Tips for Choosing the Best Food Photographer

Do you own or manage a food-related business like a restaurant, a cafeteria, a bakery, or a related product? Do you want it to stand out from the rest? If so, then you must ask yourself, are you marketing the business appropriately? Well, when it comes to marketing your food business, then the very first thing you need for this is some good food photography. There are many stock photography sites online that sell away almost all sorts of food photos, but if you want your food photography to be unique, you must hire a professional food photographer.

When it comes to hiring a professional food photographer, the procedure can be a bit daunting, especially if you are doing it for the very first time. Being an expensive affair, you need to be very careful before considering one for promoting your food business. Moreover, because there are many professionals in the market, you must carefully pick the most appropriate one.

Besides considering your budget, there are many other things to keep in mind when hiring a professional for the job of food photography.

The following tips will help you select the right person.

Tips for Choosing the Best Food Photographer

Consider the Specialties

The expertise of the food photographer needs to be considered before hiring one. Food photography is subdivided into different sections, including editorial food photography, advertisement food photography, packaging food photography, motion food photography, website, and blog food photography. Every photographer is an expert in a specific niche. Some are experts when it comes to commercial photography, while others are experts when working with natural light. They understand different lighting that is required depending on the type of project.

If you are looking for a photographer for promoting your food business like your restaurant or cafe, then find a photographer with editorial, website, or blog food photography as his/her niche. However, if you are not aware of the different types of food photography, then you should opt for an all-rounder.

Get Recommendations

Getting recommendations of quality food photographers from your close ones who have a business like yours is one of the best things that you can do. It is an easy way to get personal reviews and also get to know more about the food photographers, without even seeing their work.

View their Portfolio

The photography skills of any food photographer can be judged by checking the recent projects that he/she has accomplished. Most of the professional food photographers keep a record of their best images. Pretty often, they have an online portfolio on their websites, blog, or a page on social media. You can view the food pics on their portfolio. Pick out those photos that he/she clicked for a client whose business is similar to yours.

Interview the Shortlisted

Out of the many food photographers, shortlist a few based on the above-given tips and interview them personally. It will help you understand their style and also if you would be comfortable working with them. Do not just treat the food photography for your food business, just like an assignment where the food photographer that you hire will get back to you with some brilliant food photos. Instead, it would help if you collaborated with him/her and explain in detail your vision and what you want in the images. You can also elaborate on your ideas during the meeting.

Here are a few questions that you must ask when you are meeting with a photographer. These will help you decide who to hire:

• What type of props will you need for the shoot?
• Will you need a food stylist for the shoot?
• What will be the location of the photography?
• When and how long will it take for the shoot?
• What will be your average cost?

Choose the one with more experience

Food photographers who are new in business, may not be aware of all the aspects to make a shoot successful. If you are considering their service for marketing your food business, you will need the food photographer who is aware of good lighting practices and editing. All of these things come with experience. The newbies might not be able to do all of this at the same moment. Since they are new in the industry, they might not be confident to work in different environments and manage all types of shots. You may not get what you are expecting, which could be disappointing, and your business will lose money.

Therefore, it is recommended to choose a professional food photographer having an experience of at least 3-5 years or more depending on your requirements.

Beware of Heavy Editing

Many of the food photographers make use of photo editor available online for editing the images. It may not be ideal, and you have to be aware of the current trends. A professional food photographer would stay away from this type of heavy editing and would stick to the originality of the photo. You might not be able to make out the difference between edited photographs and the natural ones. Therefore, minimal editing is often the preferred way so that the food looks imperfectly perfect. An experienced and professional food photographer will be happy to discuss the details with you and give you minimally edited and styled images.

Editing is a crucial part of photography. Knowing how to edit in a way that doesn’t damage the original pic is very important. Also, it is critical to make sure that the original version of the pic is nearly perfect. If you do not take care of that, then no matter how much you edit, the photo won’t look appetizing.

So if you own a restaurant in Dubai and looking for a professional food photographer to market your business, Teena Agnel is one of the best photographers in Dubai. She not only has an experience of over five years in the food photography business, but she excels in food styling too.