Types of Food Styling

Introduction

Food is styled to be photographed for different purposes. The food that is styled probably is to be photograph for recipe books or for a poster. A bowl of salad can be photographed for a poster or an advertisement in a newspaper of a restaurant or even used for a menu card. As mentioned , the purpose of each type of food photography in general is to make food look good and fresh or tempting and irresistible. However, it is all depend on how the photograph is going to be used. For that matter of fact Food Stylist need to understand the purpose of each assignment.

It is said that good looking photograph of food could enhance the sales of a cookbook. Food stylist must understand that cookbook are displayed and purchases from a shelf in a bookstores, far away from a real kitchen that are full of aromas and flavors. And as for the recipes its only contain the list of ingredients and method of cooking mainly written in black and white, the purchaser must to a great length have to use his / her imagination to visualize this information into aromas, flavors and tastes. This is where, the combination of good food styling and great photo taking will transformed all the good food elements into a photograph – that look tempting and irresistible. In another instant, when customers open the menu at a restaurant – what will they see? Some restaurants have pictures of their menu items to make customer mouth to wet and drool. In a Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) picture of food are decorated on the walls or hang from the ceiling for promotional purposes. These pictures need not be too detail or exaggerating but most of them should be as real close as possible and realistic. It is all with purposes apart been used as a promotional tool, it allow people with disabilities to place their order by only pointing to the picture that they want to order.

As a matter of fact, a good food photograph is just not only a visual aspect, it conveyed more sensory information – it communicates, it stimulates the senses of tastes and smells. Generally there are basically two types of still food photography: editorial photos for a book or magazines and commercial purposes photos such as advertising, packaging and labeling. For a commercial purpose photos, most of the time advertisers want their product prominently featured and in full focus. While in editorial works it allows greater creativity on both the part of the photographer and food stylist compared to advertisements. To create superb creation, the food stylist and photographer most of the time will be working together.

Editorial

For this purpose of assignment photograph is to be used in an editorial works – such as recipe books. Others include magazines and food articles such as in a newspaper. Generally these are considered as editorial food styling. This type of food styling and photographing can be considered as the most popular and, it is the most exciting assignment compared to the other types of food styling. This type of styling and photographing for editorial has broadly saying of ‘no limit to creativity’.

While ad photos are restricted by the concept developed and required by ad agencies. Editorial food styling and photographing has only one purpose – make food look beautiful. All creative lighting in the world can be used and all props available can be placed to achieve beauty. Editorial food styling and photographing allows a lot more freedom. The quality of images needs to be good enough to be published in magazine or a recipe book. The camera need not be as expensive as for advertising food photography and the photo shoot itself can be cheaper than ad photo shoots.

Illustration of food styling work for editorial purpose – a front page of a magazine.

……….and example of food styling for editorial work – recipe book

Advertising

Styling and photographing product for advertisement sometime lead to using of fake food as well as some secret and techniques to make food look tempting. This type of styling and photographing of food product is used for advertising purposes such as for newspaper advertising. However it is also used for menus, brochures, flyers and billboards. Props and other supporting tools can be used to create an harmony and tempting outcomes. Food Stylist and Photographer need to work closely with the advertising agency to visualize the idea and concept that have been decided by the agency. The thing that needs to be remembered by Photographer for this assignment is about the quality of the photograph, since these photos can be used for billboard or a large advertisement such as poster, thus, the quality need to be very high.

Illustration of food styling work for advertising purpose..

Packaging and Labeling

Almost daily we are been expose to the food packaging. It has been too familiar sometime we are not even notice the effort that it took to styled the food and photograph it on that particular packaging. The breakfast cereal, the milk pack, the frozen process food that usually we buy on our visit to the supermarket (to name a few), all of them come together with a nice looking food photos. It is some of the few example food photography for packaging. There are several differences between food photography for packaging and the other types are amount of effort and technical know how about styling and photography. There are a lot of efforts and technical knowledge on the product and meticulous detail that it may take in preparing or styling the food before being photographed. Cautions should be taken in using props so it does not overshadow the main product.

