Give Your Friends Entree Envy
While the ultimate way to show off what you learned in your culinary arts programs is to cook for people, it’s not practical to cook for everyone you know. It is, however, possible to share photos of your culinary creations with the world on Facebook, Instagram, or your own personal food blog. It’s not always as easy as snapping a photo, though. As appealing as a meal might look on your plate, it doesn’t always photograph that way. Here are the tips you need to take great photos of your gourmet dishes.
Don’t use the flash
This is a rule of thumb for just about any good photos. Flashes tend to wash a photo out, making it look dull. Move your plate into natural light – even a fluorescent light can dull the photo. If you don’t have the option of taking a photo in natural light because it’s too overcast or dark outside, make sure that your food isn’t directly under the overhead light.
Consider your props
This should be a no-brainer, but surprisingly, people still post photos of food on chipped plates, or with other non-photogenic kitchen accessories lurking in the background. Don’t do that. While your entree should be the main star of your photo, set the scene up nicely. Wipe the pasta sauce off the counter, set your food on a nice plate and dress it up with a cloth napkin on the side. You can leave your cooking tools in the shot, as long as the potato masher isn’t covered in potato remnants and the measuring cup doesn’t have oily fingerprints on it.
Get the angles right
While most food photos look best when the photo is taken from above, other angles can work just as well, if not better, for different types of food. For example, if you’re taking a photo of an awesomely topped burger, you wouldn’t want to photograph it from the top, just capturing the bun. You’ll want to take a picture from the side, so you can showcase all of the toppings. A pizza or a nice fish fillet, however, should be photographed from above, with just a slight angle.
Don’t take too long!
You’re racing the clock when taking delectable food photos. As amazing as a dinner looks coming right out of the oven, it rarely looks just as good after it’s been shuffled around for 15 minutes while trying to capture the perfect photo. Then, not only is your picture ruined, but your meal is cold as well.
Don’t be ashamed to use an app
If you’re taking your food photos on your phone rather than on a camera, there is no shame in using Instagram filters or any other filtering app to make your photo look just how you want it. Since you can’t focus a phone camera as well as you can a DSLR, using an app to slightly blur the background can make your phone photos look much more professional.
