How to easily improve your bakery's bread photos

Growing on social media can be a long process, but a great way to improve your follower count and show off the capabilities of your business is to improve the quality of your photos! With just a little bit of effort following these steps, it is easy to produce much more professional and appetizing photos of your bakery confections.

1. Shoot In Natural Light to start.

The sun is an amazing lighting tool and can be much easier and cheaper for beginners to utilize than a studio light set. Set up your baked goods near a large, well-lit window and utilize the light from either the back or side of your subject. Consider adding white poster boards just off the sides of the frame to redirect and take control of the light to reduce shadows. If the light is too harsh, using a piece of wax paper or another semi-transparent material to diffuse the light is an option as well.

Excellent use of natural light from the left and front to create shadows and depth.

2. Use A Neutral Background that won’t distract from the subject.

This isn’t to say your background should not contrast your subject, often a nice dark wood or black background can help bring out lighter colored breads, and vice versa. The point is to make your subject pop from the background, while minimizing unattractive distractions.

The darker background creates excellent contrast, and makes the bread “Pop” from the scene.

3. Shoot from the best angles to highlight your goods.

Though this is not always apparent at first, through inspecting your subject you should be able to decide its “good side.” Try to hide any imperfections, and highlight the most beautiful parts of your baking. In general it’s good to get a bit lower with your bread, to produce shots with more character and depth. Over saturating your media with overhead shots is a common mistake to avoid.

4. Decorate The Scene.

This step is varied and can take many approaches. Whether you want to include something else you are promoting, or just want to break up a monotonous background, adding a little bit of scenery will make your photos more engaging and interactive. Of course the purpose of all this should be to lead the eye to the main focus, so keeping it simple and subtle is the golden rule here.

The wheat and flour help the photo tell a story, while not distracting from our main subject.

5: Its okay to edit or filter the photo

Sometimes the photo just wont come out the way your subject looks in real life. Whether it’s your equipment not capturing it accurately, or a mistake in your process, it’s okay to touch up the photo in post and show off your baking in it’s best light. Turning up the contrast or saturation a bit is something almost any photo can benefit from, so if you are trying to show off your product at its best feel no shame editing your content.

Same photo with light touch ups: the contrast and saturation help bring out the shadows, and texture of the rolls.

Once you have mastered these simple tips your photos are sure to be much more attention grabbing and engaging for our followers.

When it comes time for bakery consultation or advice, there’s no one like Stratton Sales. If you are ever in need of information or need a professional opinion, our consultants are experts on bakery design, manufacturing, and repair. Call (801) 973-4041 today!