Here are some food styling tips for food stylist to take their pictures from average to wow. Simple tips and tricks that I follow as a food stylist while styling food.
Before I start the actual topic of food styling, let me share my story with you all. Five years back, I was a home maker and a mom and was enjoying travelling with my husband to multiple countries on his various projects.
I was mostly happy running around the kid and visiting places which I never imagined I ever will; but there were moments of frustrations where I felt I was just wasting my life doing nothing substantial.
And during one of those moments, I thought to follow my passion and to channelise my energy into something creative, learn new things in life and use my time constructively. This was when Whiskaffair was born and I started my journey as a blogger, recipe developer, Food Stylist and Food Photographer.
Like everything in my life, I liked to present my food in good way and so the concept of Food Styling came and I started the journey with few basic props and an entry level DSLR camera. I must say I sucked at the beginning but there was no looking back.
I spent hours on internet looking at the pictures of food and got inspired by many. I learnt everyday and tried to implement the learnings while I shot and today after working for many premium brands as their food stylist, I still keep learning each day.
In all these years I have come a long way and though I still have long way to go and much to learn; I want to share my learnings with you all that I have gathered in all these years.
So here are a few tips and tricks which I follow while styling my recipes and these can help you too for improving your food styling and presentation. And before I share my tips with you all, I emphasise on the fact that it is very important to figure out your style before stating to style food.
Some people like to style their food minimalistically while some has a messy style. So first step is to figure out your personal style and then work towards it.
Beginners tips for being a food stylist
1) First and foremost tip as a food stylist according to me is to get ready for styling food. For this I have a kit ready at all time which has a few basic things in it. I carry it to all the locations I am shooting and styling food, be it at my home studio or at the client location.
Make a list of things that you think are necessary while styling food and keep them in a bag. That way all the things will be handy and you will spend less time running around getting them together while shooting. Check out my list here.
2) Keep your working and cooking area clean. It helps you being more productive and style food and shooting the image more effectively. Use freshest of ingredients to garnish your food. The addition of fresh greens adds a boost of color and spark to a picture.
But make sure the green that you are using relate to the recipe. There is no point garnishing an Indian dish with Italian herbs. A good tip to keep your greens fresh is to dip them in ice cold water for 30 minutes before using them. This will make them fresh and stiff.
3) Place the garnishing ingredients randomly. I just scatter the ingredients around the bowls and plates with the dish and drop them from a height. This way they scatter around in a very natural way which gives a very realistic feel to a photo.
4) Every food has a story to tell. Figure out that story. How are you connected to the recipe? What would you pair it with? If it’s a coffee cake, place a few cups of coffee in the background.
If it’s an indian snack, keep a glass of chai behind. If it’s an Indian dessert, scatter the dry fruit slivers around. If it’s s summer cooler, scatter a few ice cubes around the glass.
5) Make sure your serving bowls and plates are clean from all sides. Nothing puts you off more than dirty greasy dishes.
6) Less is more in food styling, so don’t try to include too many elements in your picture.
7) Try to use crockery with less patterns on it. It will help you keep the focus on food. Also use small size bowls and plates to plate food for styling for photography. This way you will be able to place your food neatly and show case the important aspects of the dish.
8) While plating the food, I put the food randomly in the bowl until it is half full. Then I carefully sort out the ingredients that has gone in to it and keep them one by one taking care of the position they fall at.
You don’t want to stack all the similar ingredients together. There should be a good harmony between all the ingredients that has gone in to the dish.
9) Try to source props, and different kinds of backgrounds, napkins etc. They add a lot of character to the picture and by using a different combination, you can create a different style each time. I will write a sepearate on places to source your props from.
10) Styling is all about your passion for food so while you blog about the recipes think about the season, time of the year, upcoming festivals or events and the general trend in the food segment and make it an ongoing activity.
11) Play with the ingredients, don’t pick favorites and try all of them. The combination of ingredients is what makes a recipe different. So don’t hesitate to try. Innovation is the key to food blogging.
12) Always look out for ideas. I keep surfing Pinterest and Pin Ideas that I love.You can follow me on Pinterest here and see what I am pinning.
13) Always try to incorporate layers in your picture. Layering gives a very nice 3 dimensional perspective to an image. Use parchment paper, napkins, textured boards and other plates and bowls to layer your image.
