For food and drink events, a picture is worth countless ticket sales. Done well, food and drink photography can make mouths water — and event-goers press “Buy now.”
Done poorly, it has the opposite effect. Let’s face it, we’ve all seen our share of badly lit steaks and failed latte foam art. It might taste good, but we’ll never know, because it doesn’t look good.
Poorly executed shots are one of the most common mistakes on social media today. The last thing you want to represent your food and drink event is unappetizing, amateur snapshots. To sell your food and drink event as a premium experience, you need well-lit, well-executed shots.
Whether you’re taking them yourself or hiring a photographer, here are tips for photography that will draw foodies to your event.
Find the best vantage points
One of the most important aspects of event photography is the angle. As Christie Connell, owner of Azure Photo Studio, says: “To keep photos interesting, keep angles interesting.” Straightforward photos of food on plates doesn’t always translate well. Instead, consider shooting from above, looking squarely down on a table full of dishes.
When photographing a bigger scene — like a dinner table full of guests or a long banquet — look for the interesting angles: a scene shot through a window or between two floral arrangements, for instance. Connell suggests, “Look at the event not as a participant, but from an outsider’s perspective, to get a broader sense of the day.”
Capture the vibe
In food and drink photography, it’s not always about realism. Rather than trying to focus on every last detail of the food itself, look for shots that capture the event atmosphere. “In event photography,” says Brian Beaver, VP of Design at Eventbrite, “the objective is generally to give prospective attendees the vibe and allow them to imagine being at your event.” Put yourself in your attendees’ shoes. What would invite them in?
Another technique Beaver recommends is to use your photos to make viewers feel like they are already an active participant in the event, taking shots from a top-down or first-person perspective. Instead of simply showing a cluster of cooking class students around a table (literal), shoot from above to show hands on the food (inviting participation).
Lighting makes all the difference
Use flash sparingly. The bright light blows out the shot and creates an unappetizing lack of detail. Even worse, “Unnatural light makes your image inherently feel like a photograph, and takes viewers out of the moment,” says Brian Beaver.
However, this can be easier said than done at food and drink events, which tend to have dim mood lighting. A professional photographer will typically use a higher ISO or wider aperture to take shots in low-light situations. This creates a more shallow depth of field and less of the image in focus, but that can be a great effect when trying to convey a mood. Another flash trick is to have attendees turn just slightly away from the camera so that the light doesn’t enter their eyes at a right angle. This can help prevent the dreadful “red eye.”
If your iPhone is your camera, you don’t have as many options for manipulating camera settings. Instead, look for shots where the natural available light plays nicely off the scene: candlelight on a face, the way champagne bubbles catch the light. You can always import your photos to an image editing app — or even use a Snapchat filter — to lighten them up and apply effects to offset the low light.
Serve your audience on social media
Once you have great food and drink photography, how do you make sure people see them? In addition to well-placed images on your website, email newsletter campaigns, and any advertising you do, you’ll want to use your photos on social media. Studies have shown that social media posts get far more engagement when they include images.
Here are a few quick tips to get you started sharing photos of your food and drink event on social media:
- Those “grip and grin” shots, where attendees sling their arms around each other and pose for the camera? They’re perfect for social media, where “You can honor people’s vanity in the right way,” Misha Vladimirskiy, Partner at Filterless.co, says.
- Create a custom hashtag for your event and use it on all of your photography. Also, look for hashtags that are trending in the food and drink event space, things like: #foodie or #nomnom (see this great post on Firstwefeast.com for more).
- On Snapchat, you can use a custom geofilter to build a brand around your food and drink photos.
Download Eventbrite’s Ultimate Guide to Event Photography for more great photography tips, including the best camera equipment to invest in and how to use it.
