How to Photograph Food With Your Phone

So you make a really fancy meal at home and you are SUPER proud of it. So of course, you whip out your phone and take a picture. but after you share with your friends on Instagram, you look back and see that it doesn't really look that appetizing.

So hopefully after reading this article you'll be able to have a more Instagram-worthy photo for your Instagram-worth meal.

Let's start with the BEFORE photo above. What's wrong with it? Well, what's NOT wrong with it. Nasty unflattering YELLOW kitchen light for one. Secondly, there is a crazy busy background.

So how do we fix it?

First, turn off that kitchen light. And open a window.

Then get about 3 feet from the window and put some kind of cool texture under your food- could be a simple white napkin, could be a cutting board (like I did).. but don't use a busy background.

What if it's dark, like it was when I took this picture? No problem, you just need some type of white lighting source. Could be a LED flashlight. Could be a fluorescent light. Or if you are feeling really fancy, you could buy this $5 selfie ring light like I have! (see this link here:)

Then, once you have the light on or the window open, move the food around to give the shadows some definition to the food.

Then you might have this vastly improved photo. And yes, it was taken with an old google phone. And yes It was the same bowl of food and yes it was yummy!

Alright, you have a pretty good image. But how can you improve on it? By taking just two minutes to edit it of course!

And when I say, "edit" I don't just mean throwing some random Instagram filter on it. No that's not editing. That is throwing a random filter on it.

I mean actually taking the image and making it look better.

I use a FREE app called VSCO to edit my photos. Yes, they do have some cheesy filters, but I skip right to making my photo pop by taking the contrast up and the colors brighter.

Even though my "after" image is subtle compared to the first one above, I know that it looks better!

So there you have it. Find GOOD light that is not yellow, find a cool texture and edit and I promise you that your photo photography from your PHONE will have your friends wish they came over for dinner that night.

Christal

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