If you've ever taken a photo of your dinner in the glow of a single tea-light, under a buzzing fluorescent bulb, or on a patio at noon, you understand the power of a filter to mask and tweak your food into a perfectly-lit situation.
We can't tell you too much about our new app just yet, but we can tell you that there will be food photos and we want to help you make those photos look delicious. So tell us: What would your dream filter do?
Would it make 10 P.M. spaghetti look excellent, every time? Or your salads more dramatic? Your orange chicken less orange (or ... more orange)?
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Tell us what you want out of your dream food photography filter in the comments below—we'll use your feedback to create the best food-friendly filters on our new app.
Photo by Sarah Jampel, filter action by James Ransom
Written by: Leslie Stephens
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19 Comments
Anna M.
February 10, 2019
Such great tips! I never realized all your photos were taken with an iPhone – they’re beautiful!! What do you think about this article http://fixthephoto.com/blog/retouch-tips/how-to-edit-food-photos.html
Jessmand
March 6, 2016
I love filters - the Lo-Fi on Instagram is my favorite. But I equally love adding a simple white or black frame to my photos. I find they add a nice touch and created the look of a finished photo.
thalia H.
March 6, 2016
increase whites + highlights, cool down the tone and add a slight fade gradient to the overall photo
Belén T.
March 5, 2016
Remove shine/glare. Also, a feature I love in picasa, is being able to easily adjust the white balance > just click where "white" is supposed to be in the photo and everything else adjusts.
Coco E.
March 5, 2016
Something that sharpens and adds structure subtly, corrects incandescent light to mimic natural light (cooler, to make whites truly white), lowers highlights by a little, increases shadows more, and adds contrast. And since it's difficult to properly add color given a hued light, might as well go the other way and desaturate slightly to give the photo a minimalist mood?
Crumbs A.
March 5, 2016
Personally, I edit within the Instagram app using their editing features rather than a specific filters. I generally like to brighten the photo a bit, enhance the colors, adjust the temperature so it's not too warm and sometimes increase contrast to make things pop. I guess my ideal filter would be one that could do all that in one click!
SandyToes
March 5, 2016
My kitchen lacks natural light and the incandescent bulbs overhead give everything a yellow cast, including my surf white granite and my white porcelain plates.
Charlotte L.
March 4, 2016
I'd like a filter that makes my iPhone pictures look like the Food 52 pictures posted on Instagram. Having the option to have a retro filter or two would be nice as well.
702551
March 4, 2016
More helpful than post-processing filters would be white balance control so your original image has the correct color. VSCO Cam and Camera+ are two photography smartphone apps that provide this setting.
White balance control has been in point-and-shoot digicams for maybe 10-15 years. It's a shame that so few smartphone apps have this setting in 2016.
White balance control has been in point-and-shoot digicams for maybe 10-15 years. It's a shame that so few smartphone apps have this setting in 2016.
jennifer
March 4, 2016
My dream filter would soften shadows, brighten the overall image, make colors pop and provide all this for indoor and outdoor photos.
Stephanie
March 4, 2016
I really like M's idea that filters should be labeled based on which type of lighting the photo was taken in. When I take photos at home under my kitchen's artificial lights, they always look fuzzy and super yellow-y. Something to fix this and make the food pop would be very useful!
Joy H.
March 4, 2016
Since a lot of my food pics are taken indoors and without natural sunlight, a cool, blue filter would be awesome!
cvillacarlos
March 4, 2016
I would like a filter that will help correct my poorly-lit photos (taken inside dimly-lit restaurants at night, or inside a dark room) and make them look as if I took them during the day with lots of natural light! That said, I like the photo on the bottom left the best, as it's not too blue (the lemon still has its natural yellow color unlike the on in the top right photo) and seems to have the best natural lighting. The one on the top left looks ok too, even if it seems to give the food a bit of a soft, orange glow. Good luck with the app! Looking forward to it. I feel as if there will be more food photos in my future, with a more disgruntled, hungry husband!
702551
March 5, 2016
As for poorly-lit photos, that's a function of exposure. For proper exposure, you need to get more light to the film plane (in digital cameras, this is an imaging digitizer instead of a piece of photosensitive film).
When the light is low, you need to increase the exposure time (slower shutter speed) and/or increase aperture. Of course, longer exposure times risk blurriness due to camera motion, a significant risk with handheld photography.
No filter will adequately correct for this. Use physical camera stabilization like a tripod or illuminate the scene judiciously (which typically isn't using the on-board flash unit).
Or wait several years for devices with more sensitive imaging components.
When the light is low, you need to increase the exposure time (slower shutter speed) and/or increase aperture. Of course, longer exposure times risk blurriness due to camera motion, a significant risk with handheld photography.
No filter will adequately correct for this. Use physical camera stabilization like a tripod or illuminate the scene judiciously (which typically isn't using the on-board flash unit).
Or wait several years for devices with more sensitive imaging components.
Ren W.
March 4, 2016
I really like what M had to say also, there's really only one thing I do to tweak photos and that's boost contrast, so if the filter helped with that, that works for me.
M
March 4, 2016
For me, it's not about a dream filter, but filterS, which would be named by what they're designed to accentuate, both for scenario (low-lit resto, flourescent cafeteria, home, etc) and food types (salad, meat, pasta, etc).
Amanda S.
March 4, 2016
It would make harsh shadows softer! I don't know if that's possible but a girl can dream. Also: cooler, bluer light—always.
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