DIY Photography Tips for Your CNY Menu : F&B Tips

Chinese New Year is coming up, the festive season of family reunions and good food is arriving. Everyone is now a potential customer of your restaurant! Have you prepared your very own curated Chinese New Year food menu?

The best way to attract customers is to make a menu that is equally delectable and visually appealing. Take some time to take pictures of your spread to bring out the best of the menu.

Share it on social media to get your customers hooked!

Yes, we get it that hiring pros can sometimes be expensive for startups or new businesses. So, these are some beginner-friendly tips and tricks on food photography to D.I.Y. , even when you are relying on your smartphone You’re welcome!

1. Get On-Point Natural Light

Firstly, find an indirect, natural source of light as your lighting for your food photo. A hint? Set your photos near a window, and have as much light come in as you can, but don’t take too long to get the shots.

Ideal lighting for your photo might change since the daylight changes as well. Another pro tip, don’t use flash as it will look too harsh.

Have the light focus straight on your food subject. If possible, block off any other light that the background gets. Let your dish be the main character of your photo!

2. Pick a Key Object and Surround It with Relevant Elements

Don’t be greedy, pick one dish at a time and focus on it. Slightly blur the other objects so customers know exactly what they are looking at.

At the same time, have some objects in the foreground and background, make it look like it has a personality, is colorful, as well as depth. The point is, don’t let these supporting elements steal the show. Unsure what to include?

Think of its origin, its Ingredients, sauces, oils, and even cooking utensils. Since it is about Chinese New Year food, some red ornaments and red packets can work too to bring more auspicious meaning!

3. Know The Best Time to Shoot Your Food

Other than getting a good timing for natural light, it is also important to shoot the photos right after it is done cooking – some before!

Certain food, such as leafy vegetables are a lot more vibrant when not fully cooked. Meat also tends to lose its colors in the stew, or simply discolored after cooking.

As such the perfect time to take pictures are often when they are half-cooked to make them look more appetizing for customers. This is especially true for the festive season.

4. Garnish and Arrange Your Food to Make It Stand Out More

For certain foods like meats, braised rice, and soups can sometimes have stale colors. This unfortunately makes them uninteresting to photograph.

To counter that, we recommend garnishing them thoroughly with relevant bright color vegetables, herbs, and spices to brighten up their color scheme.

When necessary, you can also spritz some oil or water to give it a fresh-out-of-the-kitchen look.

Let the overall appearance of the dish be vibrant and appealing is the key! Refer to a classic example below for a nice arrangement and a touch of green to bring up vibrancy.

5. Apply the Rule of Thirds

A simple but also important concept is the rule of thirds – when the food object isn’t directly centered in the shot but is taken in one of the “thirds” of the picture.

Imagine the picture is divided into 3 sections, it can be top, middle or bottom, or left, middle, or right. Either way, try to picture the foods in one of these sections to give it a personality.

You could try something like this:

6. Shoot from a Few Angles & Distances to Experiment

All foods are created differently from each other, and that’s why some foods look a lot better with certain angles over others.

For example, flat foods are a lot better pictured when taken from an above shot, as it captures everything on the dish.

At the same time, larger foods such as a whole roast chicken are better taken at a 45-degree angle to give the whole picture and size of the dish well seen by customers.

Experiment with different angles while taking inspiration from pro photographers and their pictures to grasp the idea of angling.

7. Keep the Background Simple & Neutral

Backgrounds are also a good way to bring focus to your dishes, plain backgrounds like dark, light, or wood help to keep the attention constantly on the food.

At the same time, it is very important to also give some personality to the food, so a super plain background wouldn’t be fitting for the festive season.

On that note, the next related tip on the list is that you find the balance between your background and your main focus for it to be non-distracting yet interesting.

8. Show Off Your Interior

Let’s move a little bit of the food into the background, and that is your restaurant interior design. It’s the Chinese New Year so of course, you’re gonna decorate your interior to suit the theme and season.

Although this is for your menu, do show off some of your interior decoration too to let your guests know what to expect when dining in!

9. Let Your Food Tell a Story

This is the part to let your creativity shine, it’s the festive season when every dish can be given its own story.

So plan and design it uniquely over your competitors, and give it some human touch.

Through your photography, express an idea about its inspiration or its origin.

You have nailed your shots if your customers feel emotionally connected and touched by your stories!

Need a menu card to complement your beautifully taken photos? We’ve got you covered as well. Hit this link to download. You’re now all set to attract more customers!