Styling for Foodtography

Log on into Instagram and you’ll certainly see at least one picture of a mouthwatering dish or a delicious meal on your feed, arranged perfectly to invoke the right centres of your brain. A plate that has been rightly arranged or a picture of food that has been rightly clicked will have people clamouring for a bite. If you too are exploring these tasty avenues of foodtography (food photography) or food blogging, there is one aspect you need to master: food styling.

- NITYAPRIYA KALIYATH

What is Food Styling?

Simply put, food styling is the art of arranging food in such a way that it looks fresh, delicious and ready to be gobbled up.

Food Styling has become a lucrative career now. Restaurants hire food stylists to make their menu look highly attractive to the public by arranging and clicking pictures of the dishes in an extremely tempting way. Chefs and food bloggers, due to the nature of their work, are building upon these skills.

Now as a photographer, you might wonder if there are chefs and food stylists who already take care of this aspect of foodtography, do you really need to learn food styling? The answer obviously is a resounding Yes!

Food styling is not just about plating the food, from photography perspective, it is also about composition and lighting. It’s about conveying the essence of the food through tiny tweaks and making it more visually appealing.

So, here are a few food styling bites to take your foodtography skills to the next level!

Plan, Plan, Plan!