Make sure to have at least 3 layers in each pic, more the better though. One layer could be the board. Next could be either a napkin or the texture on the board and then the plate and bowl with food.
14) If the food is less or you want to make a bulk of it in the centre, keep a small inverted bowl in the main serving bowl and style your food on top of it.
15) If you are shooting puffed indian breads, they tend to flatten up in few minutes after taking out from the oil or the tawa. In that case, you can peel them off slightly from the bottom and stuff them with kitchen tissue to keep that puffed look.
16) If your glasses or dishes on the side of the picture looks tilted, Use coins under them to make them look straight.
17) If you are shooting a soda based dish and the soda has fallen flat, try sprinkling some salt in the glass and shoot immediately.
If you have any other tip that is important for food styling, do share it with us at neha@whiskaffair.com. I will include it in the post along with your name.
Also If you have any questions or want us to cover any particular topic, do leave it in the comment section or mail us at neha@whiskaffair.com
Do follow me on Instagram. I keep sharing my styling set up in Insta Stories off and on.
Books on Food Styling
Some of the books that I have read on Food Styling are.
- Plates To Pixel by Helene Dujardin
- Food Photography : Pro Secret for styling, lighting and shooting by Lara Ferroni
Raksha
Love your pictures Neha. Nice post. Thanks for sharing.
msnehamathur
Happy that you liked it Raksha. Planning to do more posts on what I know and learn from others too 🙂
Anindya Sundar Basu
nice one Neha. Will look forward to more in the series
smitha
That was a lovely and great post Neha !! Would be really helpful to many .
If you don’t mind in one of the posts .. can you share the basic / photo processing steps that you follow using PS / LR ..
msnehamathur
Thnx Smitha :). Sure will that soon. Keep the feedbacks coming 🙂
Nisha
Excellent! I am not a foodie but can’t help myself reading your articles and videos, only because they are very simple to follow and easy to make.
Your photos play a major role in appeasing me. 🙂 Looking forward to more posts in this series.
msnehamathur
Thnx Nisha for your encouraging words 🙂
Jinoo
Thanks for the wonderful post Neha. Will be very helpful for begginers.
Can you also post on camera usage and post processing techniques.
msnehamathur
Thnx Jinoo. Will cover those in upcoming posts.
Jayasri
Lovely write. Up Neha! It’s so good for begginers and as always love your photography
msnehamathur
Thnx 🙂
Priyanka
Excellent post. Will be keeping an eye for the rest in this series!
msnehamathur
Thnx 🙂
Femina Sherif
Great Read..Thank you so much Neha.
Waiting for more!! 🙂
msnehamathur
Thnx Femina 🙂
Huned Bandukwala
Excellent tips.. !!!
msnehamathur
Thnx 🙂
Divya
Thanks Neha… Really helpful post… waiting for the series… You are doing an amazing job…
msnehamathur
Thnx a lot 🙂
Sakshi Sharma
Very informative! I have been an avid follower of ur blog as well as ur instagram page. Thank u for these tips. I would be looking forward to more on this series!!
Ellanor
Thank you Neha. What a simple and helpful explanation for us beginners.
At the moment I am just taking simple photos of food but always make sure that my plating is nice. I’ve wanted to expand into including props in my photos to give them more layers, but I think I need to gather things from around the house and keep them in a basket for just photography purposes!
Great work as always.
msnehamathur
Thnx Ellanor
Shubhangi Dhaimade
Your journey is very inspiring. And the tips ?
msnehamathur
Thnx 🙂
Sowmya
You deserve an ovation for sharing these tips. Not many would do this Neha. Much appreciated and keep it up. Helps amateur Photographers like me.
msnehamathur
Thnx Sowmya 🙂
Zarna
Love this post. I have just started a food blog. Although I am at the moment taking simple pictures, would love to start experimenting with food styling following your tips.
msnehamathur
Thnx 🙂
Jayashree
Thankyou Neha for this post. Informative one. Looking forward to your next part.
msnehamathur
Thnx 🙂
Paayel Agarwaal
Thanks for the informative writeup. Where do we the boards, backdrops and various kinds of bowls and plates. Can u suggest few good and reasonable websites.
msnehamathur
Thnx Paayel. I will update the article.
Saesha Walia
Thanks for this amazing article. This article is very easy to understand as it is written in very easy language and very helpful for all the peoples.
Neha Mathur
Thnx