Throughout the shoot, this Poached Cod with vegetables was freshened up with a few spritzes of water to keep it looking fresh and moist.
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When photographing whole grilled fish, select the best-looking one you can find.
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If you’re the one grilling, take your time and oil the whole fish a little, so it won’t stick to the grill. I often see professional food stylists fix or apply grill marks with a heating element after the fish or meat is cooked. This is something to keep in mind if you don’t naturally get the look you want.
Like a Fish Takes to Water
When it comes to fish—raw, steamed or poached—water is your best friend. Apply just a little to freshen the look of your dish.
Styling meat can be intimidating. So I recommend using the following styling techniques to take your fillets or slices from ho-hum to wow. To start, let me show you how even the simplest plate of steak and potatoes can be quite sexy with a little care.
When styling a whole freshly sautéed steak, like the rib eye in the group of photos on the left, the best approach is the simplest. I kept the steak in the pan because I liked the rustic look of it, but feel free to set it on the plate. To keep the shine on the steak, I photographed it with the light in front me (back light) rather than lighting it from the sides.
I need to give credit to my friend and food stylist Angie Mosier for the styling idea for the steak shown on the right. We worked together on Virginia Willis’s second cookbook, and I loved her idea of this bistro styling. The paper table runner and the wine marks on the paper cloth make it complete!
Here are the two protagonists in their pre-styled stage. The potatoes were randomly spooned into the pan.
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A few potato pieces were moved around to fill little holes that would appear darker (and thus stronger) in an image.
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I added a sprig of rosemary while sautéing the potatoes. This serves as a natural prop to emphasize this enticing ingredient of this dish.
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Alas … the styled plate, ready for capture. I balanced the setup with another leaf of rosemary tucked in the potatoes. Voilà … dinner time!
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I cooked the steak medium rare so there’d be a difference in color between the core of the steak and its edges. And I let it sit the recommended ten minutes to avoid having juices running all over the place. The steamed vegetables add color to the plate.
Use the Best Tools
When it comes to food styling, the quality of your tools will heavily influence the quality of your work. Sharp knives, high quality cookware and bake ware, and other appropriate equipment are critical. Do not put yourself in a position to worry about a dull knife ruining your edges or a cake sticking to the pan. Substandard tools can ruin the best conceived setup.
To slice steak, get a sharp knife and cut across the grain. Arrange the cut slices in a way that’s appealing to you. If you’re unsure, cut half of the steak and fan slices on the plate. This is always appealing to the eye.
This is the final plated version of the Sliced Rib Eye Steak dinner with added vegetables for a nice color pop.
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Until now, the meat items we’ve seen have had a very even look. But let’s say you’re in charge of styling pieces of roasted chicken on a serving dish. The styling challenge is making them fit together in an aesthetic way.
The unspoken goal is to ensure that the reader can tell a drumstick from a breast, which becomes difficult if the pieces are piled on top of each other in a haphazard way. So resist the urge to cram the entire chicken in the serving dish. With so many naturally occurring shapes and sizes, this dish offers you plenty of opportunities to arrange the pieces in a pleasing manner.
Chicken pieces come in all shapes and sizes.
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When composing the picture on the left, I placed one of each piece of chicken in a dish and checked to make sure it would work with the size of my dish. I didn’t want to have lots of empty spaces that would distract a viewer’s eye from the chicken itself. Nor did I want to hide the colors and shapes of each part. So as more pieces were added, I arranged them so the most easily identifiable ones (e.g., wings and drumsticks) would be visible right away. This would let viewers know that it was indeed a bird in that dish.
Ingredients from the recipe, such as lemon wedges and rosemary, completed my styling and filled gaps created by the shape of the chicken pieces. An overhead shot provides a nice view of the completed setup.
When you have foods with naturally interesting shapes, build your setup almost one piece at a time to make sure a person looking at the picture can figure out what they’re seeing.
Stews, Stir Fries and Pasta
Gooey, goopey, mixed up foods … Nothing can better show how all the aspects of food photography come together to create a great image as much as stews, stir fries and pasta. And I really enjoy styling dishes of the sort. They push my comfort zone as a stylist and challenge me to use all the aspects of food photography—from light source, perspective and focus selection to composition, props and food styling. I can style the same type of stew several times in a day and always find a new way to make it appealing.
Goopey foods, like chili, offer a food styling challenge.
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When getting started, as previously advised, be sure to read through the recipe several times to mentally flag herbs and spices that might help with styling. Also pay close attention to the shape of the vegetables and meat. Focus on keeping them as intact as possible to enhance the overall look of your final setup. Indeed, now is the time to recall everything we’ve covered so far … and put it all together.
