Why Restaurants Need High Quality Food Photography
There is a reason that everyone goes crazy for food photography — not only does it make you hungry as you scroll through Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest, it also makes you want to go to your favorite restaurants!
Any big foodie who is looking for their next new restaurant to try will often scroll through the food photography a restaurant has on their Yelp or Google page before deciding where to go. This is especially true if they are not familiar with the restaurant itself, or if they are traveling and unfamiliar with the local cuisine. That is because in the digital age online presentations count for something. For restaurants two things come into play more than anything else in digital marketing: (1) customer reviews and (2) food photographs and visual representations of your restaurant!
Mouthwatering Photos
The key thing to remember is that professionalism counts for something in how you market yourself—and high quality professional photos really make all the difference in how a restaurant is portrayed online. Of course you want your patrons taking pictures that are worth sharing when your food arrives at their table (making lighting and other presentation considerations equally as important)—however, you also want to have photos for your website, social media accounts, and review sites that are top notch and professional.
Food is surprisingly challenging to photograph. Not only do you need to have exceptionally good lighting and equipment to do the job right, you often need to have a food stylist or someone who is prepared to arrange the food in a very specific and detail oriented way (if you haven’t tried it yourself, plating is actually a very challenging part of cooking and presenting food). Professional food photographers know the steps that need to be taken to achieve “moth watering” awesome photos for your restaurant, so you are not just leaving it up to chance.
Not Just the Food, Environment is Important Too!
Quality professional photos go beyond food in the restaurant business. You also want to make sure that the environment of your restaurant is captured with the same detail and care that your food is. While people prioritize the cuisine when they are choosing a restaurant, many times they are also hoping for certain aesthetics or feel when they make a selection as well. Is your restaurant rustic, fun, quirky, clean, or upscale? Make sure the photography on your website and social accounts captures that! If you really want to go above and beyond, show your Chef at work or capture behind the scenes pictures in the kitchen as well!
The Takeaway: The Importance of Food Photography
All businesses need quality photography on their site to look professional. However, restaurants have it particularly challenging as food photography is something that takes an accessional skill to capture properly. Professional photographers know exactly how to style, light, shoot, and edit food photos and they often have a food stylist with them to do so. Further, they also know how to capture your restaurant environment and present your image in the best possible light. This of course helps to increase business and get more traffic to your door in the online world.
Have you considered hiring a professional to help with your restaurant’s photography? Let us know in the comments section below—we would love to hear from you!
