Food Photography and Styling 101

by Autumn Stankay, Owner and Photographer of SkySight Photography

Sports & Social Steel City

J. Corks

J. Corks

Tapped

When photographing a plate of food, some may think it’s a quick snap of the shutter and the photo is complete. But in fact, quite a bit of thought and process goes into that photograph. It can take several hours sometimes to just capture a few different plated meals. I thought I’d tell you a few tips about putting together a food photography shoot! If you own a restaurant, bake cookies, or have a friend who is a food blogger - these might be helpful tips for you!

• Plan to cook/bake the dishes as the photographer is shooting.

Timing is key to making sure it looks good on camera. If you are photographing a steak, then a burger, then a piece of pie with whipped cream on top - be sure to make them in that order. Take the steak off the grill moments before the photographer starts shooting it, and don’t add the whipped cream until seconds before the camera clicks, for example. You don’t want to make all the dishes prior to the photographer arriving!

• Plan on properly pairing drinks

with entrees: a white wine with fish, a red wine with beef, a beer with pizza, or a berry cocktail with a summer salad.

• Dress the table depending on how you want the style of the

photo to look. Sometimes I will bring extra items like a rustic wooden board to place under the dish for extra interest in the photo. I suggest that my clients think about items which I could incorporate that may already exist in their restaurant, or else I can bring them to the shoot. If the restaurant is high end, I might bring some fancy dishes, whereas if they are rustic in their style, I will use wooden elements for coasters and backdrops under the plate.

The Olde Spitfire Grille

Use helpful tricks to achieve extra effects in your photos:

• Place a cotton ball into boiling water and then set it behind a cup of coffee to create “steam” to make the coffee look hot.

• Brush oil on items like a sizzling steak to make it shine a little more.

• Have items like toothpicks handy to help prop something up if needed.

• Ice cream melts too quickly to be photographed; a mixture of corn syrup, powdered sugar and vegetable shortening can be used to replace the ice cream. And yes, mashed potato is often used too!

• Food styling tips are endless. Guess what - not all hot food is photographed hot, and not all cold food is shot cold!