Checklists & Templates

Identify your best window. Walk each room at your planned shoot time. Note which window produces the softest, most even light. North-facing windows provide consistent indirect light throughout the day. South-facing windows have stronger, more directional light that shifts with the sun.

Check for direct sunlight. Direct sun creates harsh, high-contrast shadows that are difficult to work with. If your window has direct sun, diffuse it with a white curtain, a piece of white tissue paper, or schedule your shoot for a time when the sun has moved.

Position your shooting surface. Place your table or board perpendicular to the window, not facing it. Your food should receive light from the side, not from the front.

Prepare your foam board reflector. Position it on the opposite side of the food from the window. Start with it about 12 inches from the food and adjust. Closer means more fill light and softer shadows.

Turn off all artificial lights. Overhead room lighting mixes with window light and creates color casts that are difficult to correct in editing. Shoot with window light only.

Choose your background surface first. Lay it down before you place any food. The background sets the tone for everything else. Matte textures photograph better than glossy ones.

Place your hero item off-center. Using the rule of thirds, position your main subject at an intersection point rather than dead center. This creates more visual interest and leaves room for supporting elements.

Add one supporting element at a time. Place one prop, look through your camera. Add another only if something feels absent. Remove anything that competes with the hero item for attention.

Check your negative space. The empty areas of your frame are as important as the filled ones. A third of your frame should have breathing room. Cramped scenes feel anxious.

Look for diagonal flow. The eye moves through an image along diagonal lines. Arrange your elements so they create a path from one corner to another. Straight horizontal or vertical arrangements feel static.

Check for distracting backgrounds. Look at the edges of your frame. Are there items that should not be there? Cords, packaging, clutter? Remove them before shooting.

Decide your angle before you shoot. Flat dish with an interesting top surface? Overhead. Drink, layered cake, sandwich with height? 45 degrees. Mixed scene with multiple heights? Try both.

Lock your exposure and white balance. In your phone camera app, tap and hold on the food to lock focus and exposure. This prevents the camera from adjusting automatically between frames.

Shoot in portrait orientation for social media. Vertical images take up more screen space in Instagram feeds and stories. Shoot portrait, crop to square if needed.

Take at least 8 frames per setup. Small variations in angle, distance, and composition reveal which framing works. You only need one great image, but you need options to choose from.

Step 1 - White Balance. This is the most important adjustment. Tap the White Balance tool. If your food looks too orange or yellow, move the Temperature slider left (cooler). If it looks blue, move it right (warmer). Match what the food actually looked like in person.

Step 2 - Exposure. Adjust overall brightness. Aim for a bright image with detail still visible in the lightest areas. Underexposed images lose detail in shadows when you try to recover them.

Step 3 - Highlights and Shadows. Pull Highlights down slightly to recover any blown-out bright areas. Push Shadows up slightly to reveal detail in dark areas. This compresses the tonal range and makes food look more appetizing.

Step 4 - Clarity. Add a small amount of Clarity (around +15 to +25) to sharpen textures. This makes bread crusts, fruit skin, and cheese look more defined and tactile.

Step 5 - Vibrance (not Saturation). Increase Vibrance slightly to boost muted colors without making already-saturated colors look artificial. Saturation affects all colors equally and often makes food look unrealistic.

Save as Preset. Once you have an edit you like, tap the three dots and save as a preset. Apply this preset to your next batch of images. Adjust only exposure and white balance per image. Your feed becomes cohesive automatically.