Common Coffee Types

5 Foodie Tips for Better Phone Photography

The creation of smartphones with internet connection has totally changed the world of food sharing today. Everything can be shared instantaneously over social media, with pictures along with your own two cent words. Yes, now every menu comes with a picture and its own description from the foodie. After reading so much food blog, looking at so much foodie's Instagram and trying out a few myself, I am ready to share 5 foodie tips for better phone photography so that you can make all your followers drool while looking at the pictures your shared. Let's start making them hungry now!

1. Get the seat with the best lighting

Always try to get the seat with the best natural lighting for your photo. Nothing is worse than looking at photo of a food that you can't really tell what it really is. If you are going out to dine at night, make sure you and your buddies’ phones has a flash or else you will need to bring your own small little flash light to light up your food. They key is to make sure people can actually see what your food is.

 2. Stick with one or two setting/filter

You don’t want your food to get cold by the time you finished snapping those photos. So stick with one or two setting or filter that can make your food look good. Make it your trademark setting/filter so that your followers can identify the photos posted to you. Avoid black and white (often food looks boring in B&W), HDR (too much color enhancement) and color toned base filter that can make your food look too bluish, greenish or yellowish.

3. Double take for Instagram

Instagram as we know it can only fit a square photo. Your normal food photo might needed to be crop when trying to upload to Instagram, and it could look very different from what you prefer from the beginning. Thus, if you are planning to post it in your Instagram, take another photo of your food and preferably zoom out a bit from the first shot in order to make it fit into Instagram like you want it to, or put everything closer to each other so that it would fit into square, or you can just use the Instagram camera and adjust the position of your food from there.

4. Up close and juicy

Don’t be afraid to go up close and juicy with your food. Take a close shot of your food with its juice oozing out of the meat or the dripping honey coat on top of the pancake. It’ll make your followers swallowing their saliva just by looking at it. Don't be afraid to cut open your food just to get that juice going. Your food might look boring as a whole. Unless you applied the next tip with a zest!

5. Be stylish

When it comes to food, often a meat is just a piece of meat, a veges are just some greenish vegetable and a dessert is just a fancy looking dessert. So how do you want to separate your photo of a same dish with the rest? Be freaking stylish about it! Use the elements around as props for your dish or you can always bring some of your own signature props to make it more personal.

All photos credits : Kay Kastum using a Motorola Razr XT910
Location: Grand Bluewave Hotel, Shah Alam

About The Writer
Daniel Chiam
He loves browsing around food blogs and look at peoples Instagram just to make himself craving for more food. During his free time he wished he can cook at home instead of going out for food hunt using his smartphone as his guide. He also knows someone that love Snowflake's green tea red bean. You can follow him on Instagram @room8five

Ramadhan Buffet at Grand Bluewave Hotel 2014

For the non-Muslim Malaysians, Ramadan Al-Mubarak means there will be plenty of food variety to choose from at the local 'Pasar Ramadan'. We have to admit, me (included) that we may spend more than what we can eat just because everything looks delicious especially when you are buying while you are hungry! If a comfy and a different eating experience is what you are looking for, then going for a Ramadan buffet at a hotel may be just something that you might want to try.

Food Social recently attended the Grand Bluewave Hotel's Ramadan Buffet Media Food Review. The purpose is to showcase their upcoming buffet spread. Based on the news release and the brief by their friendly and bubbly Public relations manager Achiek Sidek, the menu consists of a mixture of fusion between local and international dishes mainly Arabic and North African dishes (Morocco).

There will be over 250 different dishes laid out everyday during 'Iftar' or 'buka puasa' and the MUST TRY dishes mentioned includes Kambing Golek Sumbat Kebbeh eaten with Kabees Al Qarnabeet & Nasi Oozy Morocco, Ikan Panggang ala Portugis, Asparagus Bebola Ketam just to name a few! If that has made your mouth to start watering, wait till you hear the dessert names. Strawberry Mousse, Mango Pudding, Malay Kuih & Walnut Pie is just some of the desserts that will greet you happily. To wash down all that beautiful food, you are spoilt with choices of Sarsi Selasih, Sugarcan juice, Soy Milk, Mango Juice and the good old Coffee & Tea.

As for the pricing, it depends on which dining location you are heading. Restoran Royale Songket's (Barakah al Mubarak) package price starts at RM127.60 for adults and RM69.60 for children (Nett). Whereas Aras 1 (Fitrah al Mubarak) package price starts at RM103.25 for adults and RM58.00 for children (Nett). Special rates applies for weekends and during public holidays. For a more unique buka puasa experience, you can also try the restoran Jepun Agehan (Iftar Bufet Jepun) with the same price package as Aras 1.

For more detailed info and reservations on this promotion, the number to call is +603 5511 8811 ext 2001 / 2004. If email is your style then sent your inquiries to dosm@bluewavehotels.com. You could also try their Facebook page

Overall we love almost all the dishes. My personal favorite just had to be the Kambing Golek Sumbat Kebbeh. They are just fabulous. Now for some pictures to make you go hungry.

About The Writer
KAY KASTUM
Born in Sabah with an interest in open water diving, wall climbing,music and video production and a passion for Android custom ROMS on his XT910 Motorola Razr Kay Kastum plans to make the world a better place by empowering people through his work. Whatever that means. You can follow his YouTube channel to see what he is up to during his free time