Taking Photos of Entrees for Restaurant Websites Taking pictures of food is not easy. It’s hard to present it in a way that makes it look attractive. One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a restaurant owner is taking pictures of the dishes you want to feature on your site on your own. This usually produces the worst possible results, so put the 3-megapixel point-and-shoot camera down and call a professional who works in restaurant web design. What you’ll need to concentrate on is making sure the photographer has the setup they need to make your dishes look great!
Light, light and more light Photographers will bring their own lights to a shoot. You’re going to need to have them come by your establishment when you’re closed or at a very slow time of the day. The light rigs alone are going to take up a considerable amount of space and you’re not going to want the liability issues that go along with having customers walking around near hot, electrified equipment. Ask the photographer how much room they’ll need for the shoot and be sure that you provide it for them. Cleanliness If your restaurant isn’t spotless, it’s going to show on the images the photographer gives to you after the shoot is done. Make sure you take extra time to clean everything up and to make sure that the dishes, silverware and other props you use for the shoot are all clean and polished. A smudge on a plate or a piece of silverware is much more noticeable in an image than it is in real life. Fixing images after the fact will increase the costs of your restaurant website design.
The Right Dishes Depending upon your proposed restaurant web design, you might want to have all of your best dishes cooked and ready to go or you might want to restrict the shoot to the ones that are appropriate for the season. If you’re having a lot of dishes shot, you’ll need to make sure that you have some provisions for preparing and preserving them while they’re waiting to be shot. Refrigerating some foods will affect how it looks, so be sure to ask the photographer about whether you should have the dishes hot when they’re photographed or if they should be cooled off to get a better photo. Formatting You’ll want to get the uncompressed images for your graphic designer. The photographer, however, may also be willing to offer touch-up services for the photos, so be sure to ask. Be sure to check with your restaurant web design expert about what format they want the images in. Some designers will want the full-sized image and will handle the compression themselves. Others will want an image that’s already compressed so that they can save time building the site. Make sure you photograph your best dishes. If you have a signature dish, you may want to get extra photos of it so that you can feature them on your website’s front page. If don’t want a photo of every dish you make, at least get the ones that really define your restaurant so you can feature them on your site.