One should remember that for this type of photography is that the food should be presented as clear and as detail as possible. Since, the photo is to be used on a package of a product, the idea is to show as exactly as possible what is in the package. Food stylist has to put effort to ensure that numbers or pieces of the product in the package, color and ingredients if possible should be shown as realistic as possible. At the same time food stylist need to be careful on law and legal issues – overdoing or exaggerating may lead to legal complication.

TV or Film

This type of food styling takes a different approach compare to the above. Food stylist need to work closely with prop master / director who work on the set. For this purpose food need to look as natural as possible and most important it should be edible. If the shoot is for commercial, food stylist usually works directly with the director and he / she need to work directly at the set. Prior to that Food Stylist need to understand the idea and concept of that particular assignment. One of the most challenging aspects of the motion food styling is the need to be ready to prepare as much food ‘actor’ and as identically as possible. This is all depends on how many ‘takes’ are taken for that particular scene.

Setting up and present it...................

Flicking through the pages of a glossy food magazine, one could not miss to spot the work of a food stylist. Most people could not imagine the length to which food stylist has to go in order to make food look perfect. One might just think that “if you want a photo of a bowl of noodle, you just take a bowl of noodle and photograph it” – so what the big deal? The problem with food, it is just could not behave the way you want it to be. It may dried-up, shrunk, discolored and sag. Creating a harmony ambiance and tied-up with the idea and concept is another aspect that food stylist need to looked into. So, setting up is just not a matter of putting all together into one plate – it is far more than that.

There are two ways of setting that are normally applied in food styling and photography which are the type and style:

i. Types of food styling

a. Single serving.

- In a single serving shot effort should be put to show the texture and portion.

b. ‘How to’ or instructional shot.

- A step by step instructional mode of food styling.

c. Finished whole dish

- Normally a whole dish is presented together with a accompanying props that enhance the presentation of the food. Example a whole picture of a 1.5 kgs of cake.

d. Combination of ‘How to’ and finished whole dish.

- Combination of the step by step instructional and it finished product are presented.

e. Finished whole dish and setting.

- Setting up of the whole dish complete with it props and tools. For instance if the dish is presented on a table, consideration to be taken on setting up the table or even a room in case of a banquet or buffet spread.

f. Combination of finished whole dish and still life ingredients

- Normally used in a recipe complete with the picture of it ingredients

g. Finish whole dish and serving.

- Comprise of two elements, the whole dish as well as the portion serving – plating.

h. Abstract.

- Some call it as out of this world – beyond ordinary

i. Ingredients

- Showing all the ingredient for a particular recipe – used for editorial purposes

ii. Style of food styling and photography

a. Outdoor

b. Old fashioned / homey

c. Modern / contemporary

d. Elegant

e. Sophisticated

f. Eclectic – diverse, assorted etc

g. Ethnic

h. Seasonal

i. Holiday / occasion

j. Barbeque / outdoor

k. Special event

l. In the kitchen – in action

As a Food Stylist one should be prepared to visualize the type and style to fit the concept of each of the particular task as well as understand the purpose of it photograph taken.

Food Styling for Menu

Below are some example of food photos for menu e.g menu card, stand card, light box, flyer, brochure and etc (photographed by razali hassan and styled by ali mohamad noor)

A cross-over concept of Western Cafe and Coffee Tiam menu development. Lesser props were used in this concept in order to emphasize more on the main item. In the styling aspect focus were made to portray the texture of the dish. While for photography it simulated the clean and decent image - honesty of the dish itself.

Project

Canon Pro Talk - Basic Food Styling for Photography

  

Last Sunday, 23rd January 2011, I was invited by Mr Wong of Canon Pro Center at Times Square to share my experience on Food Styling. About 20 participants attended the talk. Basically the talk is about introduction to food styling for food photography. Participants were exposed to the basic tips and techniques of food styling. The core of the talks were about handling of food ingredients for photography. It was almost two hours talk that end-up with a Q&A. Most of the participants were eager and requested for a more advance workshop on similar topic (food styling and food photography) to be held in a near future. God Willing - INSYAALLAH, I have no problem with that, will be ever willing to share with everyone, this little knowledge that I have.


