Earlier in the week, we talked styling hair, but now we’re talking food styling.
Having the privilege of visiting a few commercial test kitchens, I am more and more amazed at the art of food styling and food styling for photography.
Many of you have already read about my BLT (squared), the Hillshire Farm Coupons, and my quest to win the Hillshire Farm’s Most Wanted Sandwich Contest, (I ended up winning this – yay!), but you may not realize that now I have been certified as an official “food stylist” with a fancy certificate and everything. 😉
(Why do I feel like it may have been “every one gets a certificate if they participate” kind of thing that our children always receive? haha)
We dialogued for a few hours on the different ways to present food items for eating and consumption vs. food photography. Take the sandwich above. Look how beautifully the meat is presented. As I page through magazines and see ads, I now notice that all sandwiches have meat that’s beautifully folded, and it makes it appear as if there’s so much more meat on the sandwich than just laying it on there.
It’s sounds corny, but this was the most interesting food trick I have learned in a long time, and I can’t believe I haven’t done it before. I’ll do a little video to show you how to fold the meat. It’s so simple, but if you’re a visual learner like I am, the live process will be helpful.
I cracked up when I saw the food photographer’s little makeup bag. He mentioned that he travels with this everywhere. Of course, we all use tweezer for plucking…food particles, of course, and brushes for clearing crumbs (not eye shadow)
Don’t we all wish we had the precision and time to serve beautiful food like that all day long. Somehow, I don’t think I’d hear the food stylist say, “Just slap the meat on yourself.” 😉 (But, if I had my preference, I think I might just take that unbelievable camera over the great sandwich any day.)
I’ll be sharing some more photos from my visit in another post, but in honor of my official “food stylist” honor, would you go vote for that beautifully styled sandwich at Gomeat.com. (Don’t worry, contest has ended.) Scroll until you see the BLT, and click. If you haven’t heard about the contest, or are curious about what our family will do with the large grand prize amount, see my Most Wanted Sandwich Contest Post. It’s truly a dream to open the eyes of our children through this opportunity.
Simple Rules for Tasty Tuesday Parade of Foods – If you’re joining in with a recipe link, two simple requests. As always, Please link directly to your recipe post and not your blog URL, so that everyone can find the recipe months from now.
Also, link back here so that everyone can join in the fun. MANY of you are not linking back, and it’s just common courtesy of blog carnivals.
The food styling process amazes me!
I watched a show one time about food styling. I was absolutely amazed!
I voted for you! I love the folded deli meat trick…I learned that at my first job working at a coffee house. 🙂
You got my vote! See you at Blissdom. Hugs to you!
I really want to become a food photographer, well not professionally but just as a hobby that’s while by blog title is cooking and capturing. It’s a nice experienced on your part seeing how they do it in a studio 🙂 Happy Week!
I’m feeling a little inadequate with my food pictures now! I’ll use it as inspiration!
Voted for you! 🙂
Those are fantastic photos. I am always fascinated how mouthwatering pictures of food can be. I did watch a Food Network challenge where they had to create food for styling. It was really neat.
I found your link on another recipe blog so I hope you don’t mind me joining and linking up. I am linking up my Apricot Bread Pudding
Ha! A “makeup bag” for the food stylist! Love it! 🙂
What a great list of recipes today! I think YOU are a great food stylist … always love your food photos. 🙂
I could use a few styling tips for my food photos.
Thanks for the link-up.
Being a food stylist would be a pretty awesome job. Thanks for hosting!
Hi Jennifer 🙂
Congrats on your award. I am s-u-r-e you received it solely based on merit 😉
A friend of ours whom is a butcher, has often talked about the things they do to products (food) during ad shoots. Some of the things done seem outrageous!
Being in the food service industry, we know that over 1/3rd of how something taste is based on how it looks to the eater. Thus we always try to keep that in mind when we are doing for for some event on our own, let alone serving a dinner at our home.
Then there is the smell aspect of food. But that is too tantalizing of a subject for me to comment on this close to lunch time o;-p
I bet you have lots of great tips on this topic. It really is fascinating. 🙂
ahhh but linking back is so important!!!!! come on people! all the cool kids are doing it =)
I can always use more food shooting tips. Thanks!
Great post! Always appreciate tips for better food photos. And good luck in the sandwich contest!
SO excited to hear more tips from “the inside” about food styling. It’s so amazing what a little thought can do for food photography. Thanks for sharing.
Wow! What a neat post.
My husband got me a new camera for Christmas so I could take better photos for my blog and shop. And he’s always laughing at me because I’m constantly taking pictures of food. I think I’ll show him this post. He’ll be amazed.
Voted for you!!! Good luck!
The food styling is amazing.
Food styling is really intriguing – I wonder how one gets to be a food stylist? Are there courses available? Apprenticeships? I have a daughter who would do really well at this!
Beautiful, Jen! I just voted. Good luck!
so apparently you can’t vote from Safari, iphone or ipad. I couldn’t figure out how to vote and then saw it in their voting FAQ download. You may want to make mention of this in your post because I almost didn’t vote because I couldn’t figure out how. Kelly
Ugh…I was wondering why there were so many problems. Thanks for persevering.
I used to work in advertising and on product shot shoots and it was always amazing what they used in food photographs. They look GREAT but you couldn’t pay me enough to take a bite of one of the “models” LOL Glad you had fun and learned a lot and best of luck on winning! This is really cool! I am linking up an article about an inspired kitchen make over! All the best! Alex
Super fascinating post! I’ve always been curious about this topic! A make-up bag for food…genius!
Great to meet you! We’re putting together 99 links to help foodbloggers take better photos. We’d love to include this post as a reference, and are asking your permission. Do let me know if you are okay with referencing you!
Cheers
Christine
christine@knapkins.com
Yes, as long as you are just referencing with a link back to this post, and not using the entire post, I am fine with your referencing it.