7 Useful Food Styling Tips for Photographers

Food presentation is tough. You might be a good cook, a good photographer, but that doesn’t mean that you can avoid styling the food. Styling food is like applying makeup on a model – it makes her look attractive.

So making your food look attractive and photogenic is very important, since food that looks good, photographs better. So making it look presentable before you take out your camera is very important. Follow these simple pointers and you will realise the value addition it does to your images.

1. For very basic food styling, you can add raw ingredients or spices that go along with the dish. You need not use it as garnish, but splatter it around next to the plate or the bowl.

2. It seems it also helps to sketch your plating before actually put it on the plate. I never tried this but I tend to visualize mentally before plating.

3. It is always safe to use a white plate. But if you are feeling a little adventurous, then you can try a different colour, usually in contrast to what is bring served.

4. There is talk of a virtual clock where meat is at 2 o’clock, starch at 10 and vegetables at 6, which is a standard plating practice around the world.

5. Sometimes less is more. You don’t need to have a sliced carrot in every square inch of your food to know that it contains sliced carrots; two or three will get your point across without making the photo messy.

6. Create elevation and movement. Prop pieces up from the back to create definition. Make a hidden base under food to hold it in place using shortening, damp paper towels, cosmetic wedges, or even mashed potatoes.

7. Cool food photographs better than hot food. So try to make cool or room
temperature food look hot by adding moisture and shine with spraying with PAM, or with brushing oil.