I’m so happy to introduce you to one of my blogging BFF’s today! You may have noticed a big improvement in my food photography over the past few months. It’s something I’ve been working on a lot, and Madison has taught me so much. When she asked to share a post with some of her tips, I immediately said yes! I hope you enjoy learning from Madison as much as I do.
Hello, friends! I’m so excited to be here sharing with you today! My name is Madison and my blog is The Wetherills Say I Do, a faith based lifestyle blog where I talk about everything from food to faith to marriage!
Today I want to talk to you about one of my favorite things: food photography!
I never thought I would call myself a food blogger or food photographer. While I don’t post 100% about food, I definitely think having solid food photography skills has helped me with other blog topics as well. Food is visual, there’s no other way to put it.
There’s a reason why your plates at a restaurant always look perfect and are garnished with a swirl or sauce or a sprig of rosemary! It’s all about making your eyes believe the food will taste good, before you even taste it!
This is why in the blogging world where visual images drive traffic, quality food photography is essential to make people want to read and save your recipe posts. I have a few quick tips that can make all the difference in your photos!
Style Your Photos
When I first started posting recipes, I didn’t think much about the “extras” in the photos. This is still probably my biggest area of improvement, but I’ve found that adding little touches into the photos makes them much more visually appealing to your readers. I’ve started small, by adding a fun set of a plate, bowl and a few random types of dishes that I can use for my photos. You can also buy a napkin or other linen to add some texture into your photos!
Another trick I love is stacking plates to add some depth to the photos!
USE NATURAL LIGHT
This one deserves all caps, y’all. It will amaze you the difference natural light will make in your photos. When you take photos at night or with overhead lighting, no amount of editing will take away that ugly yellow hue. That yellow look will have your readers wondering what strange thing you put in your food to make it so yellow. Trust me, I know it’s so hard right now with day light’s savings, but it’s worth it to block out time and do your posts during the day, even if it’s on the weekend. Plus, it’ll be lighter later in the day soon enough!
Vary Angles
A great food blog post has somewhere between 3-5 photos. You don’t want these to all look the exact same, so it’s important to vary your angles. This means moving your feet and trying different things with your camera. I personally don’t shoot with a tripod often because I like to move around a lot and get all kinds of angles of my recipes. This goes hand in hand with staging photos as it allows a lot more options for shots when you have other elements in the photo as well.
These are easy, easy fixes for your photos but they will make a huge difference in the quality of them!
What are your favorite ways to improve your food photography?
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cookingwithvinyl says
Thanks for sharing! I’d also recommend getting supplemental lights (I use Lowel Ego) for those times when natural light isn’t an option.
Madison says
I try to avoid using any sort of artificial light, but I do occasionally use an external flash if i HAVE to take photos at night. I really just try to avoid it all together and set aside time to take photos during the day! But there are some options that are good in a pinch!
Jenna Brussee says
I recently read about a DIY light box, so I want to try that! My time for cooking and taking pictures during the day is limited, so it would be nice to be able to take some photos at night.
socalledhomemaker says
Great post! I love these tips. Madison is the best.
Madison says
Thanks Christine 🙂
Jenna Brussee says
She is the best! I’m glad you liked these tips. I learned a lot from them, too.
Amanda | Life With Grace says
These are great tips Maddison! I think natural light is so important. Even if you don’t style the food, it looks 1,000 times better in natural light. One thing I do to get more natural light even in the later hours of the day when the sun is setting, is that I take the pictures outside. I set up the food on a giant white poster board and it really brightens up the pictures without having to take them in the middle of the day! I loved this post! 🙂
Madison says
Thanks Amanda! It really is SO important. I think if people focused on just that, their photos would be so much better! White poster boards are really helpful! I want to start learning how to use backdrops and things for my photos to vary the styling, too!
Jenna Brussee says
Natural light has made such a difference with my photography! I go outside to take pictures toward the end of the day, too. I like your idea of using a white poster board! I need to try that next time.
Ashley says
Great tips! I’ve been thinking about adding in some posts with recipes. I guess I’ll be making on my recipes on the weekend, so I can use natural light.
