If you want to make your food insta worthy then you need to do a bit more than just plonking your meal on a plate and then taking a pic to upload to the ‘Gram. Adding a pretty background, maybe even a couple of props and some natural light can transform your food photography from yuk to yum! That’s where the #thefoodiebag from the Cotton Bag Co comes in really handy. This canvas bag contains 4 gorgeous backgrounds, a 5 in 1 pop up reflector/diffuser plus 8 cards with handy hints and tips for taking amazing photos of your food. Whether you are just starting out with a food blog or want to improve your insta game then check my #thefoodiebag Review to see if it is well worth buying.
The reflector that comes with the bag is a 15 inch, 5 in 1 pop up photographic reflector and diffuser. It has white, gold, silver and black panels that can be zipped around the diffuser for different options of lighting. This will help to brighten and enhance both highlights and shadows. Plus it can also alter the light and colours in your images.
The first image is an unedited plain photo taken in natural light. The other is what each coloured reflector can do to the unedited image. I would then either edit them by adjusting the brightness/contrast, saturation and exposure on the Camera+ app or by using a preset filter in LightRoom.
Inside a cardboard tube are a set of four beautiful A2 sized backgrounds from Black Velvet Styling. This photographic backdrop company was set up by stylist Sophie Purser as she wanted to provide affordable backgrounds for us foodie types. These backgrounds are fantastic for transforming your dishes from oh? into woah! The A2 background is the perfect size for food photography using your phone camera. The four backgrounds are marble, a black rusty sheet effect, a plastered effect and also a green shaded one. There are a few others on her site that have caught my eye. I love the Fez which is a green and white chevron tile as well as the weathered old mill board. You can buy these on the website for £12 each and there is currently a 4 for 3 offer on.
There are 8 postcards with the most gorgeous photos on them by Matt Inwood. He has shared some of his hints and tips on how to get the most from shooting with your phone camera on the reverse of the postcards. The tips explain how well to use light, composition and backgrounds in food photography as well as how to edit your images.
All of the above can be stored in the roomy canvas bag along with your phone, purse and anything else that you carry around with you. You can take the bag with you for all those insta pics of your dinner at the new local restaurant, brunch at your friend’s or even for those meals at home. Just whip out one of the backgrounds, lay it on the table and position your plate. Then take some pics, upload to Instagram and wait for the likes.
Although I tend to only use images from my Olympus Pen camera on my blog I decided to go with the camera phone on this occasion to show you how the images look. I edit my images on the LightRoom app using a preset called Detail R1.
To be honest there wasn’t much to dislike about it. My only gripe was that I spilled some food on one of the backgrounds. When I wiped the food off I noticed that it had stained the paper. I then wiped it again with a wet cloth and it took the colour out. I will just have to cover that part with a prop or a dish in future!
I hope that you found this #thefoodiebag Review helpful. If you would love a #thefoodiebag either for yourself or for a foodie friend you can pick one up from the Cotton Bag Co for only £39.95 including p&p.
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