It’s something most of us do when we travel. The trouble is, we don’t do it very well. That’s why best-selling cookbook authors Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley, above, have teamed up with Heathrow Airport. Together, they will show us how to take food photos that will earn us lots of likes on Instagram.Taste the World - taking food shots for InstagramWhy the collaboration? A new report by Heathrow reveals that over a quarter of holidaymakers post pictures of their food while they’re away, with #foodporn and #instafood the most widely used hashtags (#food, #foodie, #foodstagram and #nomnomnom are also popular). But Instagrammers are also aware of their shortcomings: one in five of those surveyed by Heathrow admits their food photography skills aren’t up to scratch, with a third saying they would love to know how take better pictures. So who better to teach them than Jasmine and Melissa, who have more than 300,000 followers on Instagram and have posted more than 2,000 images, almost all of them of food?Taste the World - HeathrowOur favourite tips include #Take photos in natural light. Watch out for anything casting a shadow on the food (wine glasses, vases, etc) and turn your flash off as it’s too harsh. #If food is monochromatic add colour by holding the plate up against something colourful. #You’ll get a sharper image if you steady yourself by placing your elbows on the table so your body becomes a tripod. #Move your camera closer to food rather than using the zoom. #Take lots of pictures from different angles until you find the best one. #As well as including hashtags, geotag the restaurant and its handle so that anyone searching for the restaurant will be able to find your pictures.Food and drink Instagram shotsAnd what to photograph where? Destinations with most Instagrammed cuisine, says the report, are New York, Toronto, LA, Singapore, Paris, Rome and Miami, where the trending dishes, according to the Hemsley sisters, are charcoal pizza (Toronto), frosé (LA), above left, rainbow cake (Singapore), egg waffle ice cream cones with toppings (New York), above right, vaca frita con moros (Miami), Negronis (Rome), and steak tartare (Paris). And wouldn’t you know it – you can find all of them all in various restaurants and cafés at Heathrow so you can practise before you fly (though in our view steak tartare is probably best left to the pros).

View Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley’s video on Heathrow’s Taste the World 

BY MAGGIE O’SULLIVAN