Jenna Brussee says
You should share some recipes! I usually end up doing most of my cooking for posts over the weekend too.
Madison says
You should definitely try it! I really love sharing recipes with my readers that I know are consistent with their lifestyles! I definitely try to do recipes in bulk on the weekends when I can.
Deb Clem-Buckert says
Great tips. Thanks!
Jenna Brussee says
Madison did a great job with this guest post! She has helped me out with food photography in the past, so I’m happy to have her sharing these tips with my readers.
Madison says
Thanks for stopping by Deb 🙂
Jenna Griffin says
I love Madison’s photography style! I have learned a lot from her! Also, that delicious looking food is making me hungry!
Jenna Brussee says
I agree! After reading this post I want to go through her archives and find all these recipes.
Madison says
A few of them aren’t even posted yet! Hehe 🙂 And some are on My Cooking Spot! I can totally send you the links- I thought about including them in the post but decided not to.
Jenna Brussee says
You should! I’ve seen (and pinned!) a few of them, but they all look so good.
Madison says
Thanks girl 🙂 I really love taking pictures of food- I’m weird!
Tayler says
The hardest thing for me is I live in a townhome complex. So, one side of my house is covered by covered parking, another is covered by trees, and another is covered by the shadow of taller townhomes…it’s so hard to get good lighting!
Jenna Brussee says
That would be tough! I thought my house was terrible for lighting, too, but I started experimenting and found a couple areas that work well. If I can’t get enough light, I take pictures outside!
Madison says
That’s definitely tough. When the lighting’s bad in my house, I’ll move outside to the concrete or deck and use that!
Stephanie @Sustaining the Powe says
These are great tips! I always see photos with stacked plates and want to try it, but then forget once I’ve made something.
I also actually just wrote a post about white balance and avoiding yellow food photos. That’s totally my pet peeve on recipe photos to the point where I won’t pin or re-pin the ones that don’t have good photos. I 100% agree that you can’t beat natural light! (Though I will say that my DIY light box gets me pretty darn close enough.)
Rebekah says
DIY light box? I would love to hear about that!!
Stephanie @Sustaining the Powe says
You can find the tutorial to build one on my blog: Sustaining the Powers. Just use the search box.
Madison says
EXACTLY. It’s a huge pet peeve of mine too, which is exactly why I just choose not to shoot when it’s dark. Not always easy but I just make it happen or don’t post a recipe! I will check out your light box tutorial- sounds awesome!
Jenna Brussee says
I enjoyed your post about white balance. Natural light really is the best, though! I take all my pictures with natural light now and it makes a huge difference. One day I need to try your light box, though.
Rebekah says
I am working on my food photography this year, and I can already see an improvement in pictures, but I still have a long ways to go.
Madison says
That’s awesome! I love hearing about improvement in photos! It’s amazing how much little things can make a difference.
Jenna Brussee says
It’s something I’ve been focusing on, too. For me, the light bulb was realizing I need to always use natural light. My pictures look 100% better when I do. I found a spot in my house with great natural light. But if it’s not working one day I take the pictures outside.
DIY Just Cuz says
Awesome! We don’t post too many recipes, but when we do, we haven’t though much about the photography. This is great advice (especially the tip about natural lighting…definitely good with photographing anything). When you write a recipe post, do you often show step by step or just the end result? I think sometimes just the ending is better to get the best pictures, thoughts?
Jenna Brussee says
For me, the photography for my recipes is HUGE! Pinterest is my #1 source of traffic, so having good pictures is a must.
When I share a recipe post, a majority of my pictures are of the final product. I don’t usually show every step in pictures, but I do like to post a couple “in process” shots. Maybe a creative picture of the ingredients or a picture of my mixing bowl with the dough.
DIY Just Cuz says
Thank you for the advice! I feel like that’s what stumps us, we try to focus so much on getting every step of the process that the pictures don’t turn out as well. We’ll have to try that next time, pictures of ingredients always look so great. Thanks Jenna!
Iryna says
Great tips! I was looking for the post like this!
Jenna Brussee says
That’s great! I was so glad to have Madison share her tips as I have learned so much from her. I hope you can put these ideas into practice, too.