Food photography is such an important part of the marketing of your restaurant, food business, or food product. With quality photography, the food sells itself. Whether you own a diner, manage a five star restaurant in the city, or are releasing a new box of gluten free granola to the world - we want to help you capture the food in the best way possible.
Understanding Light
Using the right lighting is imperative for creating compelling food photography that fits the style of your business. For example, if your restaurant is classy and elegant, your food images should fit this. Utilizing a large window to naturally light your dish will create depth and shadows. This sort of lighting will aid in producing clean images that make the food the hero.
Alternatively, your business might be all about socializing with friends or enjoying a fun, sports-themed atmosphere of your establishment. In this case, using harsher artificial light like flash will create vibrancy and add a pop to your image. Including fun lights in the background from your restaurant will also draw customer's eyes to see the atmosphere of your business, allowing them to think passed just the food and more to a fun night out with friends...with great food!
Food Styling
No matter how you use lighting, a poorly styled plate will always hurt your food photography. When working with a photographer, it's main priority to have fresh, perfect looking dishes so that your image reflect a level of excellence. Presenting food before your photographer is ready will give the food time to dry out, crack, start to settle or slump, etc.
For example, fried chicken looks great for only 5 minutes! You want the batter to look crunchy and buttery, not soggy and sweaty. A remedy for this is to have a cup of of oil and a paint brush around to spruce up dishes when they inevitably start to dry.
Hiring a food stylist can be a game changer for a great outcome of your images. Stylists are skilled in making food look stellar. A stylist will use tools like q-tips (dabbing oil on/from smaller items), rags (cleaning plates when steaks sweat), paint brushes (brushing oil), tweezers (plucking or pulling lettuce, etc.), small blocks (lifting/raising plates, sides, etc.), spray bottles (spraying water droplets on beverages), etc.
Food Stylist Recommendation: Quelcy Creative
Location
Lastly, location is another factor to consider for your food photography session. Food and beverages like pastries, breads, packaged foods, wine bottles, drinks, etc., can be photographed in studio. This gives the photographer ultimate control over lighting, background, and more to craft perfect images for your brand. Hot foods or foods that need to be prepared and photographed quickly will need to be photographer and styled on-location. If you don't have a place to prepare food, food kitchens like Fulton Commons are a great place to utilize for your photography session.
Working with a professional food photographer is a great step toward presenting your business professionally and beautifully to the rest of the world. If you're considering having professional photography done, reach out to us for pricing and further directon in what's possible!