Sometimes, as a food photographer, you have to make really ugly food look beautiful. There are many people who are true masters of this. I wouldn’t call myself one of them. But, I do have a few tricks up my sleeve. And the main one is distraction. The thing about ugly food is quite often, it actually is really delicious. Hummus is a big beige blob, but if you swirl it around, dress it with a little oil and finishing salt and put it in a nice bowl, maybe with a chip taking a little dive in, suddenly, it becomes the appealing dip that it actually is.

Last month’s photo remake was all about taking a dish of something that is probably not all the beautiful, and making it into something that looks like you may actually want to eat it. I had a recent photo shoot that included a recipe for a molded salmon pate. I was worried about the shot going in… it sounded like it might be fairly Fluffy Mackerel Puddingesque. My worries were justified… when I unmolded the pate, it wasn’t anything you’d want to take a photo of. (Of course, I did anyway) And then, I proceeded to style it to make it look like something you’d actually want to eat (because despite its looks, it was tasty).

before styling

When you buy a lot of props, you end up with a lot of tissue paper. I like to put mine to use rather that just recycling it. Sometimes, I use tissue to look like parchment paper or wrapping around treats. Sometimes it’s a background, or an interesting surface texture. But most commonly, I use to to modify light. Although my windows in my studio are usually covered with vellum, sometimes it’s still not enough to tone down the light and minimize hot spots. For small hot spots, I like to use glass bottles to diffuse and refract the light… but if there is an overall problem, a sheet of tissue paper can work wonders… even just sort of tucked in. Because it comes in different thicknesses, there’s almost always just the right piece.

That’s what I did today when I was working on the cover shot for a cocktail book I’ve been shooting this week. Thought you might enjoy some of the setup shots and one of the (unedited) outtakes. Not exactly high-tech!

Sun, Surf & Food Style II: This three-day hands-on workshop will be held in San Diego, California on February 20-22, 2009.

After the first day of group instruction, the stylists and photographers will work in pairs with the food stylists under the guidance of Lisa Golden Schroeder and the photographers with Gregory Bertolini. Each stylist/photographer team will produce a number of images using Gregory Bertolini’s professional equipment (Hasselblad Medium Format and Linhof and Sinar Large Format View Cameras) as well as your own photography equipment. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to consult with Gregory one-on-one. Stylists will work closely with Lisa to style a number of dishes. Everyone will walk away with several images for their portfolios.

On day two, students will receive hands-on experience in creating editorial images (e.g. produce a cover shot for a food magazine), and day three will focus on creating advertising images (e.g produce a packaging image for a frozen pizza box).

For more information, see the Photo Styling Workshop website.

If you can’t make it to San Diego, check out Everyday Food Styling, an online 4-week fully interactive course taught by Lisa Golden Schroeder starting January 27th.

A few weeks ago, I got a lovely piece of mail from a food stylist that I hadn’t known before. Actually, I had known him from his amazingly beautiful stylings in magazines like Sunset among countless others. In fact, you have most likely seen Randy Mon’s work before too without knowing it. Such seems to be the life of food stylists, staying hidden behind the scenes. After my jaw nearly dropped to the floor after seeing even the first shot on his portfolio of the most luscious looking radishes and herbs I’ve ever seen in my life, I quickly popped off a response to him to see if I could coax him to take a few (or more) minutes to share a little about himself with me and you guys. Amazingly, he generously obliged and not only sent me along a fantastic interview with wonderful insights into how he works… but also a lovely handful of photos showing his excellent work.

So, with that, here’s my virtual interview with Randy for you all to enjoy!

L: I love that you describe yourself on your about page as “a weird kid” who sculpted scrambled eggs and made dried fruit portraits. Thank goodness your had a friend who suggested you go into styling! Once you had that idea planted in your head, how did you make it happen, and get your first

If you’ve ever done any research into food photography and styling, then you know how few and far between the guides are. There are a couple of books that focus on lighting and some of the basics of photography when it comes to food… almost a laughable number given the overall quantities of books on general photography and photography software. For food styling, there has been even less. However, I just received my copy of Food Styling for Photographers by Linda Bellingham and Jean Ann Bybee and I’m thrilled to see this kind of information more readily available to photographers and people considering food styling.

“Food Styling for Photographers: A Guide to Creating Your Own Appetizing Art”
(Linda Bellingham, Jean Ann Bybee)

Last time Adorama had a Food Photography workshop, I found out too late to let you all know. This time, I’m on it… although there isn’t much time to get signed up. The next talk, given by Lou Manna, author of Digital Food Photography, will be held November 18th. The cost of the class is $250, and it will be held in Lou Manna’s studio in New York. For more information, see the Adorama Workshop site.

Even more exciting, I think, is Sun, Surf and Style, a three-day live tabletop and food styling workshop in San Diego, California from February 8-10, 2008 by food stylist Lisa Golden Schroeder and photo stylist Susan Linnet Cox. This three-day interactive workshop features a “jump start” day focused on getting started in the business of food styling and propping, plus two great days filled with styling demos and test assignments with a professional shooter, New York food photographer Gregory Bertolini. The class will be held in a professional photography studio, fully equipped with a commercial kitchen. There are only 13 slots open for this class which is $900. More info and registration can be found here.

If you are looking for some instruction but can’t travel, you might check out Food Styling 101, a 4 week online class on Photo Styling Workshops. The next round starts on Nov 13th. Also check out Self-Promotion and Marketing for Food Stylists.

Also, if you haven’t stopped by Michael Ray’s

I had two different ideas for this month’s challenge. But an article on plating in today’s Seattle Times pre-empted them both, and inspired me to create this month’s Plate it Up! theme. The article is about transforming a boring plating into something that has more appeal. Despite the title of the piece, which implies that it will be mainly about garnishing, the tips include do’s and don’ts about how to layout the food, how to think about color, and (a little) on saucing. It’s a short read, but a good one to kick off the challenge. Go read it now, so the rest of this post makes sense.

Back so soon? Did you read it? Good.

First off, I’m curious as to what you thought of the example photo. Did the after photo look better to you? And if so, how much better?

Secondly, here’s where you really come in… what would you do to the plate to make it even more appealing? Show us with this month’s post. No, you don’t have to plate the same dishes… but do try to combine different dishes onto one plate, and make the most of them. This is something I tend to avoid doing… and one of the things I’ve noticed about most cooking magazines and cookbooks… the photo shows just one cooked item, not an item, plated, as you probably would if you were actually serving at home or in a restaurant.

As the holiday season approaches, food styling needs start to kick into higher gear. Food is such a critical part of the holidays, and making food look good, even more so. It’s all turkeys, stuffing, cookies, cakes and pies. Especially pies. I recently shot a pecan pie for a regional magazine. The pie was baked in a local bakery, and I had the whole pie to work with to get a shot of a single slice, on a white plate, on a white background to allow lots of room for text to be placed all around. Styling pie is not particularly easy, and this particular pie, while mind-blowingly delicious, didn’t make it easier. When styling pie, you really want something that can hold it’s height fairly easily, with a nice thick bottom crust. This pie loved to sink and while the outer crust was incredibly thick, the bottom was almost nonexistent. Still, I thought it might be nice to show you a little walkthrough of the shot.
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