Shreya 
Do you like those beautiful pour shots you see in food magazines and on instagram? Would you like to be able to capture them too but don’t have a camera yet like me? You’re at the right place. Trying to capture the maple syrup as it falls down and moistens your pancakes or pouring a rich and decadent hot chocolate you just made could be quite challenging. Here’s a trick to amp up your phone food photography game.
The secret
So here’s the secret. I’ll say it right here to save you some scrolling time. Use iPhone’s ‘BURST MODE’ on your phone. Burst mode takes several photos one after the other, to be more precise it takes ten photos per second allowing you to capture still photos of an action which could be hard to capture otherwise. It is also called continuous mode or sports mode and has made my life and phone photography so much better when I want to capture pour shots or splash shots.
Usually it could be a two person job, one who does the pouring and the other who captures the shot but hey I live by myself and can’t wait around for someone to help me take my shots so I multitask. I place the phone at a distance where and start the burst mode and then start my pouring. It has worked quite well for me till now.
How to use burst mode
It’s simple really.
- Open the camera app on your iPhone (iPhone X onwards), I’m sure you can do it on older versions too but it might be slightly different.
2. Slide the camera button to the left and hold
3. When you’re done taking your shots, open your gallery
4. Tap of the photo. You will see a ‘select’ option on the bottom right. Tap on it
5. You will be able to select the photos you want to keep and can discard the rest. Once you’ve selected the photos you like, tap on ‘done’ on the top right corner.
Another use of burst mode in food photography is to take splash shots. I am currently obsessed with these shots! And here’s my little secret. Drop an ice cube into your drink and capture the natural gorgeous splash with burst mode.
Where could you use these action pour shots
You can create action shots for any kind of food really to make your photo look more dynamic. Here are some ideas that you could try :
Pouring dressing or olive oil over a salad
Pouring sauce over a dish
Pouring honey or maple syrup
Icing over cake
Drizzling icing sugar over a dessert
Pouring melted chocolate over pancakes / waffles
Pouring a cocktail over ice in the glass.
Bonus tips to capture the perfect pour shot
Here are some pointers from what I’ve learnt over time.
When you click pour shots and want to create a perfect eye-catching pour, try to have a backdrop which is contrasting to the color of your drink to bring out the colors of drink better. For instance, in the photos I shared in this post, you can see the first photo of the white eggnog against a dark backdrop whereas the dark hot chocolate is against a white background. This trick works 90% of the time but being a researcher I like to experiment so I tried the brown sugar icing shot over those chocolate bundt cakes which worked quite well too.
Tap on your subject to focus on it. Since these kind of shots are notion dependent, it’s easy for the camera of your phone to lose focus but tapping on the subject just before starting can be quite helpful.
Another point to keep in mind is the container you are pouring put of. You don’t want it to be a messy pour which won’t give your photo the beauty you wanted to capture. To ensure a neat pour, use a container with an edge made for pouring or the end of spoon works wonders too. Avoid using containing with a flat rim. You don’t want to be pouring out of bowl.
Final thoughts
Unless you have several replicas of the food you want to capture, you would usually have only one go at these kind of shots. So make sure your set up is ready and finalized and go for it. And with more and more practice, you will become a pro at them in no time!
