Our in-house photographer Milly Golightly is here with a guide to help you get that shot to be proud of...
Setting up
First of all, the best thing to do is to try and have a clear background. When there is a busy background, the photos can look cluttered and the emphasis is taken away from the object you’re trying to focus on. This isn’t always easy but here are some tips on what you can try.
Out at a restaurant? Why don’t you move the menus, candles/decorations, and even the cutlery out of the way so that you’re left with your dish being the star of the show?
At home? Put your ingredients away, wipe the surfaces and then you’re ready to get the shot. Failing those, you can change the perspective from which you’re shooting, read on to find out what this means.
Perspective
Bird’s eye view (positioning from above) is always a great place to start when it comes to getting a good angle. Have a play with the positioning, you can either frame the food so that it is in the centre and that’ll really grab everyone’s attention, or if you want to try something a bit different why don’t you position it to the side?
In this example, you will see that I have left some space to the side of the cake. I think it is an alternative to placing the food in the middle as I know a lot of people lean towards doing that which is fine, but who doesn’t want to stand out from the crowd?
Camera settings
I shoot a lot on my DSLR Camera, but you can pretty much get the same results on any mobile device too. For the Apple users like myself, the majority of our phones have a portrait mode setting on the camera – this is the perfect preference to shoot with. All portrait mode does is focus on the main subject, and blur out the background leaving a really smart-looking pic. (In technical terms this is called depth of field, you can read more about that here if you are interested: https://photographylife.com/what-is-depth-of-field
Android users have a lot of options for camera settings so my advice would be to explore and play with all the different options available to you.
Freshening up those pics
Now that you’ve got your pic ready to go, let’s go ahead with what I think is the fun bit. Editing! There are so many amazing apps out there for editing your pictures. For those looking for industry-level software, I recommend downloading Adobe Lightroom for free as you’ll gain much control within this editing suite. However, for those who just want a quick and easy way to make your photos look first class here are two of my favourite apps that I would recommend: VSCO and Afterlight.
You will have the option to subscribe and buy more filters if you want to, but that isn’t necessary as both apps already have really good filters.
Editing is personal and up to you. How I would edit my photos is different from what you might like. I will say this: experiment and don’t be afraid to go big – and please share them on your social media platforms!
I know for some photography can be daunting, and for the perfectionists among us, it can become quite stressful if you don’t feel you’re capturing the image you had in mind. I have spent a long time constantly critiquing whether my pictures will be good enough to share on Instagram etc, however, I now know not to overthink and to just do it. All that matters is that you enjoy it at the end of the day. So, if you want to share your images, make sure you tag us on Instagram (@blueapplebunch), and we will look forward to seeing what you come up with…