On the eve of Thanksgiving 2021, following are select food-related metrics for social media postings on Instagram.
- #food has topped 467.5 million posts [1]
- #foodporn (of all names for a hashtag!) just passed 275.5 million posts [2]
- #instafood wasn’t far behind, nearing 211.3 million posts [3]
- #whatiate is on the verge of 570 thousand posts [4]
In 2018, Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania released findings of a targeted study designed to “unfurl the tightly-wound mystery of what makes food photos popular or go viral.” Not surprisingly, it started with Photography 101: “Photos that adhere to the ‘rule of thirds,’ a common photography composition principle, were likely to be more aesthetically appealing.” [5-8]
Appropriately, that’s where working professional photographer Rebecca Simonov began her seminar on the subject at hand during her talk at CameraMall last Saturday. She weighted her focus far more on thinking than tools. [9,10]
In differentiating “dinner snapshots” from “food photography,” she advocated =making individual strategic decisions to create a cohesive composition=. The overarching workflow, then, advanced from subject (food), to composition (framing what the eye sees through the camera lens), and ending with “light” (how that framing will be rendered onto film stock or digital media).
Subject matter — and properties — drive sequence for a number of reasons. To illustrate this, Ms Simonov showed a photograph of a stacked sandwich, where the objective was to highlight layers. A profile composition served this purpose well. [13]
Alternatively, full-overhead was the better choice for garnish on a nicely plated serving.
Light, while arguably obvious, is often the least appreciated part of the mix. Here, she advocated sensitivity to nuance. “Light determines not only exposure,” she called out in one of her presentation slides, “but the mood and tone as well.
There is no one-size fits-all lighting setup. The same fruit drink in a glass lit with soft light is cold on cold. But with hard light, it can feel more refreshing, with sparkling highlights and hard shadows suggesting a hot sun or someplace warm.
Light can also work as a tool for composition.
I often like starting with my light coming from the back — which probably isn’t your first thought. Lighting from the front will flatten-out your subject, because you don’t have shadowing to separate it from the background.
Lighting from the back, or lighting from the side adds dimension to your image.
See Rebecca Simonov on Instagram for hundreds of additional images, spanning a wide variety of subject matter and lighting approaches. [14]
Five years ago, freelance social media consultant Aleksandra Atanosova noted that “#food, #foodporn, #instafood, and #yummy “are amongst the 100 most popular Instagram hashtags attached to a cumulative 438,921,588 photos on the platform.” [15]
Locally, Benny’s Bakery, Busch’s Fresh Food Market, Dan’s Downtown Tavern, Matty J’s Bakery and Cafe, Oscar’s Sports & Grill, and Tippens Market routinely post their own wonderful images to that stream. All are currently Followed by Saline Journal. [17-21]
But Ms Atanosova went on to make the case for social media images as more than consumer content. “Posting aesthetic snapshots of gourmet dishes,” she wrote, is “part of our visual self-presentation: polished photos show us in a positive light to others ….
And that “polished” presentation can be vastly improved with an easily accessible bit of forethought and discipline — beginning right this Thanksgiving eve.
References
- “#food” (Instagram hashtag).
- “#foodporn” (Instagram hashtag).
- “#instafood” (Instagram hashtag).
- “#whatiate” (Instagram hashtag).
- “What makes food photos on Instagram popular?” Brandon Baker (July 19, 2018) Penn Today.
- “The Rule of Thirds in 5 minutes | Creating More Dynamic Framing” Julian Discovers (March 12, 2017) YouTube.
- “Rule of Thirds” SLR Lounge.
- “Janet Deaton” Dell Deaton (February 15, 2018) Flickr.
- Rebecca Simonov (home page).
- CameraMall (home page).
- “Photo Composition: Framing” Matthew Gore (April 11, 2011) Light & Matter.
- “How to light Still Life” Digital Camera World (March 24, 2020) YouTube.
- “Outtake from a shoot for the August issue of @hourdetroit ft @guernseydairy” resimonov (July 29, 2021) Instagram.
- rsimonov (Instagram feed).
- “The Psychology of Foodstagramming” Aleksandra Atanasova (November 9, 2016) Social Media Today.
- bennysbakerysaline (Instagram feed).
- buschsmarket (Instagram feed).
- danstavernsaline (Instagram feed).
- mattyjsbaker (Instagram feed).
- oscarssportsgrill (Instagram feed).
- tippinsmarket (Instagram feed).
