Want to make your friends envious of what you're eating with some food porn? Before you hit "Share," remember that not all photos do your food justice. You need the right camera, the right app, and the right techniques to make your food look great. Here are some tips on how to take incredible food photos with your smartphone.

Use Your Smartphone’s Camera, Not an App

Image via Flickr by Steve A Johnson

Instagram is one of the most popular apps people use to share food photos, but other options include Hipstamatic and SnapDish. However, the photo functions on these apps are not as good as your phone’s camera. If you want to take incredible pictures of your food to share, use your phone’s camera first and then upload your photo to Instagram or another app later for editing. For instance, if you have a smartphone with an advanced camera such as the Xperia Z3 with 20.7 MP, you can take photos in HD resolution, but not if you use the Instagram app. That would be a waste. Take full advantage of the zoom and megapixels that your smartphone's camera offers. And, remember that you can delete anything you don't like, so just keep snapping.

Stage Your Food for Success

Image via Flickr by Luca Nebuloni

That hamburger you’re about to eat might be the juiciest, most savory dish you’ve had in a month, but that doesn’t mean a photo will make it look that way. Half the battle of taking a good food picture is your presentation. Try lots of different angles and don't forget to consider your background. Also, don’t wait around too long to take the photo or your food might get soggy and less appetizing. Imagine how great it would be to catch some of that steam from your sizzling plate of fajitas to take your food porn to the next level.

While you're staging, be sure to pay attention to your lighting, too. Restaurants commonly have dim lights to create a comfortable atmosphere. However, this lighting is bad for photos. It makes your food look flat and uninviting. When possible, aim for natural lighting when taking pictures of your food. It will help with both the contrast and color of your photo. You also want to avoid using flash because it creates unnatural shadows that can destroy your photo. If possible, instead of using your smartphone’s flash, have your dining companion light up your food with his flashlight, then take the photo.

Don’t Go Overboard with Filters

Image via Flickr by jeffreyw

Instagram and other apps have all sorts of filters you can apply to your photos to help you capture more light, sharpen images, increase contrast, and focus on items you choose. It’s fine to use filters, but don't go overboard. Most people can tell when you’ve altered a photo, and it can sometimes do more harm than good. The best food porn doesn’t need any fancy doctoring to look great. Simply choosing the best lighting before taking the photo and arranging your food nicely can do more than any app and your food will look more natural, which equals more appetizing.

Some useful filters to explore when taking food photos include white balance and aperture. White balance helps you adjust the tint of the light in your photos. For instance, you don’t want your ice cream to take on a yellowish tint because of the lighting, so you can adjust the white balance to restore the ice cream's true color. The aperture filter helps you focus in on items you want to stand out. You can adjust the F-stop settings on your aperture to fade your background.

It takes a lot of practice to master your food porn skills. Don’t be afraid to get up close to your food with your lens and try lots of different photo angles and staging options. Play with your camera’s settings and explore lots of filters and apps to become an expert. Soon your friends will be begging to dine with you because you really know how to choose the best food and show it off, too.