Tips for Food Bloggers and Food Photography - Part I

I constantly get requests from people to post their photos and Videos. Naturally, not all photos make the cut, and for many

reasons. I want you all to know, that small changes can make them great pictures. I am going to give some tips on how to Up Your Game on Video and Pictures on Social.

First of all, the obvious needs to be applied: Proper Focus on Subject, Proper Lighting, Good Angle. So many pictures and videos are in low resolution, subject not in focus, or a very unflattering angle. You would not believe it.

Next, You need to realize, the person viewing your content, does not have the same experience as you. You are part of the Atmosphere, and can also smell the Aroma, which activates your Taste Buds. This is a huge factor, since the Smell overcomes any Visual in my opinion. Unfortunately, Smell cannot be passed to your followers. Remember: "What smells good, does not always look Good", so don't post bad looking food pictures because it tastes good. We live in a 3D, multi sense world. You are in a 2D, Thumbnail world. People view you images/video through a Thumbnail Gallery. My rule of Thumb is: "Make sure that the food looks mouth watering in the Thumbnail" - get the pun?

Very important tips, is In order to increase your followers interest, use the full real-estate available using portrait mode (landscape on Instagram is smaller size). I see people putting large frames around the picture, or turning the image into a round bubble. I would not do that. Make sure you do a proper closeup of the food, but not too close. You want your followers to see the picture, and not ask themselves: "What am I looking at?"

Last tip for today is for Video: I highly recommend keeping it Short, and Use Sound. Sound is another Sense you are able to pass via Video. Music is better than "Video Has No Sound", it passes your taste in music, that might relate to a viewer. More on the topic in next posts.

Let me know what you think of these tips, and what you are experiencing.