Behind the Scenes: Editing Photos for the Gram and how to Correctly Take Food Photos!

Editing and Food Photos!

In the last blog post, photographing landscapes and creating exceptional captions was the topic at hand. As always, the photo recap! One week since the photo was posted and it received 460 likes. This definitely did not get as much attention as I would have liked it to get but it was to be expected because it was mainly to fit my feed and take a nostalgia trip to old my style of editing.

Editing is everything that happens after you take a photo so I like to call it the behind the scenes. The goal for editing, as stated by Aimee, is that "You don't need to transform yourself or your photos into an unrecognizable state... rather, use them to enhance the sharpness, color saturation, brightness, and other technical elements that make an amateur shot look super professional" (Song Aimee, 52). The apps that she recommends would be Snapseed, VSCO Cam, and Facetune (Aimee, 52). The functionality of each application varies and has different purposes for the photo that needs to be edited; which can all be found in your app-store. Her regime includes: "Snapseed for brightness and contrast, then Facetune for any unwanted clothing wrinkles or acne abolishment, and then VSCO cam for a very, very light filter so that the images in my grid all look uniform" (Aimee, 53). For the reason that Facetune is not free, I'll be switching it out for an app called PicsArt which essentially has the same capabilities. I've already gotten the feel of how to use each app so I'll give my take on how I personally use them to my Instagram advantage.

Snapseed has a selection tool that most editing software doesn't have which allows me to choose different parts of a photo and increase its brightness, contrast, or saturation. For example, if my face was too dark in a photo or I wanted my outfit to pop out, this is what I'd utilize. PicsArt is helpful because it acts in the same way as Photoshop and many helpful features but I mainly focus on its selection and blemish removal tool. Self explanatory and allows me to remove impurities that would taint a photo. Keep in mind with PicsArt and Facetune that you want to make your Instagram photos authentic, don't make them look too edited and fake. Lastly, VSCO Cam is an application I've used since I first started Instagram. It has it's own grid function so planning out feeds can be extremely useful on this app. There's a multitude of editing options to change the look of an image and it has copy and paste edits functionality. It is a must for anyone who wishes to get serious with editing photos and the best part of it is that it's free. Smart, and proper use of each app (and consideration of my feed theme) has allowed me to take my photos to the next level to strive for uniqueness.

Applying what I learned from editing, I will be demonstrating it on a food photo! My sister started Instagram first and I always got annoyed at her for taking photos of the food because I just wanted to eat, oh how the roles shifted. I visited a Hawaiian-Asian fusion restaurant in Seattle called Sam Choy's Poke to The Max and ordered a chicken katsu with pulled pork dish. The aroma of the small area had been welcoming and was decorated nicely with an open well-lit modern style room.This was a perfect time to show the things I have learned from my book!

Five of the essential things that Aimee explains are important when capturing a food shot are: timing, arrangement, lighting, angle, and most importantly; styling the shot. Here's the photo that I took.

NOT EDITED!

First, Aimee points out to always take your food photos before people start to eat as it can be quite annoying to have someone pull out their phone right in the middle of dining, unless you're eating by yourself of course; just remember to make sure your food doesn't turn cold! Next, I neatly arranged the dishes on the table to give it the look I'd like to have when I take the photo. Lighting comes next and the most important tip about lighting for food photos would be to "Snag a booth by a window whenever you can" (Aimee, 125). Remembering to always aim for natural light we sat near a window spot. The best kind of angles for photos such as these are the bird's-eye view from overheard or straight on (Aimee, 126). This gives the full depth of all the food you're trying to portray and gives it a clean, professional look. Lastly, styling your shot! The last piece of advice to remember would be: "Don't add anything too distracting or busy that takes away from the real star of your shot - your edible subject" (Aimee, 126). In other words, keep complex objects away from the main focal point to highlight the dish you're trying to portray. All of this was taken into consideration when I took this image!

Now comes the less fun part, the editing. I always turn to VSCO Cam first to put a preset filter (HB2 if you want specifics) to set the mood I wanted for the image and then put a bit of fade to match my theme. I turned the temperature lower by a little to offset the brown and to give it a slight tint of blue. Moving onto Snapseed, I saved the image from VSCO Cam and imported it into the application to make the dishes pop out more. I selected both dishes and increased their contrast. Facetune didn't need to be applied here and this is the finished product!

EDITED!

Maintaining an Instagram looks easy but to me there is a certain science to it that I'm truly passionate about. I hope you've learned something while reading this blog post and the photo will be uploaded shortly after this has been posted as usual. The next topics I'll be covering are flat lay photos and growing your audience!

 What are the photo editing apps you've discovered besides the one's I've stated previously? What are their advantages?

Works Cited

Song, Aimee, and Erin Weinger. Capture Your Style: Transform Your Instagram Images, Showcase Your Life, and Build the Ultimate Platform. New York: Abrams Image, 2016. Prin