Skip to main content

Tips to photograph food and succeed in networks like Instagram

Tips to photograph food and succeed in networks like Instagram


The gastronomic photography is an omnipresent trend in social networks.Both if you are an amateur photographer as if you would like to dedicate yourself professionally to that of portraying succulent dishes, here we leave you a guide with tricks and tips. Bon appetit ! (visual).

Lighting

Lighting a picture well is the most important thing in any type of photography. Related


  • When photographing food, it is advisable to use a source of natural light .If we go to a restaurant, better if we sit by a window.Side or rear lighting It is the most appropriate because it helps create textures and shadows and highlight the image.

  • It is unadvisable to use flash , as it negatively affects textures and modifies colors, which lose their naturalness.

  • Let's avoid mixing the types of light .If we have natural light, let's not also use the ceiling light.

  • If we choose a zenith photo , we must be careful not to cast shadows that affect the food.

The approach

  • Experts recommend make many shots .Change the angle, turn the plate to find the best side of the meal...We can shoot in gust or change the depth of field.It is easier to convince a photo if we have many options.

  • If we do not know how to choose a good approach, a trick is to choose the object that has the greatest contrast .Since our view, naturally, is always fixed in the same way, we can also focus to food that has a warmer tone.

  • There are three main angles to photograph the food: zenith, at eye level and 45º angle.Although none of these angles is incorrect, professionals advise choosing the of 45º .that we have when we sit down to eat, so it’s more natural.

  • Each angle has advantages , because the zenith captures more objects and the focus at eye level allows you to play with the background elements and work the depth of field.

The composition

There are two general lines, perhaps contradictory.Choose the one that goes with you or with the moment:


  • On the one hand, there is a minimalist school that recommends focusing on food without capturing the context.That is, plate, tablecloth, cutlery...They can detract attention from the true protagonist.And even, for example, in the case of cutlery, produce antistetic glare.These photographers recommend using neutral or earthy backgrounds .A wooden background also provides good results.

  • Other authors advocate that our photography tell a story , so that it is much closer.Not only items of dishes or decoration, but even hands holding food or gesturing give more warmth.Even if we decide For this tendency, let's try to take care of certain details, such as not showing stained dishes, crumpled napkins...

We can play with the color contrasts .For example, some tomatoes on a green background, a pumpkin cream in a blue bowl...The opposite colors will be our allies.


Some specialists in photographing food, such as Alison Lyons, also recommend using small plates , in which the food takes up almost all the space.


We always have to set the stage first and, finally, incorporate the food.The food is more photogenic if they are finished cooking.Yes, the dish will not lose freshness.


Some tricks for photographing food

  • Adding a jet of oil will make food seem more juicy and bright.

  • The lemon juice serves so that fruits and vegetables do not oxidize.

  • If we work outdoors and photograph a bowl of salad, we can place a ice bowl underneath so that the ingredients are not affected by heat.

  • Food is also usually photographed when is still a little raw .that appetizing aspect, but it will keep the freshness and its colors will be more vivid.

  • Some professionals 'fake' food .For example, if they are to photograph a bowl of soup, they first put some marbles or mashed potatoes in the bottom, and then pour the soup, so that the ingredients are closer to the surface and look in picture.

  • Another trick is to use pure potato with dye to simulate that it is ice cream .Ice cream is a difficult food to photograph because, immediately, it loses its original texture.


  • To make a sandwich or hamburger look as appetizing as in advertising, a trick is to move all the ingredients to the side of the bread .Yes, it seems to overflow and the ingredients look better.

  • Other of the tips used for snacks is to place a paper between the food and the plate .It not only gives a more rustic touch, but the paper it will absorb the liquid that can drip staining the plate and causing shine.

The drink


View this post on Instagram

25январяв 19.30винотека "Монополь» приглашаетнадегустацию "КиноиВино».Вовремявинногокинопутешествиягостиузнают:-Зачтолюбилгеройфильма "Наобочине» ПиноНуар-ЧтопридавалосмелостиД'Артаньянуиеговернымдрузьям-ЧтопилизмученныйлюбовьюкЭсмеральдесвященникКлодФролло Насладятсяпрекраснымивинами, которыенапомнятолюбимыхфильмах:?-РоссийскоеШампанскоеЮбилейноебрют (Россия) " ГусарскаяБаллада ',-ШатоСен-СерненКаорМальбекдеСилискр.сух (Франция), "Нотр-ДамДеПари',-.Дудэ-НодэнПиноНуаркр.сух (Франция)" НаОбочине ',-.Костер сДельСегреВольД'анимаДеРайматТинто (Испания, Каталония), "Вики.Кристина.Барселона ',-КотДеГасконьДоменЛафитбел.сладк (Франция)" ТриМушкетёра ".Стоимостьбилета: 699рублей.Винотека" Монополь ».Санкт-Петербург, Московскийпр, 133.# Allcafeinfo..# Монополь # петербург # ресторан # рестораныпетербурга # дегустация # винотека # кино шоу # # # ресторанпетербург # бар ресторан #fooding #foodplay #lovefood #Chef # питер # спб #peterburg #spb # обед #restaurant # ужин # питьвино # вино #wine


A post shared by РестораныикафеПетербурга (@allcafeinfo) on Jan 22, 2019 at 2:00 am PST

Liquids deserve special treatment:


  • Dark drinks don't look good on camera.A tip to improve your image is dilute them with a little water .

