Food Styling For Photography.

Sample

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

1
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, cook-
books 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 prod-
uct photography are explained.

2
This book contains all my food styling knowledge and experience work-
ing as a food photographer. Showing you how to achieve fantastic pho-
tographs 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 success-
ful. A picture of “controlled mess” is a good way of describing the tech-
niques applied. Food is wonderfully messy, buttery, oily and watery. In-
gredients 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 dis-
card anything that is of inferior quality.

4
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.

5
Chapter 2: Recipes
I have chosen key recipes and ingredients as a guide to food styl-
ing. 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

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 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 ingredi-
ents, seeds and nuts, Use theses differences together in
your arrangement.

Dressings usually applied last as they often cause wilt-

ing 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 confi-
dent 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

Picture 17
the salad, more may have to added once arrangement is
completed.

The dressing can be thinned

a little with water

Picture 19
Picture 18

8
Final Photograph styled for a low camera angle.

Picture 20

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 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

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 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 ele-

ments 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 des-
serts.

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 beau-
tiful 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.

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