Your social media accounts, like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, are a great way to let guests know about new dishes you’re serving up. Posting a photo to social media is easy, but with a little extra work, you can take your food photography to the next level.
Equipment for Food Photography
It doesn’t take an expensive camera and pricey editing software to create great photos. Today’s smartphones have built-in cameras that will work perfectly for posting photos to your restaurant’s social media accounts. Your stock camera app is a good bet, but you can also experiment with other applications that offer more creative options and freedom.
Lighting
One of the easiest ways to improve the quality of your restaurant’s social media photos is to make sure that you have good lighting. You don’t need large umbrella lights or other expensive implements to create a professional-looking photo. Natural light will make your snapshots look great, and best of all, it’s free! Set up your plate and dishware on a surface near a window and snap away. Slightly cloudy days are often better than super-sunny ones, but you can always diffuse light with a sheet of tissue or a napkin. You can also reflect light with a sheet of tinfoil or a baking tray. Just make sure to position yourself to best avoid shadows!
Background
Using a plain, non-distracting background for your plates will ensure that your delectable offerings take center stage. Use a sheet of plain paper to create a clean surface or use an existing tabletop. You can also play around with colorful backgrounds to make the colors of your food pop. No matter what, make sure that your image is clean and free from extra items in the background.
Editing
If you have good lighting and a nice background, your food photography likely won’t need much editing to be done. But you camera app or other simple applications can help you to provide auto-adjustments and fix brightness and contrast if your photo needs it. We recommend steering clear of decorative filters—they can often be distracting and obscure your great-looking food!
Non-Food Photography
Your delicious dishes aren’t the only thing you should be sharing to social media! Beef up your restaurant’s page with photos from your events. Customers also love seeing behind-the-scenes photos of how new dishes are created. Your social media accounts are also a great place to introduce customers to the people who make your restaurant fabulous. Create spotlights of your chefs, waitstaff, and other staff members to create an even stronger connection with the community that supports you!
We hope that this collection of tips is helpful to you as you work to create great photos for your restaurant’s social media!
