Styling Food for Photography

Hey folks!  So last week I was doing some research on improving my food photography.  While I got some good tips on many aspects of the process by far the most interesting was how food is styled.  Did you know that most food photography is styled?  By that I mean manipulated and coerced to look a certain way (yes, just like a hairdo)…  and just like a hairdo most food that has been styled to look it’s best for photography is not something you actually want to eat.  In fact many styling techniques can leave your food somewhat poisonous.  It was all quiet interesting.

Anyway, thought I would share the notes I took concerning various foods and tips & tricks on how to make those foods look their photographic best.  The notes are written for myself so cut me some slack on the grammatical stuff.  I think the information is still there for you.

 

Styling Food for Photography:

• Ice:
  • Create good looking natural ice by boiling distilled water twice then freeze quickly. This will help to get rid of air bubbles making the ice more attractive.
  • Purchasing acrylic ice cubes works well too.
  • There is also fake “crushed ice” that can be used on the outsides of a glass to replicate the look of “fresh out of the cooler”.
  • Avoid straight vertical lines when stacking your ice cubes within a glass.
  • Arrange the ice cubes before you add liquides.
  • Pour liquides into glasses using funnel to prevent moving your ice cubes.
  • Herbs:
    • If you want a mint leaf (or similar) to sit properly in a liquid drink you can actually glue it to an ice cube or glass to prevent it from floating up to the top.
• Spritzing:
  • You can use water / glycerin (50/50 mix) to create condensation that is more “sticky”, creates larger droplets and lasts longer than just water.
• Liquids:
  • Use a filter to remove “funk” from things like lemon aid or other.
  • Turkey baster can be used to remove liquids from a glass to get just the right level.
• Eggs:
  • Fill pan with lots of oil just to cover whites but not above bottom of yolk.
  • Not “sizzle” hot. Think “poaching” heat.
  • Drain off the “thin white” albumin from the eggs. There are two consistencies of the egg white. Remove the thin.
  • Use spoon to barely cook yolk a tad… but you are not actually trying to cook anything.
  • You can keep eggs in room temp oil (under the oil) to keep eggs for long periods of use.
• Bacon:
  • Use tin foil “ropes” (rolled up foil in long strips).
  • Fill a pan with these foil ropes.
  • Lie the bacon horizontal over the ropes to cook (300 degrees, don’t overcook). This produces good looking up/down shape to the bacon.
  • Should look crisp but will not actually be crisp.
  • Spray oil on bacon to give a glisten.
• Sausage:
  • Cook to until sausage looks a little brown, but is not actually cooked inside (when fully cooked it doesn’t look as plump and moist).
• Meats:
  • Again don’t actually cook the meat. Just cook until outside looks proper. You can use a blow torch to crisp/carmelize outside quickly where needed.
  • Brown Juice: can be created with browning sauce with water and a little soap.
• Hamburgers:
  • Don’t actually fully cook or patty will change shape, shrink and loose moisture.
  • Can use blow torch to give a grilled look.
    • Use a metal skewer heated with blow torch to “brand” lines onto the patty.
  • Brush burger with mix of browning sauce, bitters and dish soap.
  • Use small pins to hold each layer of topping in place like lettuce and tomato, etc.
  • Cut tomato slide with a slit (center to edge) which lets you spread the tomato slice outward making it look larger and fuller.
  • Put cheese slices in hot water,, make cheese elastic and “look” melted.
  • Hollow out some of the top bun so it can sit lower on the food.
  • Use syringes to apply mustard and ketchup to the sides of the burger so you can creatively manipulate it’s look.
  • Can use a needle nose glue applicator (or something like it) to add water droplets to tomato and lettuce to make them look “spritzed”.  You don’t want to actually spritz or you’ll get droplets on the bun and meat.
• Pancakes:
  • Warm griddle not hot.
  • Use dark corn syrup instead of maple syrup. It’s darker and thicker.
  • Use scotch guard on pancake to prevent the syrup from soaking into the pancakes. Spray it and let it dry first.
  • Butter can be “softened” by blowing on it through a straw to warm it slightly and give it some glisten.
• Salads:
  • Use fresh greens and thoroughly check every leaf to make sure you don’t have any wilting leaves, brown spots, etc.
  • Herbs can be bought as living plants,, they look better longer, just clip them when needed.
