What Exactly is Food Photography?
Food Photography is when the subject of the photography is the food. It's a genre of still life photography for advertisements. The images are used for restaurant menus, websites, promotional materials, social media, and other uses. One of the more recent uses is for Uber Eats, Doordash, and other food order and delivery services.
Reasons why professional food photography Important?
Makes people want to order
Having high quality images is a crucial step to entice your potential customers to make a reservation or place an order at your restaurant, food truck, or whatever type of food service you run. You want to make a great first impression. Human being are visual creatures and we have reactions to food we see. We eat with our eyes first.
Professional photos build trust
If you want to charge certain prices for your dishes you want to show your customers that you care about your food and its important to you first. Nothing does that better than having professional photos from an experienced photographer. Also a high quality photo shows off your food better. Its get the color and details right.
Increase sales
The photos will speak for themselves and increase sales. A description of a photo is nowhere near as impactful as a photo to accompany it.
Shows off food that customers may not be familiar with
Some customers may not be familiar with the type of cuisine that you offer and having a photo of it can help them make a better decision. How often does a customer see a dish at another person's table and ask what is it? I bet it happens a lot and you want to show that off either on your menu, website, or social media.
Why you shouldn't use a phone for food photography
Although smartphone are very capable devices, they are not specialty tools for photography. They can do great for the most basic casual photos but you don't want to take short cuts with your business.
Small sensors
Smartphones have small sensors and therefore are pretty bad in dim lighting. The manufactures have done well with software but it often looks over processed, too sharpened, and fake. You simply can't overcome physics and the small sensor is a real limitation to overall image quality.
Lighting
When I do food photography I use professional lighting to get a quality image no matter what environment I'm in. This involves flashes, triggers, umbrellas, etc. With smartphones you don't have the ability to use a proper off camera flash to soften the light properly.
Lenses
When using professional cameras you have the ability to change lenses and adjust to your environment you're in. Most smartphones are limited with lenses. You often want to shoot with a telephoto lens that almost no smartphone has.
My Food Photography Pricing
Pricing is something that is custom to the particular restaurant and number of assets they require. The best way to get a quote is reach out directly and describe what your needs are. I pride myself on being competitive yet reasonable.
As a local photographer in Jersey City, NJ I had the pleasure of working with many restaurants in the area. My goal is to offer affordable photography for clients and build long term relationships. I serve restaurants, chefs, bloggers, and more in the NJ/NYC metro area.
If you're interested in discussing options please reach out.
______
Jason Logan
Food Photographer
JMT Photography & Media | Jersey City, NJ
Phone | 201-736-8695
tags: jersey city, nj, food photographer, photography, nyc, portrait photography