FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS FOR BLOGGERS

Food PR and food photography have recently gained popularity. 

In today’s world where everything is image heavy, especially at places like Pinterest which is saturated with food recipe images, you’ll need to stand out and make your food look yummy.

So there are several things you can do to  improve your food photography and to make your images the focal point in your blog

So here’s a few tips and tricks to get you started based on what I’ve learned so far:

Natural lighting

Always, always, always use natural lighting if you can. By this I mean shooting by a bright window. Here’s the difference between natural lighting and artificial (overhead kitchen lights):

Which looks better? Artificial lighting from overhead lights will always give your pictures that yellow hue. It doesn’t capture and bring out the true colors of your food and makes it look unappetizing and unappealing. Look around the internet and you will see tons of these kind of pictures, usually taken from inside restaurants. Natural light always wins. Through natural light, you can control the mood of the picture, whether it’s dark or light. This gives you an opportunity to match the mood of your picture to your dish.

This light manipulation to create moods in your images is only possible with natural light. With artificial light, all you’ll get is orange, yellow and orange.

Props

While food is great for food photography, adding props  will brings depth. A single plate of food will look good by itself, but add some props  will also look nice and you’ll have created a story. It brings more character to your photography. This works great for all angles of photography, whether it’s bird’s eye view or a side angle close up.

I typically add relevant props. Your props can be anything from dinnerware to bowls, to flatware, to drink-ware to linens or even raw ingredients themselves. If the recipe calls for herbs like cilantro, parsley or chives, I’ll add in some of them in the setting to emphasize the food and add some color. In this instance, I added a bowl of dry Parmesan to the pasta salad, and bread with a bowl of spinach to the egg salad sandwich. It can be as simple as that, Believe me!.

Collecting props is the fun part about food blogging, Seriously!. It does not necessarily have to break your bank either. There are plenty of places to hunt for some props. You can get them new at stores like Home Goods, Crate and Barrel. Pier 1 and Ikea. These places sell lots of single plates, bowls and linens so it works out. If you don’t mind second-hand stuff, there’s Ebay, garage sales, flea markets and tons of others. Collecting props takes time, so be patient and have fun!