February 2019
@ourlifeinfood
Luc y’s Gu ide to
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Table of contents
A Guide to Photography Welcome! I decided to make this little guide to illustrate my particular style ofWWW„ photography for @OurLifeInFood as well as some basic photography/ etiquette tips for food events. If you’re experienced with photography, a lot of this will sound incredibly basic, but I hope there’s something helpful for everyone. The ultimate goal is to better illustrate my personal style of photography so that when you’re taking pictures for my account, the style will remain consistent. My style may be different from your personal style, and you might not agree with me about some of my opinions regarding what makes a good shot. For @OurLifeInFood, though, I’d like you to follow my style if you can, even if it’s not what you’re used to. This guide serves both as a fun project for me to practice #design but should cover basically everything you’ll need to know! If you have any questions along the way, reach out.
Love, Lucy
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1 light 3 content 7 the angles 11 what not to do 13 professionalism 3
Natural Light versus Flash Rule #1: Natural light is your best friend.
You’re looking for sunlight that isn’t too harsh. The morning or late afternoon is usually best. Slightly cloudy days also create nice softer light. Direct sunlight is generally too strong, and it makes shadows that shroud the food. But when you’re eating inside a dark restaurant with no windows, what do you do? You take the food outside to photograph.
People will look at you like you’re crazy. Just ignore it. You’re eating for free and they’re not! Rule #2: Avoid flash.
a, t s a p t c a x e e m a S ! t h g i l d ba
Basically, you need to be taking pictures in sunlight every time. That makes dinners hard, so it’s better to go to restaurants during lunch. Holding up two iPhones as a food light is not the same, and the photos are bad. A professional food light is fine, though.
Bad light = Bad picture! 4
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Content
WHAT TO PHOTOGRAPH
People love pasta.
Photos of pasta, mac and cheese, noodle lifts, and cheese pulls are consistently the photos that perform the best. If there’s pasta on the menu, order it, and take photos of it on the plate and lifted. (See @Noodleworship for the best pasta inspiration)
Healthy food
Sometimes there’s no junk food option at the restaurant. If that’s the case, do your best. Smoothie bowls with colorful fruit or vibrant veggies aren’t bad. Hummus and dips can be tricky to shoot well, but they’re a good option. (@Tooomuchfoood does a great job with foods that aren’t just pasta.) 6
Carbs & Dessert
If there’s no pasta, the next best options are anything that’s bad for you: think french fries, pizza, pancakes, and ice cream. Take videos of molten chocolate lava cake as you break it open, and order any crazy dessert on the menu. Stack your cookies; break open creamstuffed donuts. It feels ridiculous, but that’s the kind of content people love. (See @hungrytwins for foodporn desserts galore)
Easy to understand foods
I can’t explain why certain types of photos do better than others, but I have clear data from the analytics on Instagam. A beautiful noodle lift got 17,000 impressions and a sushi plate got 300. My followers like foods they can easily understand, so anything deconstructed, messy, or confusing won’t do well. 7
Content STORIES AND CREDIT
Stories
Be creative! You can post whatever you want. Feel free to include/tag yourself. Take fun photos, videos, or boomerangs that capture your experience. I often like to story everything that I’m eating, even if I’m not going to post most of it. Polls and questions are fun too! What's probably best is to film stories on your own account (no need to post) then send to me to upload so a ton of different people aren’t logged on to the account. Credit:
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Stories are your place to introduce yourself and acknowledge your photos. If possible, I’ll acknowledge you in the caption too.
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up&down Vertical photos are basically always better than horizontal. On the next page, we see how a vertical photo looks when it’s cropped to post. Compare that to the horizontal photo to the right, which has too much background.
NOT
do this.
dont
do
this.
zoom in! Zoomed in photos look better. The food is the focus of the shot; we don’t (usually) care about the street or background. For food Instagrams, really get close to the food that you’re focusing on.While some accounts (@foodintheair) specialize in the whole scene, my style is much more close up. Get closer than you think you need to with an iPhone, or use a zoom/macro lens.
angles angles angles angles angles angles ang
See @NycFoodInsta for more examples of how to focus on the food.
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WHAT NOT TO DO Some common errors with light, content, and angles in food photography that make photos less than ideal.
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Bad lighting
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Photos 1, 2, and 3 each have lighting problems. In 1 the light is blue inside the restaurant, and the pasta looks bizarre. In 2, the pizza is dark and blends in with the box and the colors don’t stand out because it was taken with artificial dim light (a classroom). In 3, using flash in a dark restaurant makes the mac and cheese look plasticky, shiny and congealed. The light is the easiest way to make a good food picture ugly. So it’s important to use natural light, even if inconvenient.
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What is it?
In photos 2, 4, and 5, it’s unclear what you’re looking at. The plating and shadows create confusing shots. In 5, the bag covers most of the donuts, and the shadows obscure the focus of the photo. In 4, the dishes are cut off and dark. It’s okay to have two plates in the picture, just make sure you have a focal point.
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Strong Shadows
In 5, the shadows on the sauces and the donuts are distracting. A better way to take this photo would be to take half the donuts out of the bag, stack them, fix the lighting, and dip into the sauce.
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A note on the algorithm:
Example 1
Instagram is all a game. Success on Instagram is all based on the algorithm. In simple terms: the algorithm is how many people Instagram shows your posts to. There’s no exact science, but basically if your posts get lots of likes and comments, Instagram will prioritize them in your followers’ feeds. If they get very little engagement, Instagram will show them to fewer people. Notice the difference in engagement between these two photos: 1 of a pasta noodle lift and 2 of pizza with arugula. There’s no real explanation, but it’s clear how the content you post makes a difference for engagement. The way to gain followers and grow account is through engagement. Having multiple posts shown to thousands of people helps an account gain new audiences (because of the explore page too). It’s kind of confusing, but it’s cyclic. The more people who engage with a post, the more will engage with the next one. So I have to be posting content that people want to see, which is why the type of content is so important.
Example 2
Even though I have certain food preferences, if I want to grow my account, I have to give my followers what they want to see. If you have more questions look at this article.
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Professionalism A FINAL NOTE & EXPLANATION
I know it seems silly to care so much about taking pictures of food, but this is my (side) job. It’s incredibly important to maintain professionalism and always deliver on what’s promised. If you say you’ll go to an event, you really have to go. Be on time, be polite, and get the promised content (meaning good, quality pics that fit with my style). I understand how it seems trivial. But every interaction with a restaurant or PR firm is a chance to establish myself, and any skipped event is a big deal because it jeopardizes my relationship with the restaurant or firm. One great post for a restaurant can make an impact on their business. So if you no-show an event, you won’t be able to go to more in the future. Advance notice of changed plans is okay, but communicate with me please! I know this can all seem confusing when there are so many moving parts and lots of little details about the photos I like. It takes practice! For any location you’re going to, if you’re unsure of what in particular you should be taking photos of, feel free to ask me for suggestions and I’m happy to send samples to model your pictures after. Bring cash to tip your server. The meal is comped, but they aren’t being tipped for their time, so tip as if you paid for the meal. I am so so thankful for your help. By attending Boston events for me, you’re helping me run my account and giving new restaurants beneficial exposure. Thank you so much! I can’t wait to see what you come up with!
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