If you’ve ever done any research into food photography and styling, then you know how few and far between the guides are. There are a couple of books that focus on lighting and some of the basics of photography when it comes to food… almost a laughable number given the overall quantities of books on general photography and photography software. For food styling, there has been even less. However, I just received my copy of Food Styling for Photographers by Linda Bellingham and Jean Ann Bybee and I’m thrilled to see this kind of information more readily available to photographers and people considering food styling.

Food Styling for Photographers does a great job of giving photographers an idea of what they may be getting themselves into if they do decide to pick up styling. Starting from the shopping trip, to prepping the table setting, to preparing some of the harder to style foods, the book is comprehensive and easy to understand. There is a fantastic section on stylists tools, including brand name suggestions on everything from griddles (Presto Tilt & Drain) to paper towels (Bounty). The vegetable chapter has a neat trick for how to fold a corn husk, and the chapter on desserts (which yes, contains the expected fake ice cream for hot lights) has a great suggestion for using toothpicks to get neat stacks of freshly baked cookies. There are also some tricks that made me giggle… like using cardboard between layers of a cake to help it keep its height, or using Soil Moist granules to make a drink that looks like a frozen margarita.

For food bloggers interested in learning more on styling, be aware that this book is aimed at people who will not be eating any of the food being prepared. There are still good tips, even a few that say “follow the recipe” to make the food look beautiful (I had to laugh at the food styling for biscuits paragraph that simply says pop them open from the can and bake them!). The most useful chapters if you want to eat the food afterwards are likely the on making a salad and on garnishing, like how to perk up the green tops on strawberries and tomatoes. That said, the authors’ number one rule is never to eat the food from the set. But, even if you don’t use any of the styling tips, there are great shots of the lighting and setup of most of the images in the book, along with photographers notes which are incredibly useful.

Technorati Tags: food styling, food photography

I had two different ideas for this month’s challenge. But an article on plating in today’s Seattle Times pre-empted them both, and inspired me to create this month’s Plate it Up! theme. The article is about transforming a boring plating into something that has more appeal. Despite the title of the piece, which implies that it will be mainly about garnishing, the tips include do’s and don’ts about how to layout the food, how to think about color, and (a little) on saucing. It’s a short read, but a good one to kick off the challenge. Go read it now, so the rest of this post makes sense.

Back so soon? Did you read it? Good.

First off, I’m curious as to what you thought of the example photo. Did the after photo look better to you? And if so, how much better?

Secondly, here’s where you really come in… what would you do to the plate to make it even more appealing? Show us with this month’s post. No, you don’t have to plate the same dishes… but do try to combine different dishes onto one plate, and make the most of them. This is something I tend to avoid doing… and one of the things I’ve noticed about most cooking magazines and cookbooks… the photo shows just one cooked item, not an item, plated, as you probably would if you were actually serving at home or in a restaurant. I know one reason that they do this is that if they don’t give the recipes for everything on the plate, they get letters asking about it (even if it’s just a salad!) Another reason? It’s hard to make it look good.

But, that’s what you are going to do this month. Plate up multiple (at least 2, but 3 is better) dishes onto a plate. Think about avoiding monotony… but also keeping it simple. Like hairstyles, a little flare is good, a bouffant isn’t.

The usual rules and are up on the Flickr group… the things like be constructive, take the photos during the month if possible, 3 photos per person and the last day will be around October 31st, give or take a few days.

Technorati Tags: Food, Food Styling, Meme, Photography

As the holiday season approaches, food styling needs start to kick into higher gear. Food is such a critical part of the holidays, and making food look good, even more so. It’s all turkeys, stuffing, cookies, cakes and pies. Especially pies. I recently shot a pecan pie for a regional magazine. The pie was baked in a local bakery, and I had the whole pie to work with to get a shot of a single slice, on a white plate, on a white background to allow lots of room for text to be placed all around. Styling pie is not particularly easy, and this particular pie, while mind-blowingly delicious, didn’t make it easier. When styling pie, you really want something that can hold it’s height fairly easily, with a nice thick bottom crust. This pie loved to sink and while the outer crust was incredibly thick, the bottom was almost nonexistent. Still, I thought it might be nice to show you a little walkthrough of the shot.
Continue reading →

