BeforeAfterPro templateFood & RecipeLifestyle
Food Dark
Lifestyle category, on a 4:5 portrait canvas, with Playfair Display Bold labels reading Prep and Plated, over a gradient ground. Drag the handle to see it work.
PrepPlatedThe job it is forFood & Recipe pack
What Food Dark is for
Near-black with a warm brown shift, a three point amber rule, amber serif labels, portrait. Moody food photography is the whole idea: a dark board, a cast iron pan, a glass of something, lit from the side. Portrait suits a tall subject, a stack, a layered bake, a drink, and the amber accent picks up the browning that a prep and plated pair is usually about.
#1A1200 shades into #0A0A00 behind the two halves, and that wash is part of the template rather than a filter on your photographs. 3 points of #FF8C00 hold the two photographs apart, with Playfair Display Bold labels bottom centre. It ships with Prep and Plated already typed, on a 4:5 portrait canvas, rounded by 8 points.
The specificationExtracted, not typed
Every value in Food Dark, as the build holds it
On a template built for a long gap, two values earn a second look before any of the others: whether the date stamp is switched on, and what the labels already say. Both sit in the panel beside the diagram. The diagram is the frame at the size the app composes it, showing the outline, the rule, the label corner and any reserved band.
- Canvas4:5
- Rule3 pt
- LabelsBottom centre
- BandNone
- Canvas
- 4:5 portrait
- Label face
- Playfair Display Bold
- Label corner
- Bottom centre
- Rule
- 3 pt
- Corners
- 8 pt radius
- Ground
- 2 stop gradient
- Branding
- Overlaid, no band
- Date stamp
- Off by default
- Default wording
- Prep and Plated
- Pack
- Food & Recipe
- Frame#1A1200
- Ground stop 1#1A1200
- Ground stop 2#0A0A00
- Rule#FF8C00
- Label#FF8C00
Read out of the shipped app build by the catalogue extractor, not typed.
Shooting for itLifestyle category
How to shoot a pair for Food Dark
A long-gap pair has one enemy and it is drift. Everything moves over six weeks: the light, the room, the phone, the haircut, the clothes. The pair that convinces is the one where nothing changed except the thing being claimed, so the setup has to be repeatable by somebody who has forgotten how they did it. Same wall, same time of day, same distance, feet in the same place. Write down where you stood. In three months you will not remember, and the shot you cannot repeat is worth nothing.
In orderWritten for lifestyle work
- 01Set the shot up once and write down the setup. Distance, wall, time of day, what you were wearing. The note is the asset.
- 02Take the first frame on the first day even if there is nothing to show yet. There is no way to go back for it later.
- 03Repeat the shot on a schedule rather than when you feel like it. Ghost Camera makes the repeat exact, and the date stamp records when it happened.
- 04Pick the template that matches the register of what you are claiming. A neon frame around a modest change reads as a stretch.
- 05Keep the intermediate frames. A pair is one post, and a run of dated frames is a month of them.
Weeks between two photographs is weeks for something to drift. Put the pair through the free slider tool before you build the post, on your own device and in about two seconds, then use the guide to why pairs look staged to work out which part moved.
Honest limitsTwo of them, and both are real
What Food Dark will not do
This is the category where an honest pair is easiest to make and easiest to fake, and the difference shows. Lighting, posture, a tan, a pump, the time of day, and the same body reads two ways with nothing having changed. Nothing in the app adjusts a body or a face, and nothing in it should be used to imply a result you did not get. On the mechanical side, the labels shipped with these templates are editable text, so Day 1 and 90 Days are starting points rather than measurements the app checks.
On this template in particularThe gradient is part of the template rather than a filter over your photographs, so it cannot be turned off or recoloured. If the ground is fighting your subject, the fix is a different template rather than a setting.
If this one is not itFour questions, four answers
Without upgrading
BeforeAfterOpens on the free tier, on a 1:1 square canvas with Inter Bold labels.
Same pack, other end
PrepPlatedA lighter ground in the same pack, with a 1 point #8B4513 rule.
Same shape, other register
RawEditedThe same 4:5 portrait canvas, filed under clean rather than lifestyle.
Nearby in the catalogue
BeforeAfterclean category, 1:1 square, Free pack.
After the frame, the pair and the captionFor food & recipe work
Back up to every lifestyle template, or to the whole catalogue. The free browser slider is at the slider tool, and the hashtag research by trade starts at the hashtag index.
Common questions
- Who is the Food Dark template for?
- Near-black with a warm brown shift, a three point amber rule, amber serif labels, portrait. Moody food photography is the whole idea: a dark board, a cast iron pan, a glass of something, lit from the side. Portrait suits a tall subject, a stack, a layered bake, a drink, and the amber accent picks up the browning that a prep and plated pair is usually about.
- When should I use something other than Food Dark?
- Bright, evenly lit food looks wrong in it. A white plate under kitchen lights against a near-black frame reads as two unrelated photographs, and Food Fresh or Food Warm are the frames for that light.
- Is Food Dark free?
- No, it is one of the Pro templates. The free tier opens 8 of the 100, and everything else in the editor is free with them: all four comparison modes, Ghost Camera, the filters, the stickers, the full label editor, and your own logo and business name.
- What shape is Food Dark, and what will it export at?
- The template's canvas is 4:5 portrait. The export ratio is a separate choice made in the export sheet: 9:16 and 1:1 on the free tier, plus 4:5 and the original ratio on Pro. 4:5 is among them, so the canvas and the export can match exactly.
- Can I change the BEFORE and AFTER wording?
- Yes. Food Dark starts with "Prep" and "Plated", and every part of that is editable: the text, the typeface, the colour, the size, bold and italic, uppercase, a shadow, the background opacity, and the position, either one of five presets or dragged anywhere on the canvas.
- Can I compare two video clips with this?
- No, and for a progress series that is the point. Two dated photographs are the unit of evidence here, not a clip, and the app builds the reveal out of them without ever touching footage.
Put your own pair in Food Dark
Two photographs, one template, and a reveal that plays in about four seconds. Three exports a day are free, each behind a short rewarded ad.
Get the app freeiPhone, iOS 17 and later