By Pascale Beale
Food photography and styling is all about seduction. When someone looks at your image, you want them to think, “That looks so good, I want to eat that, now!” So, before taking a photo, think about two key elements that will improve your food styling:
- Which medium is the image for? This will dictate the shape, style and composition. Instagram works best with square shots, which would impact your styling choices, for example.
- What story is the shot telling us? Your choice of background, props and plating style will help to tell that story. A shot of a dish cooked outdoors requires a different set of props and styling than a photo of a dessert.
Once you establish the key elements, here’s how to improve your food styling for blogs, social media and cookbooks:
1. Pick one: natural or artificial light.
Good lighting is the most fundamental part of food photography. It literally shapes the food. You can have the most beautifully plated food, but if the light is wrong, the dish will look flat and unappetizing. Shoot with either natural (my preferred choice) or artificial light. You cannot use both.
I shot this salad (used as the cover of my cookbook, Salade II) with indirect natural light, which accented the different textures of the white elements — cheese, platter, and servers — in the dish.
As acclaimed food photographer Eva Kosmas Floras says:
“Never mix two different color temperatures in the same photograph (i.e., artificial + natural light). You will end up with blue or orange parts of the image, or both, and it will have a very strange effect on the final photograph.
“If shooting in natural light, (it) has different color temperatures [Read more…] about Tons of Tips to Improve Your Food Styling