How many people do you know that drive around LA with dead scorpions and a buckets of paella in their cars? If you know a professional food stylist, chances are, you just might know at least one. Last weekend, I got to sit in on Food Fanatics‘ Master Food Styling class, a great hands-on class by two professional food stylists, Denise Vivaldo and Cindie Flannagan, who have been in the business for years and years. The class was a virtual dumptruck of food styling info, from common styling techniques (which we got lots of time to practice ourselves) to thoughts on the food styling business and digital photography, to story after story of food styling challenges, mishaps and other, sometimes bawdy, adventures. I can’t remember the last time I was in a class for two full days that never bored me, but this was one of them. From the 9am start to Q&A over wine at 3 in the afternoon, the class is a non-stop riot of laughing and dirty hands. If you get a chance to spend sometime with Denise and Cindie, don’t miss it.
Continue reading →

This month, let’s focus on a styling technique… specifically garnishes. Little garnishes can make a simple scene elegant, but lots of garnish can quickly turn it into a chaotic mess. A garnish should always relate back to the dish, and help clue the eater (or the viewer) into some subtle flavor, aroma or color.
Continue reading →

I have a problem. I have a little thing called a prop addiction. I’m constantly finding my next must-have props in vintage and thrift stores, at the grocery store, in sales bins at Pottery Barn or Crate & Barrel, and most recently on ebay. Now, you might think that the problem is the fact that I am buying too much. Some might argue that. Not me. My problem is that I simply don’t have nearly enough room, and the stacks are growing ever more precarious. It’s not too much stuff, it’s simply a lack of storage space. At least, that’s what I tell myself. I’m hoping one day I’ll get to be like this shop in Chicago. My family may not be able to move in our house any more, but man, we’ll have some nice props. The photo above features two of my new ones… the palest-yellow oval dish, on sale at Whole Foods and the shabby chic breakfast tray was from ebay.
Continue reading →

The Ideas in Food blog folks, husband and wife team H. Alexander Talbot and Aki Kamozawa, and outstanding co-chefs in their own right, have just self-published a book… not a cookbook, but a book of photographic inspirations for cooks, food photographers and stylists alike. The photos included are all images from their blog, picked because they particularly inspired a sense of imagination and creativity. The printed book is big (172 pages) and a bit pricey (almost $50) for its content, but the online version is available for immediate download for only $18.75.

I purchased the online version, and with a quick look through, I think it’s a great collection of new ways to think about food… and gives some insight into how the authors think about designing their dishes. The book also contains a couple of sketches of food reminiscent of fashion designers or architects. A few of the fantastical creations are a crab “sheet” that incorporates broccoli, cocoa nibs and powdered yuzu lemon or foie gras cotton candy.

The photography isn’t world class… many of the shots have unflattering harsh shadows and would be improved by more careful and selective focusing… but the presentation and plating is still beautiful and I think quite inspiring for home cooks and bloggers. It’s tricky with limited studio gear to get your photos to look like they’ve come out of the pages of a Donna Hay magazine. The Ideas in Food book gives novices a bit more reachable goal, and I think it’s a great fresh entry into this space.

Technorati Tags: Food, Food Styling, Photography, Review

Just a quick post here, but Crate & Barrel is having an amazing summer sale right now… if you have one in your area, you should definitely stop in (and if you don’t, the website works just as well). I just picked up a huge bag load of things… little dessert bowls, baking dishes, serving trays and the like and the total came to under $25. Seriously. There is a ton of stuff for about 50% off. The little bowls pictured here are only $1.25 each.

[Image from Crate & Barrel]

Technorati Tags: Food Styling, shopping, Tips

Last week’s session of food presentation was delicious and beautiful, but a little less focused on presentation than the previous two classes. We split up to work on our own dishes… mine the Sesame Tahini Noodle salad pictured above, others made beautiful little breads for dipping into some amazing hummus with herb-infused oils, an amazing halibut filet poached in a curry and sherry broth, a savory phyllo strudel, and then some quick little beet salads. Continue reading →

Imagine a cooking class that is like piling into the kitchen with 8 or 10 of your close friends, each choosing a part of the meal to prepare guided by a professional chef. Wine is liberally shared, dishes are seasoned to taste, people are bumping into each other and the jokes are flying. That begins to describe the atmosphere of the cooking classes at Culinary Communion, a cooking group more than school, in a West Seattle house that offers hands-on seminars on a wide variety of culinary topics. I’m the newbie in the group, and as we sit down and meet our chef, Hope Sandler, who will be teaching us a thing or two about how to make garnishes, tablescapes and other tricks of food presentation, I learn a little bit about the rest of the team. A few of the students are also apprentices, and some have taken upwards of 60 different classes with Culinary Communion. For the next 4 Monday nights, from 6pm to 9pm (or later, depending on how the conversation over dinner goes) we’ll cook and then plate and replate food, critiquing our own work and the work of our fellow participants. Dinner may be cold by the time we sit down, but if the first class is any indication, it will still be delicious.
Continue reading →