10 Tips for taking the perfect food pictures on Instagram

If it isn't on Instagram did you even eat there?

One of the questions which gets asked the most online is how to get the best food photos for Instagram. Here are 10 helpful hints and tricks to make sure you are getting the most out of your meal:

1. Prepare: Do your research and make sure to find out what the restaurants best dishes are in advance to choose the most attractive options.

2. Lighting: Always try to get food shots during the day, natural lighting makes all the difference to a food shot and always better than evening (for some reason flash x food is not an appetising combo). Sit near a window and avoid sitting under a light which reflects off the table. Use a professional camera if possible or portrait mode on your iPhone.

4. Ordering: When your are ordering, think about what the dishes are going to look like. Make sure to pick dishes with a variety of colours and ingredients (Avoid anything beige as this is very difficult to photograph - unless its a variety of different breads - again you would need different colours/textures to make this work).  If the restaurant has a colour of plate it uses eg. blue - choose something that will pop against that plate - like red beetroot or sweet potato.

5. Variety: It's normally better to have a lot of small dishes in a shot than one big dish, as it makes the shot more interesting.

6. Coffee & drinks: Coffee always photographs well but only straight away - as the foam disappears. And only photograph drinks when the cup is full (sounds obvious but a half empty glass of orange juice looks messy compared to a nice full one.)

7. Flatlay: As a rule of thumb the best angle for food is from above, a birds eye view.

8. Ratio: try to get a square or portrait shot, never landscape.

9. Pasta: Pasta is tricky but if you make lots of twirls in spaghetti or tagliatelle it tends to photograph better.

10. Look out for nice table tops such as marbled or rustic wooden options as these add an attractive background to your picture and it will help make your meal pop against it.