So picture this: you’ve just made a delicious bowl of food and you want to show the world how delicious it is. You quickly take a snap with your phone or camera, and then… you’re disappointed. You take a couple more pictures and it still isn’t portrayed in the way you want it to. Has this ever happened to you? It definitely has for me!

Here are 5 tips you can do to quickly enhance your food photos so it looks as delicious as it tastes! Plus… you don’t need a fancy camera for this!

1. Take the picture outside

Taking pictures inside when it’s dark will never do your food justice. Even when you’ve turned on your light inside. Lighting is crucial! You’ve probably heard this before. All you need to do is grab that natural lighting. However, it can sometimes look too harsh in direct sunlight so it can be useful to find a shaded area. With natural lighting you can get the vibrant natural colours from the food with little editing needed! And remember… DO. NOT. USE. FLASH!

Personally I like to take my photos next to a window with light shining from one side, which really allows the shadows to show on the food.

2. Add garnish

Now it is common to add a bit of garnish to your meals, but sometimes we forget because we’re just too busy being hungry to care about these small details. Did you make curry? Or a carbonara perhaps? It can be easy for these meals to lose its visual interest because there’s not much colour! So a little bit of greenery on top goes a long way. Chop some coriander and add it your curry. Chop some parsley for your carbonara. Even sprinkle some chia seeds and fresh berries on top of your smoothie.

3. Wipe away your mess

Here is something a lot of people forget to do when they want to make their food look reallyyyy delicious. Now, sometimes it is done on purpose, but when you see a photo trying hard to look nice but there’s a piece of crumb or sauce where it shouldn’t be, you can’t unsee it. If you’re serious about getting that perfect shot – I would recommend you have a paper towel or cloth on hand to clean those areas instantly.

4. Surround the food with relevant, raw ingredients

Did you use lemons in your recipe? Place some lemons in the background! This is one budget friendly food styling tip because you probably already have extra ingredients around. Adding in these raw ingredients bring more life to your food and make it look like it was just freshly made.

Another awesome reason to add relevant ingredients is to help the viewer understand what the food is actually made of without having to carefully analyse the ingredient list. This can spark interest in potential viewers to make your delicious recipe!

5. Aesthetically pleasing backdrop

Now this is subjective because everyone has their own preferences for aesthetics. The idea is placing your food on a surface that looks nice. Personally, I like to place my food on a white, stone background as I feel like it makes the food pop. Some things I would steer away from: placing your food on things that it wouldn’t naturally be on (grass, concrete) and backgrounds that are just too busy (patterns, too many colours). Experiment with this idea yourself by placing the same food over different backgrounds. See how the vibe completely changes?

There you go! I am still learning and figuring out what I like. Check out my photos at @cookwithpez if you would like a bit more inspiration and I have put my real life behind the scenes up on my highlights as well.