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With the emergence of social media apps like Instagram and a revived appreciation for a well-prepared meal, food photography is currently very popular in today’s culture. Here are a few ways to make your food photos look truly edible:

Turn off the lights

The idea of shutting of the lights in a restaurant, cafe, or even a home may seem a bit odd, but artificial light can cast an unappealing colour over your photography. Instead, try to position yourself near a window that has a good amount of natural sunlight coming through. If possible, experiment with moving to several different windows to see how the light is cast upon the dish. Typically, the best lighting angles are those that are behind you or from the side.

Have fun with your white balance and your selective focus

As you take shots of your food, you might notice that the sunlight is washing out some of your colour, or maybe you just want your colours to pop a little more. Take multiple shots, adjusting your white balance in different ways, allowing you to have multiple shots from which you can choose your favourite. Another fun way to draw your viewer’s eye in is to use your selective focus feature on your camera. Many photographers are practicing the art of bokeh in which the background is slightly blurred and one part of the photo is in focus. There are a few ways to experiment with this, either by using your selective focus feature or by manually setting your aperture levels and using a macro setting. Also toy with different angles in which to have the focus. Highlight different parts of the dish by having certain parts of it in focus and certain parts out-of-focus which could make for a captivating photo.

Experiment with plating and props

If you’re in a restaurant or cafe, you may not be able to request particular plates that meals are served on, but if you’re taking photos from a home or for your wedding album, it’s much easier to control the elements in the photograph. Super Event Sussex, a leading Sussex corporate and wedding catering and events company suggest; “Sometimes it is the small things that make your wedding food snaps look fabulous. For example, a good plate could mean the difference between a dish that looks balanced and delectable or tiny and unappealing. If you have the opportunity, experiment with a few different plates, of different sizes and colour. See how a cool, blue-toned plate might make your steak dish stand out, or see if you’d prefer a green plate instead. It’s all about experimentation and setting the scene.”

If colour on the plate isn’t what you’re after, a beautiful white plate never disappoints, and smaller plates seem to provide some of the best photos of food. If you’ve got a few different elements in your photo, consider using some props to elevate certain elements of the photo. For example, you’ve got a beautiful soup, surrounded by an elegant silverware layout with crisp, folded napkins, all of which you want in your photo. Yet, when you take the photo, the soup doesn’t stand out to you. Try placing a small book or other flat object that cannot be seen under the bowl and then take another photo. The increased height of the soup bowl can give the dish just enough to allow it stand out amongst the other elements in your photo.

Fake it to make it

Some food, no matter how wonderful it smells, tastes, or even looks in person, may not photograph well. This is when many photographers get creative. Sometimes food looks better after sitting for a while, allowing it to cool and thicken, making for a better shot. Other times, you may find that some food looks better uncooked but prepared in the same manner to make it appear cooked. Many photographers who have snapped photos of drool-worthy ice cream were actually taking shots of mashed potatoes- shaped, coloured, and garnished to appear like ice cream but without having to worry about melting.

Show the steps and maybe a few bites

There will be a few times, whether by necessity or simply by desire, that you may need to show some of the steps that go into cooking a certain meal. These photos can give the dish a more home-cooked feel, which can often make it look more appetizing. This also gives you the chance to possibly renew memories in the minds of your viewers. If your photo displays a person kneading the dough for a pie, it might stir a memory of a loved one baking a similar pie. Consequently, a pie that has been baked, sliced, and has a bite taken out of it can instantly look like a dessert worth having. Also, if a bite is positioned on a fork, which is in the photo, it can change or add dimension to your photo.

Ask for extra garnish

If you’ve ever wondered why chefs drizzle tiny amounts of colourful sauce onto plates in little decorative ways, it’s because it makes the dish, as a whole, look better to the eye. Garnishing a meal with pretty greenery, chives, or possibly even a flower adds a classy appeal to the dish, as well as providing the opportunity for other colours to stand out against the colours of the garnish. It can assist in making an empty plate look fuller, adding a better sense of balance, and it can also add a more earthy element to the photo depend upon what garnish is used. Try taking photos with, without, and with varying amounts of garnish to determine what you feel suits your dish and photo best.

Don’t fear the cookbooks, magazines, and other sources of inspiration

Usually, the people who have taken the food photos for cookbooks and magazine have been doing food photography for quite some time, so most of them know all the tricks of the trade. Consider using the photos for inspiration, whether on lighting, colour balance, positioning, garnish, etc. Take elements that stand out to you about those photos and change them to fit your needs for your photo. Also, consider branching your choices for inspiration even further by looking at social media accounts, or search the internet for beautiful food photography. These little inspirations can often be the tipping scale when you have a beautiful meal that you want to photograph, but are struggling to find the right way to do so.

