Phones Eat First: How to Make Your Dishes Instagram-Worthy
When guests come across your restaurant online, stunning pictures that speak directly to their taste buds are essential. Whether they seek out images on Google or track down your Instagram, it is imperative that you put your restaurant’s best foot forward and provide images that are just as irresistible as your food.
Plate with Passion
Plating a dish for photographs is different from how you plate your dishes for guests in the dining room.
When plating for photography, the main visual on the plate should be your dish’s main ingredient – your fish, your chicken, your fried eggplant, etc. Garnish and side dishes are also essential to your plate, showcasing contrasting colors and textures in photography. That said, it’s important to remember that less is more; don’t plate an entire portion, or you may struggle to get the entire dish in the camera lens.
Natural Lighting is Your Friend
While the dim lighting of your dining room might create an incredible experience for guests, it does not benefit your camera lens.
Instead, invite bright and natural lighting into your restaurant. Open windows, use overhead lighting – but not flash, which can drown your food – and even take pictures outside. This will help your meals’ colors pop, and it makes your food look more detailed.
Include Your Brand
Visual storytelling with your food is an excellent way to reinforce your restaurant’s brand. If you have branded plates or a visual staple in your restaurant, consider including these staples in your images. Including your brand will make your images recognizable, feel more inviting, and provide a window into your restaurant's vibe.
Don’t Overedit
While editing can help fix an image that didn’t come out quite as you wanted, overediting can make your food look artificial. If you edit too much, your image may no longer resemble your food and lose its integrity, which can have a negative impact on your business.
Guests may become disappointed when they find the food looks less vibrant than it did in your overedited pictures. Avoid adding filters or color enhancers, but consider color undertones or minor touchups to highlight certain colors and brighten your image for more visibility.
Elevate Your Restaurant Photography
Your photography is a crucial element of your restaurant’s marketing strategy. Images must make mouths water – on your website, your social media, your online business profiles – and it’s one of the first steps to walking guests through your door.
Whether you feel prepared to tackle photography on your own or don’t know where to start, consider reaching out to our creative team today and start telling the right stories to the mouths that want to hear them.
