In the age of MasterChef and foodie blogs people are coming together more than ever to connect over beautiful, delicious food. Sharing your creations on Instagram allows you to connect to the foodie community and get your creative juices flowing. Here are Noritake’s tips for taking the perfect foodie photo.

1. Shoot in natural light

Natural light is soft and neutral, ensuring the colours of your food are correct. Artificial light often casts a yellow/orange tone over the image making your food, plates and background look unnatural and uninviting.

Try to shoot outdoors when the sky is overcast as the clouds act as a soft diffuser. Avoid shooting in direct sunlight as it can create harsh shadows.

2. Think about colour

Colour is where your creativity comes into play. Colour has a big impact on the overall feel of the image. We recommend vibrant colours contrasted against a neutral background. For example, a red berry dish photographed on a canvas of white or grey dinnerware.

It’s also fun to play with opposite colours in your food selections. Try mixing blue and yellow or red and green. The vibrant contrast will make your photo pop!

3. Arrange your food neatly

The composition of each element should be thought out delicately. Nothing throws your viewers off like messy food! Be careful to clean up any sauce or stray grains.

You can have a lot of fun arranging your food. Try cutting your vegetables into interesting shapes, or aligning items parallel on a plate.

4. Keep it simple

You don’t need a lot to make your photo pop. If your food subject has a bold colour and shape, and you have a contrasting coloured background, a minimalist composition can create a strong impression.

Try positioning your subject perfectly central within the frame, and don’t use any heavy decorations.

5. Use a neutral background

If your background is too visual the attention is drawn away from your beautiful food. The three key backgrounds loved on social media are simple dark backgrounds, light backgrounds and wooden backgrounds.

We recommend an off-white bone china such as Marc Newson, or matte stoneware such as Colorwave to bring out the modern feel of your photo.

If you prefer darker backdrops, browse the Colorscapes collection – always a popular choice for foodies.

Make sure you tag @noritakeaus with your foodie creations so we can enjoy your creative snaps!