  • Make sure to maintain height to your salad. You want it looking plump and tall.
  • Endive is a good attractive contrast of color in a salad.
  • Build the salad ingredient one at a time. Do not toss and then add to the bowl.
  • Mist the leaves to make them look fresh.
  • Add dressing last. Add dressing with an eye dropper. Just a little at a time to place it all where you want it. Kind of random “sprinkling”. Remember it doesn’t actually have to cover everything, just be visible on top.
• Coffee:
  • Make absolutely sure your table is level because you cannot fix the liquid being crooked by simply turning the image.
  • You may need to thin the coffee in order make is a little bit more transparent along the edge of the liquid.
  • To create bubbles use Photo Flow. It allows you to blow bubbles into a liquid with an eyedropper that look natural and do not produce refracted “rainbows” like soap or other things might.
  • Create steam on the coffee with a hand steamer or other method.  Do not actually work with hot coffee.
• Beer (glass)
  • Make sure glass is fully clean and no soap left in it.
  • Use gloves to handle glass, hold from inside.
  • Tape the outside top portion of glass where the foam will be.
  • Use dulling spray on the glass. This makes it look frosted. If you warm the spray in warm water first you get a better spray.
    • Let dry for 20 minutes.
  • Use a fine mist sprayer with ½ water ½ glycerin to create droplets on the glass.
  • Then use a regular spritzer which makes bigger droplets.
  • Now the glass look frosted and moist.
  • Aqua Gel can be used to make big drops and “runs” that look like water/ice.
  • Can use a “golden” cutout same shape as glass behind the glass at 45 degree angle facing light source to make the beer look really golden.
  • Fill glass mostly with your beer,, let the foam drop down… then fill the rest to create the foam and take the shot.
    • You can create more head by stirring with a wooden chopstick.. enzymes in the wood make the beer foam.
• Fruit:
  • Use glycerin / water mix in sprayer to make things look moist that should be.
  • Aqua gel can be used to make water drips.
  • Can use dulling spray to control highlights on smooth fruit.
  • Sodium bisulfite can keep cut fruits looking fresh (prevent oxidation)
  • Translucence in cut fruit:
    • You can cut slices thinner than you normally would for eating to improve translucency.
• Ice Cream:
  • You’ll need dry ice to keep ice cream cool on set.
  • Poop freeze (yes that’s the name) – can be used to cool stuff on set. Or to make set items look cold (think making stainless steel look cold).
  • Straw can be used to made a drip by blowing warm air.
  • Need a direct light source from an horizontal angel to show the texture on the ice cream.
  • To create really good “barking” …
    • make a scoop of ice cream. Place on a cardboard.
    • Cut the sides off the ice cream box.
    • Then using a very cold metal spatula cut a slice of ice cream from the top.
    • Wrap this slice overtop of the first scoop. The slice will have the good looking “barking”.
• Cereal:
  • You need to go through lots of boxes to find the best flakes and pieces that are full bodied with a variety of shapes.
  • Can use shortening in a bowl to create body and then put the “hero” flakes on top. This allows you to manipulate the shape of the mound and stick flakes in specific positions. Could use instant mashers too.
  • Use clamps to hold a spoon in a specific position (like coming into the bowl).
  • Heavy cream works well as milk.
  • Can use canned air to make a splash in the milk.

• Manipulating Positions:
  • Use poster putty, gaffers tape and compressed air to manipulate objects and hold them into the positions you need.
• Making Steam:
  • You can create fake steam by using a white cloth and wave it around where you want the steam during a long exposure. If done right your arm won’t show up but the faint white blur will and looks like steam.
  • Soak tampons in water then microwave for 30 seconds. Place tampon behind food to create steam in the photo.
  • Handheld steamers can work as well. Hold just outside of shot OR steam object for a while and then pull away (you’ll have a few seconds of steam still happening).

• Creating Fire:
  • Can create fire by placing rubber cement on Cinefoil. Rubber cement will burn quickly and easily.

• Gobos:
  • Cinefoil – a black tin foil you can shape and use for blocking light. Actually any foil can block light, but black foil can act as a black reflection like you would use black cardboard, only now more easily shaped and sized and cheaper.

 

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