We’ve always avoided using our phones to take photos when we do restaurant reviews. At times it can get really awkward taking out a DSLR camera during a meal [especially when it is really busy], you just look like a mega excited tourist who is amazed by food. But sometimes you have to do what you do best and not really worry about what others think.
A few weeks ago we met up with a food photographer, David Griffen, who uses just his mobile phone to take the right shots. We were pretty sure that it would be very difficult for him to convince us that our phone can be just as good as our camera when it comes to food photography.
We spend a good two hours with him, he gave us some amazing tips that he had discovered over the years and we just made his life difficult by questioning everything he did.
We think it’s about time we share some the tips with you.
We had a three course meal at a Peruvian restaurant in Soho called Lima. The food was amazing, we really enjoyed our meal there, the portions are not massive but the atmosphere is relaxed and comfortable. And the food presentation was outstanding [we don’t think our pictures do it justice].
One of the most useful tips that you should always consider is where you decide to have the meal. Always try to choose table where there is enough light, you don’t want to be using flash. Natural light is always the best if you’re having a meal during the day [near a window].
If you like your apps then Camera Plus Pro may be just perfect to download [suggested by David]. It would be a massive lie if we said it’s amazing because we’ve actually only started using it ourselves but it has great ratings online [we will update you on this].
Did you know that you can buy lenses and tripods for your iphone? [they’re not even that expensive]. When David took out some cool lenses, we were amazed at how little we really knew about what is available out there. So maybe you should look into that.
The first things David did when we met was hand us over some white and grey A4 cardboard he had bought from Paperchase. You can use the white cardboard for when you want a plain white background and the grey card to balance the colour out.
Don’t be shy to ask if you can visit the kitchen to take some pictures of the food being cooked [we’ve just started to do this now].
In the end David did manage to convince us that if you know what you’re doing with your phone then it can be just as good for photo’s as your camera when you’re using them online.
