How To Take a Food Picture for Your Restaurant

When you say restaurant food, the first things that naturally come to mind are mouth-watering smell and its delectable taste.  Unfortunately, these two things cannot be captured even with the most advanced camera. However, you do know how important photographs are for your restaurant. You want everybody to see what you can offer and how you can satisfy their discriminating appetites but you cannot let everyone smell or taste your fares just to convince them. The camera has to do that part in ways so that the viewer can still find himself salivating just by looking at the restaurant's food picture.

Taking pictures of restaurant food can be more complicated than taking a traditional picture of waiters in uniform. The guys can smile and pose well in front of the camera but food does not. You have to bring out the artist in you so you can arrange the food in such a manner that would appear good in the photo. Here's how to take a photo of food for your restaurant.

1. Prepare the food in a manner that its main features are vividly clear. Garnish it to add attractive colors but make sure that what appears on the picture is what the customers will get. Place in a dish or bowl that contrasts its color. If it is a white and creamy soup food, then place it in a brown or black bowl.
2. Set the food with your restaurant's identifiable tablecloth as background. Let the customers feel that the food they will eat is the restaurant's own unique recipe or, if not, it has features and tastes different from those of others. Then take a close-up view of the food and blur the background. The blurring should be enough to pick up the tablecloth colors and lines.
3. Ensure that the lighting enhances the original color and texture of the food. As much as possible, do not use flash. While you may have the restaurant's ambiance lighting as background it should not affect the food's color. Fruit food usually has bright colors so use natural lights for this.
4. Take as many shots with different angles and settings as possible. This will provide you with the most number of choices for picking the best food image. Make sure that no image appears flat and boring or else the food may appear like a cafeteria fare. It can be placed on a tray with a blurred or less emphasized waiter holding it. It can be set on the table with a bottle of wine at the background.

Aside from good food, what makes a restaurant is its ambiance and service. It will be nice also if you take a restaurant picture that could tell both. This will ensure that whatever photo is published and printed on the menu will truly represent not just the food itself but the restaurant as well.