  • It is advisable to photograph the drinks when they are being poured into the glass.Da movement to the image.

  • Wine glasses can look disproportionately high and not very aesthetic.Professionals often use short-stemmed glasses .

  • A cold drink is a very appealing image.But we should never use an ice-cold glass or with cubes.The ice rips, breaks the effect and forces us to work faster than we wanted.A publicity stunt is spray water on the glass .You get that wet and cool effect.

  • Finally, a tip on Instagram and Photoshop filters.Digital tools are very useful to beautify a photo, but we must take care that the colors continue to look natural, so let's control the saturation level .

Follow the professionals


To learn, nothing better than observing the work of professionals.Do you want some names?



  • Francesco Tonelli.He has worked in the world of advertising, for hotels and restaurants.He is currently a professor of culinary arts at The Culinary Institute of America .

  • Lou Manna.He began his career as a photographer for the 'New York Times', but later he has focused on the food field, with work in advertising campaigns .

  • Francesc Guillamet.It is a reference for Spanish cuisine.He has photographed the dishes of Ferran Adria, Paco Torreblanca or Carme Ruscalleda.

  • Beth Galton.It is an innovator when it comes to photographing food.Very popular for its series 'Cut food' or for the use of lighting in moving images.

Cover image | Photo by Elli O.on Unsplash

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Internet of plants: a tomato knows as much about networks as you

The possibility of plant species communicating through complex networks, what some scientists have called the internet of plants , is an issue that has been discussed for a long time, at least 20 years.It was in 1997 when the scientist Suzanne Simard , from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver (Canada), published a study in the journal Nature on how Forest plants use complex systems where species exchange nutrients, send warning signals and relate to the environment. Although there is no scientific consensus, several investigations seem to support this hypothesis.If confirmed, as we read in a fascinating report by the Sinc Agency, the forests would act as huge structures that are articulated under the soil through a network in which factors invisible to the human eye interact and can determine the future of the climate.Understanding how it works is the challenge that even science faces. internet of plants and the wisdom of forests The premise of Suzanne Simard ...

New setbacks for conspiranoicos: radiofrequencies do not affect health

New evidence published by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Radio Frequency and Health (CCARS) in its 2016 Radio Frequency and Health Report indicates that there are no adverse health effects derived of exposure to radio frequencies emitted by mobile phone antennas or radio and television broadcasting.No evidence has been found on the danger in wireless systems (Wi-Fi) or airport scanners. The new 2016 Radio Frequency and Health Report collects, updates and analyzes the scientific evidence on the subject for the period between January 2013 and June 2016. radio frequencies are not dangerous According to the conclusions of the report " the critical analysis of the evidence supports that there are no technical or sanitary reasons that justify the arbitrary and discretionary imposition of more demanding exposure limits than those recommended by WHO-ICNIRP and the Union European ", while the application of more restrictive limits" would imply increasing the n...

GIF history: where they come from and where they are going

Funny, witty, curious... GIFs have already become a regular resource in social networks and messaging applications and have become part of our daily lives and jokes.It is an image format that has evolved significantly throughout its history and is experiencing a new awakening. In fact, to find its origins, we must go back more than twenty years ago .A moment in which they had little to do with what we know today and an evolution that we could not stop review.So let's find out where they come from and try to catch a glimpse of where they are going. What is a GIF The word GIF responds to the acronym of Graphics Interchange Format , or what is the same, graphic exchange format.A term for the graphic format used in the network for both static images and animations.In more concrete terms, it supports 8 bits per pixel and allows you to display images with up to 256 colors simultaneously-limited by a palette of 16 million-. This particularity makes it a perfect ally of infogr...

Amazon Prime Video arrives in Spain: this is all you need to know

That during the last years there has been a change in the way we enjoy audiovisual content is an obvious reality, as reflected by the huge popularity of streaming services like Netflix and the like.A context in which new competitors are constantly added and that, after the landing of this company in our country just over a year ago, is in full transformation. In fact, today we have learned of the incursion of a new protagonist in this area.Yes, because Amazon Prime Video has just arrived in Spain .A landing that takes place only two weeks away that of HBO, which culminates in a 2016 sown of changes.But, what exactly does it consist of? What advantages and disadvantages does it have compared to the "of its kind"? WHAT AMAZON PRIME VIDEO OFFERS The type, quality and quantity of movies and series offered by the service will be key when determining your success.A catalog a priori smaller than that of HBO and Netflix, but in which we find titles like Seinfield , Into...