Converting your pictures into a unique art display doesn’t require a university degree in professional photography and you don’t have to whip out the credit card to get it done. This piece takes a look at simple but practical ideas to display your photographs.

Always use a mat

This is probably the best tip you will get. Get your photo’s printed using a service like DC Colour Labs.  From personal experience, they’re reasonably priced delivery promptly.  Next starting thinking about how to display the image. Buy a frame one size larger than the photo you intend to frame and add a mat. This means purchasing an 8×10 frame for a 5×7 photo and then buying a mat that has a 5×7 opening. The cost of adding a mat is not prohibitive and businesses like picture framing business Best4Frames are flexible in terms of their frames offerings.

Explore your creativity with the mats and frames

You can improve the presence of a mat or frame using a variety of items. Good examples are wrapping and contact paper as well as simple fabrics like burlap or linen. This approach is equally inexpensive and gives a new dimension to your artwork. On this topic, you can also buy inexpensive frames and then glue decorative items to their surface. Metal chain glued to the frame for example can give you an urban and modern result.

Print your photos on canvas and frame them

Having your photos printed on canvas is one of the best ways to creatively display them. There are many artistes that can help you producing stunning canvas prints of different sizes and they can be framed up to transform the decorative feel in your space.

Go classic with your picture printing

Instead of printing your pictures in the normal colours, consider printing them in any black and white variations. This is a great way to create a classic and timeless appeal for the images. You can take the photos to any copy store but if you have a soft copy of the pictures, a smartphone or tablet and a printer at home, there are lots of photo apps that can give you black and white filters for printing. Don’t forget to only use apps that won’t override the original image. Apart from providing an artistic and modern feel, this technique is equally great for making pictures that are blurry or pictures that have poor colouring to look better.

In order to take your photography to the next level, whether you are just searching for some inspiration or simply starting out in digital photography, our top 10 photography tips will help

Tell a Story

If you wish to tell a story you can do that using your photography. The first thing you have to do is to choose a subject, but remember that this is the hardest part of the entire process. Try experimenting with photo ideas closer to home, prior to heading off to far-reaching countries. You will see that there are a lot of interesting stores near you, such as the joy of working your own allotment or the drudgery of life.

Do Some Research

You should do some research, even if the story is close to your home or heart. You should plan what you wish to say. You might need just one picture for your story or if you want something more complex you can use a series of multiple pictures. If you want to reveal more about your subject, you can do a photo essay.

Choose Your Style

Think about how you want the final image to feel and look and the way you intend to shoot. Do you prefer the finished pictures to be in color or white and black? Do you just want to use natural light to improve the mood, or will hard flash light complement to your story? Your photos will be more coherent with a bit of planning. For inspiration, from our past Photographer of the Year contest, you could take a look at the best documentary photography entries contests.

Be Prepared

After you have made a decision about the style and approach, you will have to make sure that you have the right equipment to capture your shot. Probably, you won’t need to take the whole kit bag with you, so only select the tools you need. Make sure you have the right focal lengths and tripod. You have to check if the batteries of the camera are fully charged as well as whether you have enough memory cards and spare batteries for your flashgun.

Get Permission

If you are taking shots of people doing their daily stuff, it’s better to have their permission. Just tell them what you are doing and in most of the cases, you will have their permission. However, you will be asked to leave or get a wide berth, if you sneak around suspiciously. In order to get results, you will have to build a healthy rapport, especially if you are doing a long-term project.

Don’t Rush

You should try not to capture all the shots in one go or rush in, because often a long-term project is the reason behind the best documentary photography. You should try to maximize the time you have, if you do end up in one location with limited time.

Get Back-Up

Making sure that all your images are safe is one of the most crucial tasks for a digital photographer. After you return home from your day’s shooting, you are advised to make back-up copies on an external DVD or hard-drive after you download your images. It is better to save your back-ups in a location, different from your main computer.

Process Your Image

You can start to process your images once they are safe. Using smart software such as Adobe Camera Raw, at the processing stage you can make your tweaks to contrast, tone and color if you prefer to shoot in raw. It is not very likely that you’ll prefer to enhance your images substantially, for documentary photography projects. For added impact, just try converting to black and white or make a few adjustments.

Consider Presentation

Think about how you want to present your project, once you’ve finished it. If you’ve taken a number of shots, maybe you could have them framed and printed to be displayed in an exhibition, or perhaps it would be better for them if they are viewed in a book format. There are a lot of online printing services that can create amazing books of your pictures at a decent rate.

Study the Best Photographers

Just after the Second World War, a photo agency called Magnum Photos was founded by David “Chim” Seymour, George Rodger, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa. Since then it has become one of the most important photographic institutions in the world.