Content Creation For Restaurants: No One Wants to Eat Your Ugly Photo's

Discussing how important food photography is for restaurants might be stating the obvious, however, time after time I see social media posts from restaurants taken in poor lighting with a 2yr old iPhone 6. If a restaurant invests in one thing they should start with hiring a professional photographer to take social media friendly content of their dishes, as well as guests eating their dishes, decor, ingredient's, the staff, the chefs, you name it.

I've been a food photographer for years and also run the website www.cuisineandtravel.com. If your photos don't look mouth watering, then you're doing your restaurant a huge disservice and may actually deter business. You are almost better off not posting anything at all, than posting a photo that makes your food look awful. You can almost guarantee a bad photo will cause potential guests to immediately cross your restaurant off their list of places to try. The problem is that food photography is one of the most popular niches on social media, especially Instagram. As a business it is your responsibility to factor in your marketing costs. With the huge increase in social media, engaging photography is a necessity.

With restaurant photography you are already at a disadvantage. The majority of restaurants have terrible fluorescent and dim lighting. Then there is the camera. Many of the newer iPhones take much better pictures, but don't even think about using an outdated iPhone. The best quality will always come from a professional interchangeable lens camera and this can be a huge investment within itself. Our camera equipment is close to 10k worth of gear. Then there is the styling and angles. This is something that frankly you either have or you don't have. Anyone can pick up a camera, but great photographers have the eye for it. It's the little things like adding a garnish and making sure its set at just the right angle, adding interesting elements faded in the background, or wiping off watermarks left on the table.

Once you have your content then you can really focus on using your marketing company to drive your sales and brand recognition. All those photos can be used on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. A good marketing agency will manage this for you and not by just scheduling your content. That is the easy part. An exceptional marketing agency should be targeting and engaging with your prospective customers. Once they see all of your amazing food you can bet they will come in for a visit!