Last Updated on July 22, 2021 by Ellen Christian
No, this post on tips for food photography photos on your blog is not about how to take better photographs. I’m far from an expert although I think I’ve come a long way since I started blogging. This post on tips for food photography is all about how to get the photographs you take noticed. Knowing how to take a good photograph is only part of the battle. There are a number of other things that you need to keep in mind which is why I’m offering these tips for food photography.
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You can invest in a program like Photoshop Elements or you can use a free program like PicMonkey.com to edit your photos. They both work well and I use both for different things.
Tips for Food Photography
- Edit the photograph to crop out anything you don’t want in the picture – the dirty dishes in the sink, the cat, your kids sitting at the table, etc.
- Get the best lighting possible. I have been known to take pictures outside on the picnic table in January with a foot of snow on the ground.
- Make sure that your food shot is not just the food. You want to add in visual interest to your photograph but make sure it is related to your photograph. Ideas include a pretty cloth napkin and fork, a few strawberries for strawberry shortcake, random chocolate chips for chocolate chip cookies, etc. An example are the strawberries in my Strawberry Brownie Trifle you see above.
- Make the photograph as wide as your blog can accommodate. You want your photos to really stand out. Look at the photograph in my Strawberry Brownie Trifle above. It’s at 575 width which is the largest my blog accommodates. Now look at this recipe I did a year and a half ago when I was still learning. Great Peanut Butter and Jelly Pie recipe – not a great photo. Experiment to see what size photo works best for your blog.
- Give your recipe credit. You want your recipes to be pinned to Pinterest – at least I do. It’s a great site to get traffic from. Once they are pinned, you want someone at a glance to know what the recipe is & where it came from. I watermark photographs I take with my blog name and website (see above) so if the link is lost, people can find me.
- Tell people what the photograph is. Once your recipe is pinned to Pinterest or another social media site, you want people to be able to look at it and know what it is. As yummy as my Cranberry Walnut Scones recipe is above, no one can tell from looking at it, exactly what it is once it’s pinned. Now take a look at my Fresh Chilean Blueberry & Cranberry Relish recipe below. There is no doubt what the recipe is when you look at it. I added the title when I pinned the recipe using a site called Reachli that monitors the reach of each pin you post to Pinterest. There is no title on my original photo but the pinned picture does have one.
- As handy as Reachli is, it doesn’t give you any variety of the font or size of the font you use to title your photograph. While the title is certainly there for reference, I don’t think it’s that attractive.
- Take a look at the photo below that I did for my Strawberry Banana Barley Bake. I used PicMonkey.com to add in the title. I used two different fonts and two different colors to make the title stand out. Because the title is attractive (I think), I used it in my blog post.
Experiment with making your photographs the best they can be. I have come a long way in the four and a half years I’ve been blogging but I know I have a long, long way to go. I hope that some of these food photography tips have helped you. This post is part of the Biannual Blogathon Bash. Twice a year, bloggers get together to learn how to improve what they do. This year, I am thrilled to be a co-host with Meagan from Sunshine and Sippy Cups.
Challenge – Try one of these suggestions with one of your food photographs.
Ellen is a busy mom of a 24-year-old son and 29-year-old daughter. She owns six blogs and is addicted to social media. She believes that it doesn’t have to be difficult to lead a healthy life. She shares simple healthy living tips to show busy women how to lead fulfilling lives. If you’d like to work together, email info@confessionsofanover-workedmom.com to chat.
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