Everyone is a food photographer these days. Instagram has become the new online portfolio for both professional and wannabe photogs. Our feeds are bombarded every day with overhead shots of carefully composed feasts that capture time spent with loved ones huddling around the dining room table. If  humblebragging about your latest restaurant conquest via a manicured photo isn’t on your agenda, don’t forget that people actually have to look at your pics, so why not spruce them up a bit? Here are 7 professional tips.
1. Go Out For Lunch Or Breakfast
Taking photos in natural lighting is always the way to go, whether it’s in a well-lit environment or outside.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BVCevKKhQR2
And if you do want to snap photos while dining during evening hours, whatever you do…
2. Don’t Use Flash
Good lord, using flash is the death knell. If you haven’t already seen someone else’s washed out photos, flash can make even the prettiest food look like a dumpster fire. One potential way to get around this: have one of your dining companions shine their phone light on whatever it is you want to take a photo of. Let’s not forget the Martha Stewart Thanksgiving incident of  2013.
Iceberg wedge with homemade Russian dressing. Perfect salad for the onion soup lunch pic.twitter.com/KQatWUKUdl
— Martha Stewart (@MarthaStewart) November 17, 2013
3. Step Up
Stand up and try shooting your food overhead. The higher angle will give your photo a “complete masterpiece” kind of look.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUwwrZVB7bw
4. Get Some Hands In There.
Those “action” shots are everything.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ_lQEAgsOp
5. Use Utensils
Forks and spoons are the perfect prop, either sitting on the dishes or next to them.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BBENVKkJ-lm/
6. Take It To-Go
Sometimes, the best photos aren’t inside at all. They’re on the sidewalk. Often times, taking a photo of your traveling food item of choice (sandwich, ice cream, burrito, waffle cone, cotton candy, etc.) looks best in its natural state: in your hands.
https://www.instagram.com/p/7vIzQak7hw
7. Use A Real Camera
Remember those things that came before iPhones? Lots of great Instagram photos are taken with these dinosaurs because they produce killer pics.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BRb9DQ7lZ-o
