How to Create a Food Reel With Edits

A food reel is a tiny story: ingredients, a few quick steps and a satisfying finish. These are general creative suggestions, not Edits rules:

• Open with the finished dish or the most appetising moment, such as a cheese pull or a pour.
• Show only the key steps. Skip long waits and cleaning.
• Use movement: stirring, slicing, sizzling and drizzling.
• End on the plated result, ideally with a bite or reveal.

Plan the sequence with storyboards and save ideas in Creative Inspiration. New to Edits? See the first Reel guide.

Good footage is half the edit. Edits product lead Tom Bender recommends 2K for most uses, describes 24 fps as cinematic and 60 fps as smooth, and advises testing settings in the Edits camera (as reported by Social Media Today).

• Use natural light from a window, and avoid harsh overhead light.
• Film from above for flat-lays and at an angle for height and texture.
• Get close to show steam, crumbs and gloss.
• Keep the phone steady, using a tripod or a stack of books and the timer.
• Record short clips, one per step.

See camera tools for quality settings.

Async's walkthrough says you can import clips with the + button, then split, move, duplicate or delete them in the timeline.

1. Import your clips and arrange them in cooking order.
2. Trim each step to the key action, usually 1 to 3 seconds.
3. Move the finished dish to the start as a hook, then show how it's made.
4. Cut on movement, such as a stir, to hide the join.

See trim, split and reorder.

Primal Video's guide lists speed controls among Edits tools, with options of 1x, 3x, 0.5x and 0.3x while recording, and Edits also has a reverse option.

• Slow down the pour, drizzle or cheese pull for impact.
• Speed up chopping, stirring or waiting.
• Film at 60 fps if your phone supports it for smoother slow motion.
• Add a transition between steps; see transitions.

For smooth zooms and drifts, see keyframes.

Viewers want to cook along, so put the essentials on screen.

1. Title the dish in the first seconds.
2. List key ingredients or amounts at the start, or label each step.
3. Add short step text such as "Bake 20 min".
4. Caption any voiceover; Async says Edits can generate automatic captions with adjustable font, size and colour.

Put the full recipe in the post caption. See text and titles and captions.

Colour sells food. Edits lists filters and colour grading among its tools.

• Warm it up slightly for cosy dishes; keep greens fresh.
• Boost brightness gently so it looks clean, not washed out.
• Use one filter across every clip for a consistent look.
• Blur the background to focus on the plate; see cinematic filters, crop and blur.

Avoid heavy filters that change the food's real colour.

• Keep the natural sound of sizzling, crunching and pouring; it's part of the appeal.
• Add light music underneath, quieter than the food sounds; see music and audio.
• Time cuts to the beat for a punchy feel.
• Fade out at the end; see advanced audio tools.

Then export in 2K with high quality and use Share to Instagram, which Bender says helps viewers see a higher-quality version. Edits exports have no watermark. See the export guide.

Problem	Likely cause	Fix
Food looks dull or yellow	Indoor lighting	Film near a window and use a milder filter
Reel is too long	Too many steps	Show only key actions and trim to 1 to 3 seconds
Slow motion looks choppy	Low frame rate	Film at 60 fps if supported
Text covers the food	Placement	Move it to the top or bottom edge
Blurry after posting	Compression	See blurry export
Audio missing	Muted track	See audio problems