Exploiting the "healthy food" trend
The number of overweight people has tripled since 1975: this is one of the findings underlying a major social media trend of the last ten years, the healthy food trend. Cult of appearances or simple promotion of a healthy lifestyle? Either way, this trend reinforces the importance of food photo shoots and in particular the shooting of healthy ingredients and dishes.
what is the healthy food trend based on?
“Healthy eating” is a term that broadly illustrates a healthy food trend with very broad horizons. The major mindset is of course to eat fruit and vegetables and to move away from sugars, chemicals and other saturated fats. Other factors come into play in conjunction with these; in addition to the contemporary overvaluing of the body and physical appearance, well-being and inner harmony are paradoxically gaining weight among Internet users. Reconciling pleasure with a keen sense of nutrition – and showing it: this is the challenge that the healthy food movement has set itself.
Healthy food is largely a matter of taste. From the simple hipster impulse on the terrace of a café to a real diet, it degrades and nuances itself as much as the range of restaurants. However, it would be nothing without the many photos posted on social networks. Instagram in particular is the perfect platform to spread fashion: local, quality, well-presented, varied and colourful products, beautiful above all. On the borderline of food porn, the healthy food trend is at best a journey of the senses, at worst an artificial paradise.
how to make a successful healthy food photo?
Want to increase your visibility on Instagram as an influencer? Promote your healthy products? The quality of the shots of the dishes is essential. Below you will find some basic rules of culinary photography, largely adapted to the healthy food trend.
– There is nothing better than daylight to illuminate the dishes. However, direct exposure should be avoided to avoid an overabundance of shadows in the photo. Natural light is therefore an asset if it is managed well.
– Simplicity is the watchword for the decor and the dishes used. In this way, it is the dish in question that captures all the attention and not its environment. Not to mention the fact that healthy food is logically accompanied by cutlery that appears relatively unadorned in the collective imagination.
– The ingredients used should be highlighted when the dish does not. Thus, they can be used as decoration of the dish, or of the table. Seeds are a perfect example: sprinkling pine nuts, sesame seeds or sunflower seeds on your dish can be a source of added value.
– It is essential to choose the right viewing angles to obtain the best photographic results. A simple shot from above or from the side is rarely enough to take the perfect food picture. Sometimes it is necessary to bet on the depth of field for example.
some photogenic dishes in vogue
The healthyfood trend is flooding social networks. You’ve probably seen dozens of bowls of colourful plates from friends on trips or weekends. Here are a few dishes that, if you’re well shot, are likely to make you more visible on social networks.
First of all, the “poke bowl” is emerging as the flagship dish of healthy food for summer 2018. Buddha bowl, veggie bowl, the variations of this social media star abound. Raw marinated tuna, soy sauce, avocado, vegetables and rice, this nutritionally flawless dish is almost unanimously acclaimed.
Vegetarian burgers are also particularly popular. Although classic, they remain at the top of Instagram’s summer food charts. High in fiber and available everywhere, they are strategically positioned in a variety of categories, from inexpensive to premium, which guarantees them a large market share.
Finally, 2018 saw the birth of the “superfoods” era. Cabbage kale, avocado, quinoa, nuts and acai… these colourful hipster products are often rich in antioxidants and other nutrients assimilated to superpowers. They generally offer very good photographic results.
Although the source of inexhaustible debate, healthy food is easily diffused and un-programmable; it is therefore a weighty asset for your shoots, visible, appetizing and able to arouse the emotion that is sometimes missing from certain standard advertising campaigns. Surf on the trend, but don’t overdo it: beware of the cliché!
If you wish to realize a food photo shooting for your restaurant:
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