by Clare Cassidy

It may seem obvious, but it all starts with really great looking food. Anyone can take a decent shot with their iPhone these days, but it takes professional lighting, styling, and the perfect angle for food to really look great.

Here are our top five tips for creating food content that really stands out.

1. Use professional lighting and food stylists

Take this example of a glass noodle dish Curious Crab shot for Lee Kum Kee. Note how the light highlights the eggs and chilli sauce. The lighting set-up was adjusted several times to achieve this, and the food stylist spent an hour twirling the noodles, adjusting the colourful condiments and placing the chopsticks to create the most eye-catching version of this dish we could get.

2. Know which platform you are shooting for

Different platforms require different aspect ratios, and it is always best to shoot your videos with these requirements in mind. Imagine Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, Amazon and traditional media as different sized screens. You’d want to fill every inch of the space provided to you to grab the maximum amount of attention. So, when you are planning a campaign, think about the social media platform you intend to use and make sure you give your team enough time to shoot in every aspect ratio you need. A clever little hack production teams use is to create a set up that would work for both portrait and landscape. Here is the same noodle dish in portrait and landscape, same set up - flipped on its head.

Noodle Soup Landscape

Noodle Soup Portrait

Each social media platform also requires a different tone. Tik Tok users prefer their videos to be more rough and ready, shot on the go, with no bells and whistles. Aesthetics matter more to Instagram audiences. Don’t shoot the same video for both platforms, one of them just wont work. Rather allocate time to shoot each video completely differently. It will be worth it when the viewing figures come in.

3. Take time to get that Ooze Factor

At Curious Crab we measure our video’s success according to the ooze factor. In other words, can we get our food to ooze taste appeal. How does one achieve this? By making sure the audience can see the dripping sauce, the crisp batter, the oozing cream. Getting nice and close to the subject helps, holding it up to screen is even better. Seeing somebody interact with the dish also helps. Would you rather see a jam doughnut on a plate, or watch as somebody tears a jam doughnut open and allows the jam to ooze out? Would you rather see pork crackling being plated up, or listen as someone crunches into that first bite? Take a look at this gorgeous shot of our Korean Fried Chicken Wing for some delicious inspiration.

4. Test your recipes

Recipes play a huge role in your video’s success. At Curious Crab we have a team of chefs dedicated to finding the most accessible, delicious recipes for our campaigns. In general, the recipes that audiences can imagine themselves making tend do well. Simple, yet inspirational recipes are tough to find. In this world of abundant foodie social media accounts, think about how you can find that one recipe that will stand out from the crowd.

5. Find one stand out moment

Finally, it is always important to go the extra mile on productions. Ask yourself if you can grab the audience’s attention in one stand out moment. It could be a quirky idea, a gravity defying moment or a smart transition It’s moments like these that can elevate a video and really cut through the social media clutter.