610-715-9091
If you are not in the Philadelphia area and are stumbling across this blog, welcome and I hope you find these tips valuable.
All these images in this blog post are, of course, my work.
Bon Appetit!
Clean Lens
Wipe off your lens. Yup. I can almost guarantee that your camera lens is dirty or smeared with small dust particles—enough to substantially interfere with a high quality photograph. So diligently wipe your lenses before taking any photos (I suggest carrying a small piece of clean, cotton fabric with you in a case—equivalent to something you would wipe your eyeglasses with.) Be sure to continually check your lenses for any fingerprints and food smudges while you are taking the images.
Natural Light
Natural light is our best friend with all photography—but most especially with food. Take the food to the nearest window in the restaurant/bakery or even better yet…outside. A dark restaurant or a café with harsh, overhead, fluorescent lighting will interfere with the color integrity and many times the artificial light will reflect off the plates. I recommend having a large window behind you or next to the table where you are taking the images. If there is an outdoor patio or area that people can dine outside, be sure not to be in direct sunlight. You will want to shoot under the patio umbrella or in the shadiest part.
Twenty One Pips, Ardmore, PA. Photo: Sarah Lockard/AroundMainLine
Color
Studies show that bright, engaging colors perform higher online and on social media. In the case of shooting food, you want to think of how you can include eye-catching elements in the composition, such as a well-placed wedge of lemon, an interestingly colored cocktail, a sprinkle of parsley across a piece of fish, a stack of bright vegetables next to mashed potatoes and filet, or a dessert accented with fresh berries. It is best to avoid photographing plates that lack color or contrasting elements—beige, black, yellow or brown. These might be some of the most delicious and popular parts of the menu but they usually won’t garner as much engagement. If you are photographing food that just does not have any color, bring other ‘accessories’ to the table for staging so that the overall presentation includes contrast and has some personality—or look around the restaurant to see what you can play off of creatively.
None of these three dishes in this photo shoot grouping presented color—so I worked with the chef to encourage fresh fruit accents. The restaurant has an eclectic, colorful assortment of dinnerware (think Anthropologie) so I included many of those pieces and the roses. In addition, I knew their funky aesthetic ahead of time and brought my own vintage tableware to the shoot including pieces of jadeite (plated on top of the yellow dish as a charger to add another element of color and contrast).
Catherine’s Restaurant, Kennett Square, PA.
Photo: Sarah Lockard/AroundMainLine
Plating and Presentation
A great food photo shoot lives and dies by how the food is plated and presented. Hands down. This is definitely time to pause and take into consideration what is coming out of the kitchen to be photographed. There isn’t a whole lot any of us can do with a plate of food that does not look appetizing from the start. I always schedule my food shoots in down time in between seatings so that the kitchen is not distracted—and we can all be in communication and focused on producing well-plated food without the responsibility of paying customers.
In addition, I send the restaurant FOH and culinary team an email a few days ahead of time on key tips for a food photo shoot to ensure we are all on the same page and set up for success. It includes some of the following top tips below.
Do not make the food ahead of time I cannot stress this enough. Food that sits sweats, falls apart, melts, looses its integrity and more—and you can really tell when you photograph it. Of course chefs can prep parts of the dishes that are not effected by time (chopping veggies, marinating meat, making fresh pasta) and maximize the time allotted for the shoot. No food should be ‘fired’ or cooked before a food photographer gets on site.
Be EXTRA Now is the time to dive into charring some veggies a bit more black, finding some heirloom tomatoes that are 4 variations of red and orange, writing happy anniversary on the dessert plate. We aren’t promising the customers their plates are going to look exactly like this—we are putting our best foot forward. So take it up another level color and creativity wise.
Do not oversauce The opposite of being ‘extra’ in my tips is to use sauce that is on the plated food sparingly. I once did a photo shoot with a bowl of lobster ravioli and there was so much rose sauce in the dish you could not tell what it was—it almost looked like soup. I learned from that. Be sure that the sauce that the dish calls from does not hide or smother the main attraction—fish, pasta, meat, etc. This also holds true for buffalo wings and salads which can easily be drowning in too much sauce/dressing—making it more challenging to photograph a dish well.
Filet of Oscar, Hammer & Fire Restaurant, King of Prussia, PA
The chef plated this dish perfectly for the photo shoot, with the asparagus stalks neatly aligned and a minimal amount of sauce so the filet was still visible and not drowned out. You can also see in the background the splash of magenta he added to the other dish. This makes my job easy!
Photo: Sarah Lockard/AroundMainLine
Play off your Background
Being aware of your background in food photography is really important and can take your composition and overall quality to another dimension. Take some time to look around what parts of the restaurant have texture, art, color and personality and consider placing your food in that area. It doesn’t have to be anything over the top… but in place of a white wall with an exit sign or fire extinguisher in the background, it elevates your work. In addition, many restaurants have elements of décor that is very recognizable and part of their branding. In this world of the fast and furious scroll, this can help your engagement if someone instantly recognizes where the photo is from.
Pub photo shoots can seem like a dime a dozen. But one way to make them stand out is to bring the personality of the restaurant into play. Be aware of backgrounds to help elevate your image, like this stone wall and rocking horse, that help stage what may seem like just another table of bar food. To get this creative angle, I crouched down to the table height and filled up my foreground with the burger.
Photo: Sarah Lockard/AroundMainLine
Lend a Hand
Placing a hand in a food shoot is a really popular approach you’ve probably seen on social media. And there’s a reason for that. Having the implication of a ‘mysterious’ person at the table has proved to be a great strategy for photo engagement as these types of images tend to perform well. If you have a bartender with a terrific, colorful manicure, then having them hold a cocktail is a great use of this tip. There is definitely a time and place for incorporating a hand (or two or three!) into the staging so I advise on using it sparingly—otherwise it will lose its effectiveness. It should be in your arsenal of creative concepts with the goal of having a great food photo shoot with a selection of uniquely crafted images.
Roz & Rocco’s, Broomall, PA
Photo: Sarah Lockard/AroundMainLine