Four Tips On How To Photograph Your Food

Some of you who are taking pictures of your food are missing the bigger picture.

I have several friends on my page that either cook slop or don't know how to take a photo. I'm no expert but I did hit up a couple of dozen pages to gather some make your pics a bit more delish.  These things should be obvious and are also obviously why you get better pics of food in a restaurant than at home as many of these things are taken care of for you.

1. Start with good looking food. A brown plate of Carne is not going to photograph well unless you have added a little color to the pic. Throw a little cilantro on there or maybe some fresh salsa. Those colors will make your picture pop.

2. Photograph in natural light. Your phones flash can make your pictures take on a yellow-orangish hue and that makes everything look like hot garbage (and THIS is the problem with most of my friend's photography, they apparently eat in the dark).

3. Get up off your rear and move around the dish. You're not only looking for the best angle on the food, but you are also looking to avoid shadows.

4. Make sure your background looks good. Even a paper plate looks good if your background (table or whatever) is uncluttered and the focus is truly on the food and everything else is just framing it.

(Ed note: These photos are not the finest examples of the tips above, they just display more right than wrong. I hope to improve my own food photography after reaching this.  Up top is homemade cabbage rolls before cooking, and the introductory picture was Mexican Food from a place I visited in California)