How to take a good photo of the restaurant?

If you want to be a food photographer, you may start taking pictures in restaurants, which is the beginning of most food photographers. However, filming restaurants is not that simple. You should be able to photograph not only food, but also portraits of food, chefs and their employees. Taking pictures in a restaurant can be a very time-consuming process, and you need to know a lot of details to ensure that you are not bothered by this particular type of shooting.

Explore location and light

Try the best location in advance, so that you know what you will encounter in photographic lighting, and you need to find out where to set up equipment and workspace. It should be carried out with the consent of the enterprise manager or owner.

Discuss diet

From the beginning, please make it clear that you are not a food stylist, so you are not responsible for the appearance of the food itself. This requires a separate skill that has nothing to do with photography, and the photographer's job is to capture images.

Use a tripod

If you only shoot in natural light, please remember that in most restaurants, it is too dark to take pictures. Need to take pictures by the window, use a tripod to reduce exposure and increase exposure. However, this is not feasible for shooting people, because they will become blurred at a slow shutter speed.

If the picture is only published on social networks, you can check ISO and eliminate the noise in the picture in post-processing.

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Discuss with customers how to take pictures. Most restaurants only need pictures of their own websites, and interactive web design usually needs to take pictures horizontally.

If customers want to print some images on the restaurant menu, they may need vertical format (and higher resolution). Make sure to discuss the image orientation with the customer. Remember, if the customer needs these two options, it may take twice as long to take an image, so you not only need to configure the camera, but also need to re-synthesize each image.

post processing

After the photo is taken, the customer can view the image. Through this shooting process, they can see a clearer and more accurate image display than the screen on the back of the camera, and they can use Lightroom for post-editing.

customer service

In order to obtain high-quality results, customers must participate in the process. Ideally, it should appear in the scene to perfect the creative details, and approve the captured images to provide you with guidance.

Cooperate with the chef

Try to involve the chef in this process. When you make an appointment to see the location, ask if you can meet the chef.

If the chef feels that he is an important part of the whole process, it may seriously affect the shooting effect. As it turns out, the simplest and most interesting photo is that the chef enthusiastically cooperates with you to make the dishes look the best at any given time.