Foodtography: Take better food photos with these tips and your Lumia

Microsoft partnered with The Infatuation restaurant-review site to demonstrate the photographic prowess of Lumia and show how to make your food images truly tantalizing.

Last week, Microsoft co-hosted a dinner that would make anyone’s taste buds tingle.

The location: The Microsoft Lounge in Los Angeles’ trendy Westside. The players: Microsoft Lumia imaging experts, 61 social-media influencers, and the co-founders of The Infatuation, a website that reviews restaurants in Chicago, Denver, New York, San Francisco, and very soon, Los Angeles.

The food: Catered by LA eatery Animal, the menu included beef tataki roll with daikon, carrot, and peanuts; tuna carpaccio with leche de tigre, avocado, and olive oil; and first-of-the-season grilled asparagus with romesco and a meyer lemon vinaigrette.

The scene was gastronome meets photography meets SoCal cool. The aim? To celebrate the LA soft launch of The Infatuation and to show how Lumia phones offer some of the best imaging capabilities of any smartphone.

The event also included a “Lumia lighting station” for diners who wanted to give their food images the artfully arranged Bon Appetit treatment before sharing their images on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtags #LumiaXInfatuation and #EEEEEATS.

The camera on Lumia devices such as the Lumia 830 and the Lumia 1520 was “a big selling point” in partnering with Microsoft, said Andrew Steinhal, co-founder of The Infatuation. He mentioned Lumia features such as being able to edit images in-device and macro-photography capabilities.

“People don’t bring DSLR cameras with them to restaurants. They rely on their phones,” he said. “And you can do a lot with Lumia that you can’t with other phones.”

“It’s incredible what the Lumia can do in low-light environments,” Andrew added. “Some of the people at the dinner were super-impressed.”

Food blogger Nastassia Johnson (@LetMeEatCake) was one of them.

“The Lumia camera features that allow you to enhance white balance and ISO take it a step above other phone cameras,” she said.

Blogger Lee Tilghman (@LeeFromAmerica) agreed, adding, “The Microsoft Lumia camera took insanely clear pictures of my #EEEEEATS. It self-adjusted to the lighting and diminished shadows.”

You, too, can take drool-worthy food photos. Here are the five imaging and Lumia-specific tips that Microsoft imaging experts shared at the event to make food photos look as if they were professionally styled.

Using at least one of the tips below, share one or two of your best food photos in the comments section. Be sure to include a yummy caption!