As a career marketing professional, a foodie and a photographer I often get to mix my passions. I try to stay up on Tampa Bay's best eateries new dishes. Tampa Bay has grown to become a great place for awesome food. Food and Travel Networks food shows have been to the area many times and have picked out some of the area's hidden gems.
Over the past year I've seen restaurants make marked moves to become more social. Usually this means that a well-intentioned company representative posts a photo of a new dish to Facebook. While I love the information, I think most restaurants are doing themselves a disservice by posting poor quality photos.
Here's the thing. Food doesn't just involve the senses of taste and smell. Food involves our eyes and brain equally as much. Conveying taste through an image is difficult. A less than perfect food photo can actually turn people away, having the opposite effect you desire. You've got a limited opportunity to engage your customers through social media. Use that opportunity carefully. Do it right and you'll bring new guests in the door. Do it wrong and you'll send your loyal customers to competitive restaurants.
While it would be best to hire a photographer to do quarterly food photo updates of new dishes, there are things that you can do to make your food photos look better.
1) Lighting: Without light there would be no photography. In fact, I think photography is as much a practice in mastering light as it is of mastering the subject and composition.
Don't rely on your camera's built-in flash to create flattering light on your food. The flash on a camera has limited utility and food photography isn't one of it's strong suits.
Instead, find copious amounts of natural light. Depending on the time of day and the weather you can use the sun's rays to provide you with flattering light. Experiment by moving the plate around and moving yourself around from different angles to get the right shot.
If you have access to professional lighting, softboxes and other light modifiers, you can recreate natural looking light. This takes money, practice and a bit of know-how. Leave the lighting gear to a professional photographer.
2) Presentation: Ask your chef to do his or her best work on presentation. Garnishes should complement the dish, conveying additional appeal. Food should be fresh. Hot food should be shot hot. Frozen foods should be shot immediately. Timing is important. If you're shooting multiple dishes ask the kitchen to stagger the delivery of the dishes, allowing you enough time to take adequate photos of the dishes you're shooting. There are volumes of information available on jazzing up food with spritzes of water, or a brushing of olive oil. Expect that you may have to adjust the position of a tomato, or a sprig of mint. Play around and check your work as you shoot.
3) Ambiance: If your restaurant has flair, capture some of those elements in your work. Are the tables hand-laid mosaics? Are the walls flocked with paintings of a famous artist? Does the restaurant's design complement the regional flair of the dish? All of these things are important to take into account when shooting food. While the bulk of your image should be the dish, don't ignore your surroundings.
4) Get low: While we're used to seeing food from a distance of about two feet and an angle of 45 degrees, this isn't the best angle for photography. Get to about the level of the plate then move up a few inches. You want to shoot at a low angle and close to the dish. This will help to accentuate texture and volume. Since dishes are all different, you'll want to move around and move the dish around to get the best view.
5) Maximum Aperture: Have you ever wondered how photographers are able to get the background blurred out when they shoot a photo? This is achieved with a wide lens aperture, creating a shallow depth of field. The shallower the depth of field, the more the focus area of the photo will be pulled from the surrounding area.
Camera phones and point and shoot cameras may not allow you to change the aperture of a lens. Most of those cameras have a fixed aperture, which is often fairly large and not good for creating a shallow depth of field. A DSLR camera can use lenses with a very large aperture. If you know your way around a DSLR use that instead. You can mimic depth of field with software and some smartphone camera apps. These solutions create mixed results and often not the look you want for promoting your food, so I'd suggest you not use these.
Food photography isn't the most difficult thing in the world, but it does take some knowledge, experience and practice to get things right. Experiment, and try different things. Strive for well-lit, flattering, high quality images. Instagram is fun and all but don't use those photos if you want to draw people into your restaurant. If you're unsure about your photos, don't use them.
Over the past year I've seen restaurants make marked moves to become more social. Usually this means that a well-intentioned company representative posts a photo of a new dish to Facebook. While I love the information, I think most restaurants are doing themselves a disservice by posting poor quality photos.
Here's the thing. Food doesn't just involve the senses of taste and smell. Food involves our eyes and brain equally as much. Conveying taste through an image is difficult. A less than perfect food photo can actually turn people away, having the opposite effect you desire. You've got a limited opportunity to engage your customers through social media. Use that opportunity carefully. Do it right and you'll bring new guests in the door. Do it wrong and you'll send your loyal customers to competitive restaurants.
While it would be best to hire a photographer to do quarterly food photo updates of new dishes, there are things that you can do to make your food photos look better.
Don't rely on your camera's built-in flash to create flattering light on your food. The flash on a camera has limited utility and food photography isn't one of it's strong suits.
Instead, find copious amounts of natural light. Depending on the time of day and the weather you can use the sun's rays to provide you with flattering light. Experiment by moving the plate around and moving yourself around from different angles to get the right shot.
If you have access to professional lighting, softboxes and other light modifiers, you can recreate natural looking light. This takes money, practice and a bit of know-how. Leave the lighting gear to a professional photographer.
2) Presentation: Ask your chef to do his or her best work on presentation. Garnishes should complement the dish, conveying additional appeal. Food should be fresh. Hot food should be shot hot. Frozen foods should be shot immediately. Timing is important. If you're shooting multiple dishes ask the kitchen to stagger the delivery of the dishes, allowing you enough time to take adequate photos of the dishes you're shooting. There are volumes of information available on jazzing up food with spritzes of water, or a brushing of olive oil. Expect that you may have to adjust the position of a tomato, or a sprig of mint. Play around and check your work as you shoot. 3) Ambiance: If your restaurant has flair, capture some of those elements in your work. Are the tables hand-laid mosaics? Are the walls flocked with paintings of a famous artist? Does the restaurant's design complement the regional flair of the dish? All of these things are important to take into account when shooting food. While the bulk of your image should be the dish, don't ignore your surroundings.
4) Get low: While we're used to seeing food from a distance of about two feet and an angle of 45 degrees, this isn't the best angle for photography. Get to about the level of the plate then move up a few inches. You want to shoot at a low angle and close to the dish. This will help to accentuate texture and volume. Since dishes are all different, you'll want to move around and move the dish around to get the best view.5) Maximum Aperture: Have you ever wondered how photographers are able to get the background blurred out when they shoot a photo? This is achieved with a wide lens aperture, creating a shallow depth of field. The shallower the depth of field, the more the focus area of the photo will be pulled from the surrounding area.
Camera phones and point and shoot cameras may not allow you to change the aperture of a lens. Most of those cameras have a fixed aperture, which is often fairly large and not good for creating a shallow depth of field. A DSLR camera can use lenses with a very large aperture. If you know your way around a DSLR use that instead. You can mimic depth of field with software and some smartphone camera apps. These solutions create mixed results and often not the look you want for promoting your food, so I'd suggest you not use these.
Food photography isn't the most difficult thing in the world, but it does take some knowledge, experience and practice to get things right. Experiment, and try different things. Strive for well-lit, flattering, high quality images. Instagram is fun and all but don't use those photos if you want to draw people into your restaurant. If you're unsure about your photos, don't use them.
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