Smart Phone Photography 101

Hold the

"Lights, Camera, Action"

for a second and focus.

While our team is highly proficient in capturing our client's moments and telling their brand stories, we know that sometimes, between our shoots: amazing things happen.

Side Note: We wish we were there too.

You’ve just nailed the plating on your new asparagus dish, celebrated an award, or promoted a member of your team and all of these moments call for a photo. Grab your smartphone and have a read below for three big tips to capturing great moments with your Iphone. (or Android, if you’re in to that sorta thing..)

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#1

Find Your Lighting.

Step away from the pass. A Warm yellow light will massively depreciate any shot (unless you know how to fix the white balance in post production. Sit tight, we'll go over that next time). Vibrant greens begin to look brown, red, orange, and yellow hues morph into each other and proteins lose any sight of texture. Find natural light when possible or invest in a white led light. Natural and white light illuminates colours to look vibrant without maxing out the saturation bar on your Instagram editor. This will keep your shots clean and concise with reality. We recommend keeping an LED light pad nearby. This will keep your in-house photography looking pro! A small investment of £20-£40 is way worth the quality it will bring to an image.

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#2

Think About Angles

We know it builds a lovely Instagram feed but there’s more than overhead shots to food photography (and you'll never build uniqueness if you always follow trend). Think about what the subject is and understand how to best capture its presence. It may well be overhead, but experiment. For example, If a dish has some height, it’s layers and shadows deserve some attention and when shooting people of importance we recommend dropping a few degrees. Lower angles that look up at the subject always bring a sense of importance to a shot.

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#3

Notice The Background

Awareness of your subject is elementary, but what’s behind that? Nobody wants to see a dirty towel photobomb your latest creation or a chef picking his nose. (Just kidding, chef’s don’t do that). Attention to all details is key. With food photos, investing a few pennies in a backdrop can be life changing. This could be anything from a piece of fabric to a sheet of MDF or aluminum if you’re cool enough. For studio style photography, a lightbox can be a game changer! Shop Here

Written by: Alla Malina, Creative Director @ FSM