Hari Ahad yang lalu, pada 23hb January 2011, Encik Wong daripada Canon Pro Center, Berjaya Times Square, Kuala Lumpur telah menjemput saya untuk berkongsi pengelaman bagi memberikan ceramah mengenai Seni Rias Makanan. Ceramah adalah mengenai Asas Seni Rias Makanan untuk Fotografi. Seramai lebih kurang 20 orang peserta menghadiri ceramah tersebut. Peserta didedahkan mengenai tips dan teknik-teknik asas Seni Rias Makanan. Ceramah menekankan kepada bagaimana mengendalikan bahan-bahan makanan untuk fotografi. Ceramah yg berlangsung selama dua jam tersebut berakhir dengan sesi soal jawab. Kebanyakan peserta menunjukkan minat dan meminta agar satu lagi bengkel yang lebih advance diberikan dalam masa yang terdekat. INSYAALLAH saya tiada halangan untuk itu dan bersedia untuk berkongsi pengetahuan dengan semua.

Basic Food Styling for Photography - Asas Seni Rias Makanan untuk Fotografi

As mentioned earlier in my posting, food styling is the arts or an act of preparing and presenting food for the camera. The purpose of the act is to make food look attractive, enticing, and appetizing to a viewer. It is also known as an act of feeding the eyes and the imagination. While as a Food Stylist, culinary knowledge and skills is considered an essential aspect. These than added with the artistic ability that will made a person a better Food Stylist.

Sepertimana yang dinyatakan sebelum ini, seni rias makanan merupakan satu cabang seni atau satu perlakuan dalam penyedian dan persembahan makanan untuk diramkam oleh kamera. Tujuan perlakuan itu adalah bagi memastikan makanan kelihatan menarik, menawan dan menyelerakan dimata mereka yang melihatnya. Ianya juga bolehlah dikatakan satu perlakuan bagi menjamu mata dan imiginasi. Sebagai seorang Jururias Makanan, pengetahuan dan kemahiran kulinari merupakan aspek penting.Seseorang itu akan menjadi Jururias Makanan yang berjaya  sekiranya ditamabahkan dengan kemampuan untuk berkarya dan mempunyai jiwa seni 

The role of Food Stylist begin well before the actual preparation starts. Understanding the uses and purpose of the photograph to be taken is the first step. Get all the necessary information from related sources such as clients, art director and photographer will give a Food Stylist a good start in planning and preparing his/her work. These information may includes concept, mood, style, color scheme, texture, angle of shoots and as well budget. All these information is vital since it will give the Food Stylist the basic and fundamental ideas of the task that need to be undertaken.


Peranan seorang Jururias Makanan bermula lebih awal daripada permulaan penyediaan tugasan. Memahami kegunaan dan tujuan sesuatu gambar yang akan diambil merupakan langkah pertama di dalam tugasan. Dapatkan seberapa banyak maklumat yang penting mengenai tugasan daripada pelanggan, pengurus seni dan jurugambar, ini akan memberikan Jururias Makanan permulaan yang baik dari segi erancangan dan persediaan tugasannya. Maklumat-maklumat ini termasuklah konsep, mod, stail, skim warna, tekstur, sudut gambar dan juga bajet sesuatu tugasan. Kesemua maklumat ini amat penting kerana ianya kan memberikan Jururias Makanan idea asas tentang tugasan yang akan dilaksanakan. 

The most common angle of shoot in food photography are:

1. Eyes level,
2. 45 degree, and
3. 90 degree

As Food Stylist one need to be sure at which angle and how the food will be shoot. So, this will give them ideas what need to be emphasizes, especially at the particular angle that need to be presented.Food Stylist and photographers need also to know that it has been said that food photography is one of the most difficult discipline in the field of professional photography. Indeed it is considered one of the most difficult because in a normal scenario; after a dish has been prepared by the chef / food stylist and placed on the table for the photographer to shoot, it's only a matter of minutes before the glorious, mouth-watering creation starts to oxidize, change colors, melt, dehydrate, etc...and eventually becomes less appealing for the camera and start looking like garbage.


