For our first photography post, 3 quick tips!

Tip #1: USE NATURAL LIGHT. I am going to mention this over and over again until I’m blue in the face and you’re sick of me. But it’s important. Nine times out of 10, I skip over posts that have dark photos or photos that use a flash. Flash photography just doesn’t work very well with food. I know this can get hard in the winter when darkness falls so early, but trust me, your photos will be better if you shoot during daylight. The Pioneer Woman once said at a conference that if a photo is going to require a flash, she never takes the photo. That’s saying something! If you really really really need to use artificial light (shout out to our friends near the Arctic Circle!), this post from the White on Rice couple is very helpful.

Tip #2: Use photos in your posts! FoodPress is very visual. Three of the four main feature areas require photos. For those of you who are doing some great food writing without photography, I do keep you in mind for the Featured Blogger section. However, without photos it’s pretty much impossible to be featured in the other three sections.

Tip #3: You can use the camera you have – whether it’s a point-and-shoot or a DSLR. There are great food bloggers out there who either started out using a point-and-shoot or still use one and get some great shots. The key is to use natural light (see Tip #1!) and make sure your photos are in focus! Oftentimes when people use a point-and-shoot for food photos, they try to get a close-up of the food. For the most part, point-and-shoots aren’t going to do that great with those close-up shots, so step back and let the camera focus properly on the subject. Being in focus is better than getting close-up. And, even though I try to avoid this, you can always crop the photo on your computer later. When I started my blog and only had a digital point-and-shoot, I always made sure to use natural light and would often create makeshift tripods out of cans and books so I could steady the camera and take shots from above…this really helped me to get some nice shots despite not having the camera I wanted.

Nowadays I use a DSLR with a 50 mm lens that I LOVE, and it makes shooting food the way I want to a lot easier. I recently wrote a post about why I chose the camera and lens that I did, which may be helpful if you are looking to enter the DSLR world. A 50mm f/1.8 or 50mm f/1.4 lens is a great lens for taking photos of food, and the f/1.8 version won’t even put too much of a dent in your wallet, especially with Canon.

Hope these tips are helpful! Stay tuned for more soon!

The bottom line is ADD TAGS! We definitely browse tag pages when looking for content to feature and tags can play a big role in getting featured on FoodPress.

So, the big question…which tags to use? Here are our top suggestions for tagging with FoodPress in mind:

• Tag #1: Food – If you’ve written a blog post about food, use this tag! “Food” is one of the top WordPress.com tags and I almost always include this tag when I do more specific searches (for example: food, thanksgiving)
• Tag #2: Recipes – Again, a big one. If there is a recipe in your post, add that “recipes” tag!
• Tag #3: Cooking – Along with “food” and “recipes”, “cooking” is one of the top WordPress.com tags. If your post is about cooking, add that tag!
• Use tags that identify broad food topics: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Brunch, Gluten Free, Vegetarian, Vegan, Dessert, Side Dishes…you get the gist!
• Think about seasons and holidays. When I do tag searches, I am always looking for foods that reflect the current season and/or holidays.
• Joy Victory, editorial czar at WordPress, offered the great advice of using more common tags rather than obscure tags. We are much more likely to find your post if you are using a tag that is more likely to be searched for and found.

Hopefully this is helpful information for tagging your food posts! Tags are not the only way we find posts, but they definitely play a big role in the search for great WordPress.com food content.

Here are four tips that can help increase your chances of getting featured on FoodPress.

1. Read Joy Victory’s blog post “Five Ways to Get Featured on Freshly Pressed”

Joy is the editorial czar for WordPress.com and she knows what she’s talking about. All of her tips completely apply to FoodPress as well as Freshly Pressed, so read her post and take it to heart!

2. Include photos!

Yes, Joy already mentioned this in her article, but it’s especially important for FoodPress. Images are critical when it comes to food. People want to see the food, not just read about it.

3. About those photos…take good ones!

You don’t need to be a professional photographer and you don’t need a fancy camera. But you do need to keep a few things in mind when snapping shots of your food.

• Use natural light whenever possible (like…all the time if you can!). Avoid using a flash or indoor light. And make sure there is light…if the photo is too dark, well, then there’s nothing to see!
• Having a picture that is IN FOCUS is much more important than having a picture that is close-up.
• Think about composition. If you don’t already know it, learn the Rule of Thirds. It’s a fabulous tool. And, remember, close-up isn’t always the best thing!

4. Recipes are good. Not necessary, but good.

There are food blog posts out there without recipes that are wonderful and worthy of being featured. But, for the most part, recipes are great because it’s actionable and interactive. Again…not necessary, but definitely a good thing.

5. Update your blog regularly.

If you stop writing, we stop reading. Simply because there’s nothing to read! So, keep the content coming!

You may be wondering if there is a way for you to submit one of your posts for consideration. At this time, no. We may integrate that feature at a later date.

Good luck and, most importantly, have fun!

Let us be the first to welcome you to FoodPress! We’ve been getting oodles of questions about this new website, so we thought we’d give a quick introduction so you know what FoodPress is all about…and why it is so awesome.

• FoodPress features the best in WordPress food blogging. Each weekday, FoodPress will be updated with the latest and greatest from WordPress food blogs. All in one place. Just for you. And believe us, there is a lot of good stuff out there in the WordPress food blog world. Our mouths are watering just thinking about it.
• FoodPress is edited by a real live person named Jane. She’s a food blogger, too. And she loves to eat. And photograph things. And write. And she can’t wait to comb through your wonderful food blogs to see what you are eating, photographing and writing about.
• FoodPress will feature WordPress.com blogs primarily at the start. There will also be some WordPress.org blog love, but until we get our systems completely lined up for that, you will see more WordPress.com content. We love all WordPress bloggers and can’t wait to share them with you! (If you’re wondering if you are on WordPress.com versus WordPress.org, .ORG users are self-hosted and .COM users get it all from WordPress.com.)

FoodPress is gonna be awesome. Yes, we already said that. But it’s true. We hope you’ll visit each day to see what delectableness there will be to devour!