What we know and what we suspect in the new Facebook algorithm change

"In my time, we read the newspaper in Facebook ".By 2020, nostalgia has taken over billions of people.In its memory, 2018, when Facebook stopped being Facebook to become Facebook again.Paraiso of engagement for brands and media, land paid for clickbaits and fake news, the social network of Mark Zuckerberg has given a rudder to his algorithm. He wants to return to his origins .And this is what will happen. Related If something goes well, to change it.40.653 million dollars entered in 2017.More than 2.100 million active users per month, a quarter of the world's population.But Zuckerberg is not one of those, of which they are.Want a Facebook with more social connections between people and less presence of brands and media .And what do your users want? Nearly two-thirds of American adults consume news on social networks.More than half do so on their Facebook walls.Pew Research Center data points to a clear trend: Facebook is becoming a media platform.54% of Facebook u...

No kidding: selfitis exists and can be a problem

Sometimes one thinks that social networks were created to share photos of faces putting on little bones and images of dishes overflowing with appetizing foods or, better, of faces putting little bones in front of plates overflowing with appetizing foods in the same shot.is to see faces, faces, faces...all of them smiling, as if looking at the smartphone mirror was the height of happiness.And it does not seem that there are so many beautiful and happy people, or maybe yes, that you go Namely.What envy. Well, what we're going to do: Janarthanan Balakrishnan psychologists from the Thiagarajar School of Management in India; and Mark D.Griffiths, of the Nottingham Trent University, in the United Kingdom, have published an article in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction entitled 'A study on' Selfitis', which names this mania of going around the world taking pictures of oneself, as if beyond our curls the world had been destroyed by that meteorite th...

Twitter shows the best of ourselves (it wasn't always going to be the worst)

In the era of social networks, accustomed to interact daily with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google or WhatsApp, we forget that these tools are phenomenal in the History of Humanity capable of mobilize hundreds of thousands of people in very different geographical locations in a matter of hours or even minutes. Already in the past, Twitter has asserted its more social dimension to mobilize people, companies or organizations and also, from a broader perspective, feelings of solidarity and support or also of rejection and repulses towards causes with an important mediatic impact.Recently, Twitter was once again the engine of solidarity after Dortmund's explosions as the Borussia Dortmund team bus passed on its way to the local stadium on the occasion of the Champions League match between the Borussia and the Monaco. These explosions did not have the devastating effect that they could have caused , so that everything remained in a major social commotion at international lev...

Most apps for children violate your privacy

Do you know if apps with which children enjoy their safety? A team of researchers from the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) of the University of Berkeley has studied compliance with the Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in these mobile applications for the little ones, through a scalable dynamic analysis that allows the automatic evaluation of privacy behaviors of Android apps. After studying 5,855 applications aimed at children, the research concludes that most of these apps, 57%, violate the privacy of their users mainly due to the use of data by third parties. apps for children and privacy Although many apps offer options in their configuration to respect the federal law that protects minors in the United States, by disabling tracking, their results suggest that a majority of applications either do not use these options or propagate them in wrong way. In addition, researchers believe that 19% of apps for children send user IDs to third parties to show ...

Are social networks damaging democracy?

The revelations according to which Russian agents inserted ads on Facebook that tried to influence the 2016 US elections raise a disturbing question: is Facebook bad for democracy? As an expert in the social and political repercussions of technology, I think that the problem is not exclusively from Facebook, but that it is much broader: Social networks are weakening some of the conditions that have historically enabled the existence of national states democratic. I understand that it is a dramatic statement, and I do not expect anyone to believe it immediately, but considering that almost half of all potential voters received false news promoted by the Russians in Facebook is an argument that must be debated. Associate Professor of Philosophy, Director of Center for Professional and Applied Ethics, University of North Carolina-Charlotte How we create a shared reality Let's start with two concepts: the "imagined community" and the "bubble filter". ...

This is how visual challenges star in some of the most viral content

Constantly, we all receive in our mail, our WhatsApp or our Facebook account, games that try to test our ingenuity, imagination or visual skill.There are a thousand types, more fun or darker.But they have one thing in common: we cannot avoid trying them and see if we are able to solve them .This is how the visual challenges star in some of the most viral content of the network. Visual challenges, why are we crazy? The visual challenges are games.So, they attend to this playful and fun part that people have no choice but to feed from time to time.They are pure and hard entertainment, with no more pretensions, and that desire to Having fun represents one of the main features that are sought when surfing the Internet . Another of the qualities for which they succeed is because they challenge the mind directly.Human beings love that feeling of feeling a little troubled, somewhat lost, but convinced that there is a solution to that enigma to which, sooner or later, it will come.Rathe...