Food photography with phone should be easy, but getting shots that look like a pro took them is hard, especially if you have a smartphone and the light in the room. But a few simple tips can help you make photo of meal that make your mouth water, and we asked two professional photographers to tell us what they are.
Taking photo of meal with a phone is nothing new, and it makes a lot of sense when you think about it. You’ll probably always have your phone with you, so if something photogenic comes out of the kitchen, you’ll be ready to go.
Smartphones are suitable for food for other reasons, too. Because smartphones are small and thin, you can get close to the food to get the best creative angles, which may only sometimes be possible with regular cameras. Most smartphones now have modes like “Portrait” that let you create shallow depth-of-field effects. You can also use multiple lenses to make different compositions.
Even if you’re not a child or a bad photographer, there are some everyday things you shouldn’t do when taking a photo of meal with your phone. We’ll tell you what they are so you can avoid them like the plague.
People always take pictures of their lunch or dinner and post them on social media. Some of the pictures look great, but others could look better. So, how do you take photo of meal that look great on your phone? In this article, we’ll look at a few easy steps you can take to improve your smartphone food photography.
Lighting
Before you even start taking photo of meal, you must plan, which means you must think about the light. Food looks best in natural light, so to get the best results, shoot next to a window that isn’t in direct sunlight.
Professional food photographers often take photo of meal with the light coming from behind or to the side. This gives the food a nice contrast and look. For the sidelight, you’ll need to put the side of the plate against the window, and for the backlight, you’ll need to put the back against the window.
It would help if you never used the flash on your phone’s camera to light a photo of meal. Flash is harsh, makes food look flat and greasy, and leaves a hard shadow around your dish. It also adds color casts that can be hard to get rid of.
Use HDR mode
High dynamic range, or HDR, is a feature of some camera apps that helps even out the light and dark parts of a photo with a lot of contrast. It can be used to make a photo look more creative or artistic, but most of the time, it is used to create an HD image that looks like what you see with your own eyes.
Most of the time, it takes work to get the correct exposure for light and dark areas on a smartphone camera. You could take a picture of someone in the shade outside with a bright background, or you could take a picture of someone in a dark room with a sunny wall. If you set the exposure to the ground, the person in the image could be too dark. On the other hand, if you set the exposure to the subject, the background could be overexposed.
Accept a little bit of editing
Often, your camera needs to bring out the best parts of your food more than you’d like it to. At the very least, I change every photo’s brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness. Because everyone has their style, this process may look different to you.
Instagram has a great panel of editing tools for making these changes, but some friendly filters make multiple changes with just one tap. VSCO is our favorite app for adding filters to photos, and you can get it for free on iOS and Android.
Use props
Props give Food Photos with Your Phone life and personality. It can be glassware, cutlery, spices, condiments, fruits or raw vegetables, drinks, napkins, sunglasses, car keys, or anything else you can think of that goes with the main subject. Use a variety of styles and your imagination to tell a story.
For instance, if you want to take a picture of a meal you made for your child, you could serve the food in the child’s favorite dish and use the child’s spoon as a prop. You could also cleverly put their favorite small toy and sippy cup in the picture.
When all these things are put together, they make a more exciting picture than just a plate of food. This gives the impression that a young child is about to eat their favorite meal.
But be careful not to add too many things to the shot, so it gets too busy and loses its spark. Keep it simple.
Use sunlight to your advantage
“Natural lighting is ideal,” Karragiannidis said. “Whenever you’re near a window, use it. But if windows surround you, your image will be too light. You should try to get shadows because they add contrast and texture to what you’re taking a picture of.”
If you find yourself in a restaurant with low lighting, bring a clip-on light or ask a friend to use the light on their phone to help you. Avoid the flash no matter what you do! It makes you look bad and makes even the most delicious food look bad. Instead of coming from above or behind your subject, the best light comes from the side.
In a nutshell,
Taking photo of meal with a smartphone is looked down upon. But we have some Instagram food photography with phone tips that will make your food look so good that people will think you used a DSLR to take the picture.
Most smartphone Food Photos with Your Phone don’t look good because the person taking them has the taste of a picky seven-year-old. We know you like chicken tenders and curly fries because so does everyone else, Brad.
Using your smartphone and a few clever food photography with phone tips, you can turn those annoying “I’m just going to keep scrolling” posts into ones that make your friends want to drool.