Tips for Instagram-worthy plating and photos
If you don’t have up-to-date photography of your dishes on your Instagram, you’re missing out. There are over 1 billion active users on Instagram. With eye-catching photos, you’ll be able to break through the cheese melt photos and stand out.
Plating Tips
Start by picking a plate. You will want a plate that is a proportional size and shape for your food. You don’t want a plate that makes your servings look too small. Most commonly, white plates are used, but plates with patterns, prints, and colors can be used to enhance your plating design.
Place your food considerate of negative space. Negative space is any space around your subject without content, which would be your plate. You will probably need to use less food than usual, and will focus on creating visual balance (see example below). Although there is a certain satisfaction to ‘perfect’ plating, some spill-over of dishes is natural, and adds movement to your photos. Embrace this.
Be design conscious. Think of multiple design elements when plating. Look at the color wheel - does your dish have contrasting colors? Is the color palette in harmony? Proximity and proportion are also important. Incorrect proportions and proximity can dwarf items in comparison to one another and throw off visual balance.
Photography Tips
Use your destination as a background. If your restaurant is located in a scenic area, use the scenery as part of your photography and styling. Be sure to geotag your location on Instagram to reach even more potential customers.
Add texture and contrast. You can add texture and contrast to your photos with backgrounds, like a wood grain table or cutting board, and other design elements like utensils and napkins.
Play with angles. Most food photography is shot from directly above, but you can play with angles to find what works for your dish. Think about what makes the dish you’re photographing special, and try to capture that in your image. Some foods look better at certain angles than others.
Style the table. Start by placing your dish, and then add and remove elements around it as you see fit. You can use utensils, napkins, garnishes, and component ingredients in your styling. For example, if plating a dish with dried peppers as a main element, you could place some dried peppers off to the side of your plate as an accent. Don’t be afraid to let things flow in and out of frame - it adds movement.
Sherane Chen, LLC is proud to provide clients with food photography services. We know that putting your best plate forward is key to engaging customers and keeping them coming back for seconds. To schedule a free consultation with us to see how we can help your restaurant, please Contact us today for a consultation!