Giada's Food Photography Guide
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My tricks of the trade for capturing the perfect Insta-worthy food shot!
In a time when people love to share snaps of their food (we know all about this in Giadzy Squad!), it’s just as important-- if not more so-- to make a photo look as good as the food tastes in real life. People eat with their eyes first, after all!
A few weeks back, I received an email from a grade-school teacher in Texas, asking for food-photography advice for her class’ student-made cookbook. Since I get asked about this often, I thought I’d share my tips here on Giadzy too.
So here, a few invaluable tricks I picked up along the way at photoshoots, on set for my shows, and in my own kitchen--
• Natural lighting is your best friend. Put a table (or even a board) next to a window and take the photo there. Artificial lights will never look as good as sunlight, and it’s much cheaper than fancy equipment!
• iPhones are great for food photography. The editing tools are good, and portrait-mode mimics some of the high-quality cameras out there. When I’m shooting for my own social media, and even sometimes for my website, I’ll use an iPhone.
• Get in the food! Get as close as possible so you can see very ingredient. Sometimes shooting overhead can make the food look flat, so I prefer shooting from the side or from slightly above.
• Oil it up! Chocolate in particular can be tricky to shoot because the light hits it in a weird way. Adding just a teaspoon of vegetable oil to melted chocolate makes it glisten. Same goes for pasta— a drizzle of olive oil on top goes a long way.
Good luck, Ms. Holder’s class! xo
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