How To Shoot Food Videos
Food videography when done correctly makes a huge difference. Not only will it increase engagement, it'll also improve your company's branding and increase your sales & conversion.
Below are 5 important food videography tips to help you create some of the best videos:
- Use slow motion effect
- Use professional lighting
- Beautiful plating
- Have multiple camera angles
- Have good video pacing
1: Use Slow Motion Effect
This is very effective in showing cinematic movement in food videos, it looks best with slowing down something that is usually very faced paced.
For example, cooking with a large flame or even capturing falling powdered sugar on a cake. In order to achieve this, you need to be filming at a high film rate. A minimum of 50/60fps is needed for slow motion footage.
2: Use Professional Lighting
Read more about food photography lighting
This will be the most important point to make it look as cinematic as possible.
Firstly, we want to use only one type of light, soft lights. There are many types of lights that are available to us for example tungsten light, fluorescent light or even natural lighting from the window. And for each of these lights, there are harsh lights and soft light.
How do you know what is harsh and what is soft? A simple way of telling is to put your hand under the light, above a surface. If your hand’s shadow is clearly outlined, it means it's a harsh light. However, if your shadow is soft and the outline of it is smooth, that would mean it's a soft light.
Always use soft light as it's the most flattering looking for food. You can always make a harsh light soft by using a translucent light diffuser.
When setting up a shot, I would try to turn off all the lights in the room if possible and only use one or two studio lightings to light up the food.
3: Beautiful Plating
The final plating scene will usually be the part that people will remember the most. It is important to carefully select what kinds of background to use and colors that will make the food itself “pop”.
If you are having trouble thinking of ideas for food plating, sites like pinterest or instagram will have plenty of inspiration for any kind of food. Alternatively, engage a professional food stylist to help you.
4: Have Multiple Camera Angles
It is important to always capture the same action or scene from different angles. It’s easier if you have 2 cameras for filming different angles. One for wide to mid angle and the other for close ups to extreme close up angles.
If you don't have another person to help you film or dont have 2 cameras, you will just have to manually go close up and wide for each scene.
Repeat the same multiple times in order to capture them at different angles. It will also look nice in editing to have a “fake” 2nd camera look.
5: Have Good Video Pacing
When editing a food video, there are scenes where you need to speed up or slow down. For more repetitive scenes like prepping certain ingredients, making fast cuts or speeding them up would be good. It is also important to flow with the rhythm of the music choice as well.
Like Such Content?
A well-taken food photo usually complements food videography. Click below to learn more about food photography.