Writing your own recipes is a good start. You are enjoying your new phase of your hobby and skill. You posted an amazing recipe with pictures say either on Facebook or Instagram and waited for comments and likes to pour in. You were quite sure that your recipe is mind-blowing. Against your expectation, the recipe post did not get the response you expected. One possible reason is your food pictures. Yes. You heard it right. Food photos play very important role in your recipe.

At Bachelor Recipe we get lots of mouthwatering recipes but we find that our contributors struggle with getting good food photos of their dishes. So today’s blog is dedicated to them and we hope they find it useful.

Today’s smartphone has gone really smart with the camera feature and almost everyone owns it. So even with your mobile phone, you can now take awesome food pictures. To start with, top view or overhead photos are the best to get a nice looking dish photo. There are 6 main points to be taken care :

1. Compose
2. Focus
3. Light
4. Background
5. Proportion
6. Frame

Compose

Don’t think that you’re taking photos with your phone, means you shouldn’t put some thought into it. If you feel that your food is looking tasty then think that it will also look fantastic in the frame too. When you’re placing your food on the plate remember that a slice of cake with some sprinkle of powder sugar looks more beautiful than the whole cake.

Compose

Focus

When you’re taking the pictures clean the lens. Over time the phone camera lens can collect lint and create a blurred image. Just give it a good wipe with a clean cloth. Set your camera on the high-quality image and tap the screen of your smartphone to the focus the camera on your main subject your food. Make sure that your focus and the lighting is optimized.

Once you’ve taken your photo, keep your hand steady when you press the shutter button/ camera button. After you take the picture, keep the phone in a position to allow the picture to be recorded. If you move immediately after pressing the shutter button, often times you will just get a blur. Take more than one pictures better quality image.

Focus

 

Light 

Lights take one of the important parts in clicking food photo. Always shoot your food pictures in natural daylight rather than under artificial lighting. One of the best places for food photograph is nearby a window where there is plenty of natural light, perhaps supported with flash. This daylight helps to keep the food looking much more natural. Color casts from artificial light will ruin the natural beauty of your subject, but daylight provides a much more neutral colored light. With the daylight you have to care about two main things, First, you cannot take photos against of sunlight. Second, too much sunlight makes your food fade in color or create shadows. So prefer some natural light coming from the sides or from the front, don’t use direct sunlight.

Light

Photography credit: OHMYVEGGIES.COM

Background 

The background is very important in shooting a food photo. When you are using too colorful and too messy background, the viewer’s attention will be drawn away from the main food dish. When you’re clicking the food photo make sure that you frame will cover 80% food and 20% background.

You can use 3 types of backdrops: natural light background, wooden background, and dark background.
Natural background means use some light color background it will look good on a light colored food.

Background4
Dark background such as use a black velvet material, it will absorb all light, help in diminishing shadows and reflections.

Background2

Make sure the material you’re using is taught, as wrinkles will show up in the photo and it’ll distract the viewers.

Background3
Wooden background, such as your chopping boards, picnic table, the wooden table looks great with all kind of food.

Proportion 

Some people think that proportion is not useful, but this is the most advanced stuff. You need to use right proportion of food in a photo. When you use large plate and your food portion is small, top-view shots will make the food look minuscule. Your food picture look delicious when you use odd numbers of dishes, odd number of food proportion, example use 3 dishes and put 3 slices of cheese cake, garnish with some pieces of fruit slices and click your shot.

Proportion

Fill the Frame

While a busy picture can be pleasing, sometimes a simple and minimalist background works a lot better, especially when you are shooting with large proportion of food. When you have some bold color and shape don’t use any heavy decorations, just garnishing a meal with pieces of nuts, sprinkling some powder sugar, fresh parsley and chocolate shavings or any key ingredient of your main dish can really make your meal pop in a picture, but don’t be too cautious.
When you have small proportion of food in frame use a couple of napkins to add texture and depth to the image, or play around with the placing of cutlery so that your picture looks ‘natural’, rather than overly styled.

Fill the frame

So you are now good to go take your own photos with your own smartphone. Do let us know in comments what other issues related to food photos do you face.