Daily News Podcast
Daily Newsletters
116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Make your followers hungry with Insta-worthy food photos
Apr. 11, 2020 3:51 pm, Updated: Dec. 22, 2020 12:41 pm
My social media feeds runneth over with photos of the food everyone is making and ordering from their local restaurants during this time of hunkering down. It's fun to see people challenging themselves and trying new things, When you're photographing food, keep in mind the color wheel. You want a neutral background, but the color also needs to contrast with the food. My apricot almond tart is warm-toned (yellow-orange), so I went with a cool-toned (blue-gray) plate. Also, you need to have great light. My favorite, easy light source is a window. If the light is too harsh, you can soften it by putting up a piece of sheer white fabric over the window. Here is the process I followed to achieve scrumptious photos of my tart.
I photographed at an angle toward the light for this frame, which I prefer to do since it tends to bring out the surface texture of the food. Also, lots of social media food photos are shot from directly above the plate, which can get boring for viewers. Just like we get bored looking at the same surroundings every day (I'm looking at you, COVID-19 quarantine), we need visual variety to hold peoples' attention. Here, the hard single-source (window) light casts a dramatic shadow on the surface of the tart, highlighting its texture. However, the fluffy lamination of the puff pastry is obscured, and the frangipane (homemade! I want to show that off!) is completely in shadow. The way the tart is positioned and the camera's focal point is also off slightly. You can change the focal point of your smart phone camera by tapping on the point on the screen where you'd like the focus to be. Then adjust the exposure up or down—on an iPhone you do this by swiping the sun icon up or down after setting the focus. Tip: you want a nice, even-toned image, so watch out for spots that are too bright or too dark. An almond apricot tart is photographed with an iPhone at the home of Gazette photojournalist Rebecca F. Miller in Cedar Rapids on Sunday, April 5, 2020. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
In order to highlight the delicious fillings of this tart while still showing its texture, I needed to modify the light a little. I have large reflectors that I typically use for food photography, but any piece of white paper—or a sketch pad in this case—will do. I set up the book at roughly a 90-degree angle on the dark side of the pastry to bounce some of the window light back into the shadows. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
And ta-da! Beautiful detail in the shadows from that reflected light, but there's still definition on the surface of the pastry caused by the side angled window light gently 'raking' the textured surface. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
New York Times food photographer Andrew Scrivani says that a food photo should make you hungry. A cell phone camera can't compete against the dynamic range of a DSLR sensor. With the use of a simple, strategically placed reflector and careful attention to how the light falls on your subject, your Insta feed pictures will pop. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
