Food photography is one of the most important aspects of any restaurant. Shooting delicious dishes in a beautiful setting is every food photographer’s dream. But how do you capture these dishes? How do you get the best light? How do you shoot so many dishes? Worry not! This blog post will answer all your questions and more.

Recommended post: Why food photography is so important for your restaurant business

In this blog post, we have shared 5 ways in which you can enhance the quality of photo shots that you will do for your restaurant. 

#1 Lights on

For the best restaurant photos, find the light! 

Shooting in good light is crucial when it comes to professional photography.

Professional photographers will often ask restaurants to open and close shutters, section off tables, and set up for their shoot. They would do anything to make their food photography as good as possible. Lighting is (almost) everything!

#2 Showing human hands 

Restaurants are synonymous with togetherness and intimacy. This is something that can be captured in an image by adding a hand or hands within the frame. 

Adding human elements to your photo by asking servers to lend you a hand will bring out the sense of communal eating.

Sitting at a table, eating together, it’s intimate. A hand reaching into your frame brings out this sense of intimacy. As long as the server is not busy, ask them for help with your photo.

#3 Get the color scheme

When shooting dishes at restaurants, choose colors from the restaurant’s color scheme. Shooting in restaurants is always a balancing act with what will work best in terms of colors. 

To capture the spirit of a restaurant, choose dishes that work with that restaurant’s color scheme. 

Additionally, choose warmer colors to balance the tones in the room.

What does your restaurant’s color scheme say about you? Think about how your food photos will be framed by the colors of the dishes. Photographers are encouraged to capture dishes in warmer colors to balance out the tones of their environment.

#4 Declutter

Photographing food is an art form. 

Whether you’re a professional chef or just a home cook, you should know that there are some critical rules to follow. The first, and arguably most important: remove the clutter. Whether it’s salt shakers, water glasses, or food menus, these inessential objects will only make your table look messy. If you want your dish to stand out, keep it simple and clear.

In photography, don’t clutter your table with unnecessary objects. The more cluttered the table, the less your food will stand out. You want your food to be the star of the show!

#5 Get a professional camera

Capturing excellent images of both your dishes and the restaurant itself is important when it comes to marketing & branding. And the best way to do this is with a professional camera. It’s easy to take incredible photos with a built-in camera lens, and customers love seeing what you’re all about.

In other words, when taking photos of your dishes, you’ll need to use a professional camera. It captures the depth of the dish beautifully, making for quality restaurant photos with a single click.

#6 Shoot single dish on a full table

To get the best possible photos, you want to combine single dish shots and more varied, full table shots. If your photos are used in many different ways– for the website, social media, or the press– then they should be as varied as possible.

When trying to capture the best of a restaurant, it’s important to have both single-dish shots and shots of multiple dishes.