(ThyBlackMan.com) If your delicious cooking is enjoyed by your family but apparently not by the camera, you shouldn’t feel ashamed. There is an art to presenting a plate in a beautiful manner and if you are not talented in this area, don’t worry, you can learn this skill in no time. Here are five key ingredients to creating meals that look as good as they taste and are photo-ready for The Gram:
1. Choose Beautiful Cookware
There are two major benefits to owning great cookware sets and crockery. The first benefit is actually using the cookware to prepare your favorite meals and the second is the aesthetic appeal. Choosing high-quality pots and pans will ensure that your kitchen activity is as efficient as can be. They won’t burn, stain or stick to your cooking, and they will wash easier and last you for many, many years. A beautiful set is effortlessly photogenic and you’ll never have to second-guess whether or not items match or look good together in your photos.
2. Cook the Rainbow
When it comes to suiting a certain color scheme or mood in your final photographs, let your ingredients act as your palette. Choose fresh, vibrant base ingredients and garnish items to create an enticing photograph. You can get creative and experiment with cooking items of only one color, or mix and match certain colors to create bold food imagery. Don’t forget to take into account the colors of your plates and cookware that will appear in your final photo.
3. Fresh is Best
This is a rule to healthy cooking but it also works well with food photography. Dull or stale ingredients will look just as appealing on your Instagram feed as pictures of a dull and gloomy skyline. The colors of fresh ingredients are also likely to be more warm and bright in cooking too. For example, egg yolks of organic eggs will be a deeper orange-yellow color, fresh fruits will be plumper and their hues more intense and organic, and raw cacao will be richer in shade than chocolate powder and smell heavenly!
4. Timing is Important
Never wait to take your photos. This is the ultimate but all too common crime of food photography. Photos of your cooking should be taken as soon as your plate is ready to be eaten. This way, time and room temperature won’t have affected your final presentation; no elements on your plate will be melted, soggy or stale. Steam coming off of a hot, home-cooked meal is a beautiful touch you will miss if you wait too long to capture. Your timing is vital. Plus, it leaves you more time to eat and enjoy your meal.
5. Presenting Your Plate
The true secret is that it’s not so much about your cooking as it is about how you arrange the items on your plate and frame items in your photo. What you see in a captured image, or artwork, is referred to as “composition” or “presentation” and this is why food photography is considered an art form. You can research and emulate how chefs arrange their plates and with a bit of time, you’ll nail it too!
There you have it; five not-so-secret ways to cook up the perfect Instagram photo of your meals. Pay close attention to each of these steps and embrace using quality ingredients and quality cookware. All that’s left is to practice.
Staff Writer; Doug Short