Terri Ramsey Beavers All food bloggers have to start somewhere. If you have a real passion and vision for creating your own beautiful dishes, this is the best start to becoming a successful food blogger. Even if your recipe repertoire is limited.
But the reality is that blogs are a dime-a-dozen these days, with over 31.7 million bloggers in the U.S. alone. With so much competition, it’s important to have your own edge.
So, how does one achieve drool-worthy blog status? Here are a few tips to set you off on the right track.
1. Follow Your Food Blogger Passion
Okay, this might sound a little cheesy (pun intended), but having a passion or niche that really motivates you is very important. Your food niche is what sets you apart from so many other food bloggers on the internet.
Whether you like to bake and incorporate boujee ingredients like edible silver leaf, or prefer rustic, home-style savory dishes, follow your heart and what you love.
Your passion for your chosen style of food will shine through and you’ll be able to connect with the right audience who truly appreciates you, for you.
2. Stick To Small Items of Crockery
Let’s be honest — most food blogs are all about food photography, right? So food styling is absolutely crucial to your blog’s success.
A great first tip for food styling is to stick to small plates and bowls when displaying your dishes. Large, oversized crockery can drown out what you’re displaying and make it look insignificant.
You want your dishes to look full, fresh, luscious, and delicious. Small crockery is your ticket to achieving this look.
3. Remember That Food Styling is About the Food
Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But don’t make the mistake of obsessing over every other detail that you forget about the ”drool factor” of your food.
When your audience is scrolling for recipe inspiration, you want them to be captured by the food, and not your crockery, backdrop, or some other detail. Although these factors are still important.
It’s always a good idea to photograph your dishes from a range of angles, including a close-up so your audience can see texture and shape. This helps them to further imagine the taste!
4. Match-up Your Food and the Mood
Certain types of food and the dishes you create with them will emulate a certain mood. Make sure to re-create this mood in your food styling to perfectly convey the message you’re trying to create.
For example, if you’re creating a winter recipe, such as a hearty bowl of risotto, make sure your props and styling emulate a warm, cozy, and inviting mood.
5. Curate a Beautiful Collection of Props
Nothing sells a delicious recipe better than how it’s styled — and props play a big role in this. While food styling is primarily about the food, your props can make all-the-difference to the final recipe shots you post.
As a food blogger, it’s important to build up a decent stash of props that you can pull out whenever it comes time to shoot a new dish.
Designate yourself a prop cupboard and work on adding the following styling staples:
- Simple plates and bowls with a matte finish — shine is not good for photo reflection
- A few patterned/textured plates and bowls to mix things up
- A few key pieces of vintage silverware
- Vintage glasses and a collection of wine goblets
- A collection of small serving/dip bowls
- Simple and elegant serving dishes
- A quirky, eclectic mix of baking tins
Aside from crockery and silverware, fresh herbs, fruits, nuts, and small bowls of salt and pepper can add interest and dimension to your styling.
Don’t forget about your backdrop, too. Get yourself some plain pieces of fabric, such as raw linen or muslin cloth for the perfect amount of texture and finish to your styling.
6. Use the Right Light
It’s no secret that lighting is make or break for your food photography. It’s crucial that you always shoot in the right lighting, and if you don’t have natural light, try and recreate it as best you can.
While harsh shadow is usually a photographer’s enemy when shooting a subject, it can be a brilliant prop when photographing food.
Shadow adds a certain amount of depth and texture, and can also help to set the mood around a specific dish you’ve created. So, there’s no need to completely avoid shadow, try and embrace it where you can.
7. Always Photograph Fresh Food
If you aim at re-creating a dish with food that’s a day or two old, the reality is that your dish is going to look that way. You don’t want your dishes to look lackluster — that does nothing for your blog.
Try to create a dish and photograph as soon as you can, after. Fresh food always looks best on camera (and in real life!).
If you’re photographing cooked meat, always brush the meat with its own juices for that delicious, just-cooked look. You can keep a salad or vegetable dish looking fresh with a spritzer bottle of water.
Always use a spritzer as part of your mixer when creating a drink with ice in it. It just photographs better.
8. Work Your Angles
Just like lighting, food angles play a huge role in the look and feel of a dish and how it shows up on your blog. Take some time to shoot each dish from a multitude of angles.
Start off with low angles, then move to eye-level, higher angles, then from an aerial view. This way, you can capture every element of the dish and provide your readers with as much detail and texture as possible.
Keep the type of dish in mind, too. Some dishes just don’t suit certain angles. For example, if you’re capturing a beef burger or slice of cake, shooting from a side-on angle works best to capture all the layers and texture.
While pizzas and salads work best with a top-down, aerial-view angle.
Lifestyle Blogging at Your Fingertips
If you’re a budding food blogger these tips should set you off on the right start to building a successful blog you can be proud of. Remember to give yourself some time to find your groove and your personal style.
If you’re interested in learning more about lifestyle blogging, recipe inspiration, health, wellness, décor, and DIY, explore this blog for your fix.
Image Attribution:
Adobe Stock royalty-free image #117064415, ‘Woman cooking in kitchen. Food blog concept, top view’ uploaded by Africa Studio, standard license purchased from ; file retrieved on May 5th, 2019. License details available at – image is licensed under the Adobe Stock Standard License.