Let’s cut to the chase. Social media content is easier to navigate for businesses that produce products or apparel, compared to food businesses. “Why is this?!”, you might ask! Well, food manufacturer’s must carefully consider their content. Posting photos without considering the below can not only be ineffective, it can actually damage your brand.
So here’s some tips to help out Australian food-related businesses:
1) A recent study has shown that looking at too many food photographs can often LOWER the viewer’s appetite.
By looking at multiple food images, their senses can become satiated and get ‘tired’ of the food before they’ve even eaten it! To avoid this, give your followers some visual relief by uploading different types of images to your profile. Good examples would be your packaged product shots or your manufacturing facilities/equipment.
2) Be sure to upload photos of the management and staff in the workplace.
Humanising your food brand in this way is one of the most effective methods of positioning your food manufacturing business as relatable in it’s day to day operation. So people will want to see you succeed.
3) Flash photography is also going to make your shots look awful.
Unless you’re using diffused pro studio flash, don’t use flash at all. Certainly not your phone or camera’s built-in or compact flash. The edge vignetting is enormous, the colour balance is thrown out, highlights blown out and unattractive shadows are created. Use natural light instead. If close to a window or light source, try bouncing some light back into the darker side of your plate from a white menu card or an opened serviette.
4) Finally, it doesn’t matter how good your product or food trend knowledge is, this does NOT qualify you to do your own photography.
Sorry, guys! Take it from one of the most famous names in the whole world of food – Martha Stewart, who does considerable and ongoing damage to her brand by posting horrific shots of food. I’ve included 3 of her shots below – so bad that they’re funny! For the sake of comparison, take a look at some of our own work on our gallery page, to get your appetite back! Enjoy!
Martha Stewart’s awful food photography (* NOT mine)!!!
