Can a Food Photo Really Make the Taste Better?

March 18, 2021 Norwood Faulkner 0 Comments

Post a photo of your food before you’ve even tasted it? When you open Instagram your feed is full of it, food photos. Nowadays more food than ever is shared on social media. It starts at breakfast: the most beautiful Acai bowls, avocado toasts and waffles are prepared early in the morning for a perfect #foodporn photo. A sandwich with peanut butter for breakfast is of course not interesting for the photo.

Taking pictures makes your food taste good

The eye also wants something, and this also applies to food. But are all those photo moments during breakfast, lunch and dinner really necessary? New research shows that taking a photo before you eat can really make your food taste better.

The following was tested:
More than 120 people participated in the study. The study tested the taste of tempting, Instagram-worthy food and healthy food, such as a salad or fruit. There was also a part of the participants who had to take a picture of their healthy or unhealthy food before eating and a part who was allowed to eat immediately. Three things were tested.
First, the participants were served an unhealthy Red Velvet Cake. The participants who took a picture of the cake in advance gave the cake a higher score than the participants who did not take a picture. The striking thing: it was exactly the same cake. The participants were also served something healthy: a fruit salad. The results showed no difference in score between the participants who took a photo before eating the fruit salad with the participants who did not.

Unhealthy versus Healthy
After this initial study, the researchers wanted to elaborate on the difference between photographing tempting and healthy food. Participants were again served the same Red Velvet Cake. One cake was presented to the participants as healthy, made of low-fat frosting and rich in protein, and the other cake as temptingly full-bodied and decadent ingredients. It was exactly the same cake again and the participants were again asked to take a picture. The unhealthy, tempting cake again scored higher than the ‘healthy’ cake.

Here’s some super easy tips and hacks to master food photography in the comfort of your own home.

Instagram makes you healthy
Finally, it was tested whether healthy eating can be made attractive by photos. The researchers found that if they make the participants aware that other people are busy with healthy eating, for example by showing them pictures on Instagram of smoothies or beautifully photographed salads, they also enjoyed this healthy food more. When we see other people making healthy choices, it becomes more attractive for us to do so. When we photograph our healthy food, we are part of the # fitboy / girl generation and that makes that green bowl of salad suddenly taste really good.

When we take a better picture of our food tasting, at least we are subconsciously convincing ourselves. Like ‘ariana,’ a talented photographer who can take stunning pictures on any occasion that really impresses you. Just like when you take a picture of your food, it must look delicious.