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Marko Josipovic, a bakery and patisserie student at University College Birmingham and a Dawn Foods student ambassador, on how to make your bakery photos stand out online.

Marko Josipovic bakery student

”As a bakery student and keen food photographer, I often post photos of my creations on my Instagram feed @Marko_bakes.

When I started my food photography and food blogging journey, I just had an iPhone 4 and an old wooden table. I would take photos of food, not really caring about what was in the whole photo. Soon I learned that it wasn’t the camera that was doing the bad job, it was me.

You don’t need fancy camera equipment, especially if you’re just starting out. Get a few nice plates, paint a wall white, or invest in a good backdrop, and you’re set.

Here are some of my top tips:

Tip 1 – Lighting

I always use natural light, taking photos right next to the window of my kitchen. However, make sure that when you are taking photos, you look through the camera’s eyes first, and see how the lighting actually looks in the photo.

Tip 2 – Styling and angle

As a rule of thumb, I have three different angles from which I like to shoot: the overhead angle, the 45-degree angle, and straight on.

The overhead angle is great for desserts, where you want to show off shapes, symmetry, or patterns.

I usually use the 45-degree angle if I want to show depth or highlight a specific part of the dessert, such as a bite out of a sheet cake.

The straight-on angle is great for stacks of foods, such as cookies or pancakes, and it’s great for capturing drips or drizzles.

Tip 3 – Practice

You’ll never get an amazing photo on your first try, but if you keep trying and researching bloggers to see what they’re doing, you’ll adapt, learn and, eventually, find your own style of photography.

Also, never underestimate the power of a good filter. Editing photos is my favourite part of food photography. I am not very skilful in Photoshop, so I use editing apps on my phone to edit my photos. The app I use most is called ‘A Color Story’, but I also use ‘Lightroom’ with it.

Once you edit that photo and it looks even better than you expected, that’s when the magic happens.”

 

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