When pouring the chili for the picture on the right, I was careful to stop just short of the desired amount. This gave me enough room to spoon some of the beans out and heap them a bit on top to give the chili some texture on the surface. I then made full use of all the traditional garnishes, like sour cream, cheese, red onion and fresh cilantro.
To keep them as fresh as possible, I kept the chopped red onion and cilantro under a wet paper towel until I was ready to add them. And I deliberately sprinkled them off-center to reveal more of the chili’s texture and provide a visual point of interest. It also added some freshness to the setup.
The diffused back light enhances the surface shine and better defines the shapes of the ingredients in the dish.
Monotone foods, such as Shells & Cheese, can be daunting to style, because there are no varying colors or shapes to work with. Instead, focus on the shape and texture of the noodles.
For the shot on the left, I made sure to cook the pasta just until al dente, so it retained a good consistency that ensured the dish would look anything but mushy. I plated it within five minutes of the sauce being mixed, and I had my camera settings and light ready to go. I did not use any herb garnish, but focused instead on props of complementary colors—blues and greens.
When styling uniformly colored food such as Shells & Cheese, focus on shape and texture.
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I carefully spooned the shells into the bowls and checked for any large empty spaces. Again, while not unattractive by themselves, empty spaces tend to absorb the light and create deep shadows. Fortunately, pasta can easily be moved with a spoon or a pair of chopsticks to fill gaps and adjust the overall styling.
Styling Grilled Salmon Pasta
In the photos of Grilled Salmon Pasta, a dish without tomato sauce, it’s easy to see the styling steps, which apply equally to a simple plate of spaghetti and meatballs. It’s a building process:
1) Boil the pasta until al dente.
2) Drain the pasta and drizzle it with olive oil.
3) Return pasta to the pan and cover w
ith a kitchen towel off the stove.
4) Grill the salmon and set it to the side to cool.
5) Separate salmon into large chunks.
6) Cut tomatoes.
7) Set out garnishes: capers and oregano.
8) Begin building your dish.
Pasta and salmon are in the bowl. No tomatoes or capers have been added.
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Tomatoes and capers are added to the bowl.
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All the ingredients are being mixed ... and fall to the bottom. The stylist will work his/ her magic to make it all visible and appealing.
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For this dish, styling can go two ways.
• You can place some spaghetti on the plate and then position the tomatoes and salmon with your fingertips or tweezers. Eeh … Call me hippy stylist, but this just doesn’t seem natural to me.
• The other option is to mix the ingredients together and spoon some of the pasta onto the plate. See where the ingredients land naturally. Then, adjust any tomatoes or salmon pieces that fall to the sides and bottom.
Either way, take a step back and move a few pieces here and there to guarantee that with one look, a viewer will see all the components, know what the dish is and understand what to expect from it.
Here is the final styled version of the Grilled Salmon Salad.
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I recommend using tongs to style pasta. Grab hold and give your wrist a little curl as you place the pasta on the dish. Give the noodles room to naturally fall by moving it onto the plate in an arc that peaks at about your chest. This will boost the volume to add more shape to the finished dish.
Looking at the final styled dish (left), I wish I could move that piece of salmon that fell to the base of spaghetti right in the front. It never ends… !
Burgers and Sandwiches
I’ll always remember the first time I styled a burger for a cookbook. To prepare for the shoot, I went online and looked at a bunch of pictures to get a feel for how burgers could be styled. On the shoot, I knew I wanted to use techniques that are natural to the home cook—the folks who would be replicating the recipes based on the photographs. I did not want to cheat their trust by using gimmicky styling methods.
How-To Resources
Flickr.com or a broad image search on Google for burgers will reveal plenty of variations on the theme. A search for how to style a burger on YouTube will give you access to informative how-to videos by professional stylists. There are also some helpful books, including Food Styling: The Art of Preparing Food for the Camera by Dolores Custer, that offer great tips and techniques on this subject, too.
To achieve this, I paid close attention to the recipe I was illustrating … and prepared the burgers as directed. I even grilled the patties without pressing down with the spatula, just as the recipe advised, until they were medium rare in the middle. This helped the burgers stay moist.
While allowing them to rest (like a steak), I prepared the rest of the ingredients. I kept the tomatoes under wet paper towels so the edges would not dry, and I spritzed the avocado with lime juice to keep it from oxidizing. I picked out the best-looking lettuce leaves and placed them on a bun. I held the lettuce in place with a couple of toothpicks so it would stay in place while I built the burger.
