Food Gawker and analysed all photos that were approved by them. I was able to create a simple strategy that’s easy for beginners like me. You might have your own tricks if you’re an experienced person.
It worked like magic. Food Gawker has accepted all of my recipes and they have approved close to 50 recipes in the past 1.5 months. I thought it was worth sharing my knowledge so everyone can enjoy the same success.
1) Avoid artificial lights if you’re just beginning food photography. Photographs should be taken only in daylight. Avoid photos being rejected due to “bad exposure/lighting issues”.
2) Take photos from the bird’s eye view. Even though your food may look great from a different angle we can still use them on our blog, but not for Food Gawker submissions. Avoid photos being rejected because of their “awkward angle”.
3) Sit back and take the photos. It would be difficult to crop close-up photos. It is easier to take a photo from a distance and then crop it to focus on what is important. Avoid photos being rejected because they are “food cropped too often”.
4) Place a prop near the food. If you’re good at food styling, and do a great job, don’t worry. It is a good idea to place a fork, spoon, or napkin next to your food. Editing is also a good idea. Try to cut off small portions of the food so that the entire plate or bowl of food is not visible. Avoid being rejected for “composition”.
5) Before uploading to Food Gawker, crop the photo into a square with a photo editor like Photoshop. Don’t trust the crop tool that is provided when uploading. They don’t do a good job. Submissions are best if images are 550×550 pixels. Avoid rejection for poor image quality. My photos were rejected most of all because of this.
6) Sharpen your image after resizing. Sharpen your image after you have cropped and resized it to 550x550px. Sharpen only after you have resized the image. Avoid being rejected for “image not Sharp”.
7) Use photo editor tools to adjust levels and color. Auto-correcting pic levels and colors is a feature that all photo editors have. Auto Level and Auto Color in Photoshop are similar. It doesn’t take much time. It is also not necessary to have a lot technical knowledge. This tool does all the work. You just need to adjust the settings until your photo looks great. Avoid being rejected for “white balance problems”.