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Food Styling For Photography.

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By William Reavell Food Styling by Rachel Miles

Food Styling For Photography Book Copyright © William Reavell 2017 Words, Photographs and illustrations © William Reavell William Reavell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this book.

Published by William Reavell 2017, being the owner of Food Photography Training www.foodphotographytraining.com William Reavell Photography www.williamreavell.com

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Introduction

Food styling for photography.

This book is a step by step guide on how to create beautiful food photographs. Showing current ways to present food for social media, cookbooks and magazines. This book is a valuable resource for food writers and anyone who is styling food for photography. This book will explain; 1.Food preparation. 2.Arranging techniques. 3. Plating styles. 4. Styling for different camera angles. 5. How to keep the food looking fresh. 6. How to add garnishes and when. 7. How to handle difficult sauces. 8. Applying salad dressings. 9. How to work with ice cream. 10.Working with cakes. 11.Creative food styling. Working with eleven recipes including salads, pasta, meat and cakes, this book shows in a step by step sequence how to style food for photography. Styling techniques and tricks for food advertising and food product photography are explained. 2

This book contains all my food styling knowledge and experience working as a food photographer. Showing you how to achieve fantastic photographs with your recipe.

It is both the detail in the food arrangement and the overall look of the food that is important. Working together to make a photograph successful. A picture of “controlled mess” is a good way of describing the techniques applied. Food is wonderfully messy, buttery, oily and watery. Ingredients will wilt, bruise or dry out. Sauces drip and juices spill out. This book will teach you how to create a perfect arrangement with soft and delicate food ingredients as well as controlling the mess. 3

Section 2 Techniques for Food Styling For salads and leave garnishes place stalks and whole leaves in iced water to keep fresh and revive

Use the best ingredients: Pick out any damaged or irregular ingredients. When preparing, cooking and plating make sure you are using the best ingredients. Remove or discard anything that is of inferior quality.

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The purpose of water sprays and a light vegetable oil is to create good highlights on the food surface. Use only one or the other dependent on the recipe. Too much and the food can look to oily and wet, not enough and the food can look dry and cold. Water or oil are added liberally but carefully by degrees. Fortunately most foods will absorb any application and absorbent towels and cotton buds can remove any excess.

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Chapter 2: Recipes I have chosen key recipes and ingredients as a guide to food styling. Each uses techniques for camera that can be applied to any recipe you may do. A selection that represents important food styling challenges that are worked through. Recipes Caesar salad Rocket and Parma ham salad Stir fry with prawns and vegetables Pasta carbonara Lamp chop with roasted vegetables on couscous Thick chicken and vegetable soup Thai green chicken curry Ice cream Walnut sponge cake Rocky road tray bake Chocolate and pistachio fudge 6

Section 1 Salads

Make sure all ingredients are of the best quality in shape, colour texture and ripeness. Any wilted ingredients are removed. When plating keep to the principles as discussed in Chapter 1, height, volume and lightness Salads often have strong structural ingredients, leaves, avocado, fruit, which are offset with smaller ingredients, seeds and nuts, Use theses differences together in your arrangement. Dressings usually applied last as they often cause wilting and staining. Thick dressings can be applied in a mixing bowl before plating. Less is more, do not overfill the plate or bowl. Allow the salad to have space and volume. Leaves and fruit ingredients are translucent and work well with light shining through.

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Continue to adjust and refresh ingredients as needed. Things are often spotted and you are working. Be confident to adjust as you go. Sauces and salad dressings. Add more dressing where needed. Added ingredients may not have as much as initially plated. Even thought he dressing was initially mixed through the salad, more may have to added once arrangement is completed.

Picture 17

The dressing can be thinned a little with water

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Picture 18 8

Final Photograph styled for a low camera angle.

Picture 20 9

Picture 23 10

Photographed at a lower angle

Purposely did not change the food arrangement. To demonstrate arrangement does not work at a lower camera angle. Looks too busy, too many rocket leaves.

Picture 26

Scattered ingredients on surface looks OK but a bit distracting 11

Section 2 Savoury, cooked recipes The following section we will be looking at key styling techniques for cooked food. I have chosen recipes that show important food styling skills needed. Stir fry using noodles, prawns and vegetables; This food type uses shapes, flowing noodles and colour to showcase the food. Pasta with a carbonara sauce A classic recipe in which the shapes of the pasta, the arrangement of the recipe and positioning of the ingredients are used to show case the food. Lamp chop with roasted vegetables on couscous; An opportunity to look at how to prepare and arrange meat cuts with a Mediterranean style accompaniment Thick chicken and vegetable soup; Using food styling techniques to arrange and control floating elements in a soup Thai green chicken curry; A step guide to presenting and photographing a very richly sauced recipe.

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Section 3

Cakes and Ice cream

You can really indulge in your creativity as cakes and desserts can be styled in many different ways. Often it is the decoration of a cake or dessert that creates the successful photograph.

Styling ice cream and cakes, working with desserts, icings, creams, and sugar forms. For desserts use the best ingredients for quality and consistency. The key is in the preparation, cakes, sponges and pastries will need to be cooked beforehand, allowed to fully cool before decorating. Good cooking skills is the only way of creating great photographs of desserts. Having a good set of equipment is important. For ice cream work with the classic simple aluminum scoop that is not spring loaded with retractable blades. The following pages show how to work with ice cream and how to repair cake sponges. Also included are two sequences on working with tray-bakes and a section on styling ideas. Baked desserts and cakes are often simple geometric shape. Cakes can be cylindrical, tubular and square for example. Your styling needs to emphasis their shape and keep the structure straight. Cakes often cook slanted or sink, use wedges to make sure the shape is uniformed and upright when in front of the camera.

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Cakes

A good example of using chocolate decoration and icing to create a beautiful cake arrangement. 14

Picture 91. 15

Rocky Road tray-bake styling sequence

A step sequence on styling for photography a chocolate and marshmallow rocky road dessert.

Picture 92. 16