After placing the beef patty on the lettuce, I removed the toothpicks. Next came the avocado, tomato, cheese and top bun. I purposely didn’t add the mayonnaise to the bottom bun, because I knew it would not show well after everything piled on. Instead, I used a squeez bottle to apply some to empty areas on the letetuce. I also dabbed a bit of oil on the patty to freshen it up a bit.
I admit that mid-way through the shoot, I switched out the tomato and avocado, because they had started to dry. But as soon as that shot was in the bag, so to speak, I sat down at that table and ate my burger! Yes, it was as tasty as it looks.
To illustrate the Italian Style Veggie Baguette recipe, I had to follow the recipe to a T and ensure that the photograph did not mislead anyone who tried to make the dish for him/ herself.
The recipe called for very little spread to be applied to the sandwich halves, and I knew this would not show well on the finished product. So I made a little extra spread and put it in a ramekin to place on the side of the plate. In the end, it wasn’t crucial to the composition because I decided use minimal propping and focus entirely on the sandwich. The ramekin would have been distracting, so I left it out.
The final styled and plated version of an all-American Burger tasted as good as it looks.
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After I spooned the salad onto the sandwich and closed it, I held things in place with a few toothpicks. This allowed me to adjust some of the ingredients with chopsticks without destroying the entire sandwich. I pulled forward some red onion and a couple of tomato halves to interrupt the mass of greenery from the salad.
The serving suggestion was to wrap the sandwich in tinfoil or parchment paper until ready to eat, so I wrapped mine with band of parchment paper and held it together with kitchen string. Thus, anyone reading the recipe and looking at the sandwich would get a good view of what was going on inside. And the tie-around bands retained the idea of portability.
This image of an Italian Style Veggie Baguette uses minimal props and focuses entirely on the sandwich.
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Nothing about styling foods of odd shapes or with fillings is complicated. You just need to think about how to best illustrate the recipe. Simplicity is key.
Stick It
If the layers of your burger are not staying in place as you build it, use a few toothpicks to secure them for your photo. Just remember to remove them before you chomp down.
Breakfast Baked Goods
It might seem easier to style pancakes or a muffin than a bowl of soup, because breakfast baked goods tend to be visually more appealing. But just as it is with soups or meat, these foods do present some challenges of heights, colors and shapes. Some of those challenges can be solved with composition and prop styling. Others will require a little fiddling to make stomachs growl. Breakfast baked goods require an equal amount of focus and care as their savory counterparts.
When I openly ask people to divulge the item(s) they most dread to style, many … many … answers relate to brown bakery or breakfast items, such as muffins, pancakes and waffles. Let’s see if I can help.
These Blueberry Waffles look as if they were right off the waffle iron.
f/3.5, ISO 250, 100mm, Macro L
As with anything you’re styling, always take the time to select the best-looking items available, particularly the foods that will be the most visible in your image. If you’re working with pancakes or waffles, try to pick ones with a nice golden brown color, and make a stack of some that are roughly the same size. No worries if there are irregular edges in the bunch; this actually adds a bit of texture to the overall look.
If you’re styling a recipe that includes berries or nuts, you’re set regarding natural propping and food styling. If not, focus on elements that usually accompany pancakes and waffles, like a dab of butter and syrup.
When setting up this photograph of blueberry waffles, I set aside some blueberries to use as styling props. Once the waffles were stacked, I placed same of these plump berries at the base of the stack and added a dab of butter right on top before pouring syrup around it and over the waffles.
These waffles were room temperature, so the butter didn’t soften at all on contact. To keep it from looking too “clean cut,” I placed a hot iron over the square until it started to melt. And since I wasn’t going for an action shot of syrup being poured, I started with a little bit and took a few pictures. Then I added a little more and took a few more shots. I did that three times total to see which image looked best. The second version was my winner—not too little and not too much syrup … just right!
&
nbsp; In context of your item, think about what color scheme and props would work best, and consider what natural props you can use. Build your frame from there.
Colors and natural props were important styling tools for these Cinnamon Streusel Muffins.
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So if your muffins contain fruit … as in blueberry muffins … add some fresh blueberries to the scene. Less obvious are muffins that have interesting toppings, like streusel and nuts, which can be bit difficult to show off. So think about what’s most appealing about the item and focus there.
If the filling seems particularly interesting, think about cutting the pastry in half to bring the focus to that. If the shape is more appealing than anything else, leave the muffin whole and find a camera angle that enhances the styling. A eye-level view or a close-up shot, for example, won’t require much composition or styling and will put the focus on the item alone.
If the topping consist of nuts or crumbs, like streusel-topped pastries, check to see if there are areas that look nicer than others—more nuts, more golden brown color. It’s perfectly fine to use your fingertips or tweezers to fill in unattractive gaps.
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