Good food deserves to be shared, if not in person, then online. That’s probably why sharing photos of your food on Instagram is so popular. There’s a real art to getting the perfect photo of your meal and putting it online, and, believe it or not, a future, too. You can actually use it as the beginning of a career in the Food Media industry, through Centennial College. Here’s how to make those Instagram shots as scrumptious as possible, and how they can be the beginning of a great career, including tips taken from the New York Times and Daily Mail.
1. Spend some time on composition and framing
The best way to take a good photo is simply to put thought into it, instead of just hitting snap. Set it up, figure out how it’ll fit into the frame, think of lighting, colour and angle. Keep in mind how Instagram crops photos, since most phones shoot rectangles, while Instagram posts squares, so there’s going to be some image loss.
Be sure to get nice and close. Sometimes, food filling the frame looks best, making the viewer feel like they can taste it. Food that’s been interacted with, and is a bit messy, looks more appealing. It’s a cake with a bite taken, ice cream that’s dripping, food on the end of a fork. In terms of colour, you want to make them clash, like putting orange with red, or green with purple. Just stick to a few strong colours though, or the picture looks like a dog’s breakfast.
2. Know the rule of thirds
The rule of thirds is a photography trick used by professionals to compose great photos, called the "golden ratio." It imagines your image divided into nine equal parts by two horizontal and two vertical lines, like a tick-tack-toe grid. When you’re composing your picture, you want all the important things in it to be placed along those lines. It makes it look more immediate and energetic.
3. Use natural light, not flash
Flash or indoor lighting can make everything look washed out or flat, while natural light will provide depth to your picture. So, take a photo by a window, if you can. Hopefully, if you’re eating out, you got a seat near one. If you’re at home and can go outside, do it, especially if the sun is out.
4. Your friend’s phones can help you out
If you didn’t get that window seat, or it’s nighttime, or you just have to use artificial light, a friend’s phone can provide a better solution than flash. Have them aim their built-in flashlight at it, preferably from an indirect angle, and you can get the lighting you want. Just be considerate of your friends, and don’t have them do it for every dish. They have to eat, too.
5. Make sure you’re focused on the food
It’s a basic tip, but make sure your camera is properly focused on the food itself. If you’re shooting in extreme close-up, it might not work, and require a few taps of the phone’s screen to get it on track.
6. Cameras will always be better than phones
Really, the best Instagram shots don’t happen on phones, but with actual digital cameras, since you can better control the lighting, framing and image quality, and edit it on your desktop in Photoshop. But that’s more work than most people are willing to do, especially since you’d need to get the photo onto your phone anyway to put it on Instagram.
7. If you have to use a phone, use an app to clean it up, but don't go nuts
Luckily, there are plenty of phone apps you can use to edit photos outside of Instagram, like Afterlight or Snapseed. They’re not Photoshop, but they’ll help you alter brightness and colour. Just don’t go overboard, or it’ll look too artificial.
8. Practice
This is really the best way to improve those food snaps. Just do them all the time, and reflect on each one, and you’ll get more comfortable and better.
9. Make a career out of it
Every time you Instagram your meal, you’re getting a tiny taste of what it means to be a Food Stylist. The entire career is about making food look beautiful. The food that appears in restaurant ads, magazines, blogs, and anything else where food presentation is key is arranged and created by them. Centennial College teaches you how it all works with its Food Media program, which can get you into the industry surrounding food as a writer, editor, or stylist. The program is full of the kind of practical experience you need to get into the field of making dishes as delicious to the eyes as they are to the mouth.
By Anthony Geremia