Sudut gambar yang biasa bagi fotografi makanan adalah:
1. Sudut tahap pandangan mata
2. Sudut 45 darjah, dan
3. Sudut 90 darjah


Senagai seorang Jururias Makanan perlulah memastikan mengenai sudut serta bagaimana makanan tersebut akan dirakamkan. Ini akan memberikan idea kepada Jururias Makanan mengenai apa yang hendak ditonjokan dan dari sudut mana ianya hendak dipersembahkan. Jururias makan dan Jurugambar harus faham bahawa fotografi makanan dikatakan sebagai paling sukar dalam disiplin fotografi. Sememangnya ianya agak sukar disebabkan dalam keadaan biasa, hidangan yang siap sedia dimasak oleh Chef / Jururias Makanan yang diletakkan di atas meja bagi tujuan dirakamkan gambarnya oleh Jurugambar dalam beberapa ketika akan hilang pandangan yang menyelerakan itu kerana melalui proses oksidasi - serti berubah warna, cair, kekeringan, dsbnya,.........makanan tersebut akhirnya akan hilag tarikannya dan tidak berubah menjadi bagaikan 'sampah'.

The most common and challenging issues in food styling and photography is the fact that food will always misbehave. Food are just like kids – it doesn't like to behave infront of company.

Misbehaving of food includes:
Perkara yang lazim dan isu yang mencabar dalam sini rias  dan fotografi makanan adalah disebabkan oleh makanan yang sukar mengikut kehendak kita. Makanan seolah-olah bagaikan seorang budak kecil - yang selalunya membuat perangai dihadapan orang ramai. Tabiat-tabiat makanan ini adalah:

1. Cooked red meat may turn dry and it color turn darker .
   Daging yang dimasak akan menjadi kering dan berubah warna menjadi lebih gelap.
2. Fat congeal.
   Lemak membeku.
3. Cold cut turn gray and dry up.
   Hirisan daging nipis berubah warna dan mengering.
4. Bread – dried, curl, crack and shrink when toasted or exposed too long to heat.
   Roti - kering, melengkong dan mengecut apabila dibakar atau didedahkan kepada haba terlalu lama.
5. Ice cream and ice – melted.
   Ais kerim dan air batu - cair
6. Cheese – congeal, dried, discolor, oily and melt.
   Keju - mmengeras, mengering, berubah warna, berminyak dan cair.
7. Cereal – turn soggy when milk is added.
   Bijirin - mengembang apabila dituang dengan susu.
8. Cold coffee and tea– form oil on surface.
   Kopi dan teh sejuk - permukaan menjadi berminyak.
9. Lettuces and fresh herbs and greens – wilt.
   Daun salad, herba dan sayur hijau - mengecut dan layu.
10. Whip cream – collapse and weeps.
    Krim putar - meleper dan mencair.
11. Fully cooked chicken or birds – shrink, shrivel, and skins pull from bone and flesh.
    Ayam atau burung yang dimasak sepenuhnya - mengecut, kulitnya akan tertarik daripada tulang dan isinya. 
12. Jelly – melt.
    Jeli - cair
13. Souffle – collapse
    Souffle - mengecut
14. Fruit and vegetable – discolor, oxides and turn brown.
    Buah-buahan dan sayuran - berubah warna dan menjadi perang. 
    
    All the above are some example of the misbehaving of food, there many more problems of foods that Food Stylist / Photography may encounter. Food Styling and Photographer alike need to understand the characteristic of food in order to get better result. Fundamental knowledge such as theory of food, for instance, the effect of heat on food component might helps. While experience through trial and error sometimes do help too, however a sound culinary knowledge and skills will ensure better food presentation for photography.

Perkara di atas adalah merubahkan tabiat-tabiat makanan yang sukar dikawal, terdapat berbagai lagi masalah tabiat makan yang dihadapi oleh seorang Jururias Makan / Jurugambar. Jururias Makanan dan Jurugambar perlu memahami tabiat-tabiat makanan ini bagi mendapatkan hasil yang baik dalam tugasan mereka.  Pengetahuan asas mengenai teori makanan, seperti kesan haba terhadap makanan akan banyak menolong. Sementara itu pengalaman seseorang melalui proses cuba buat kadang kala banyak juga membantu. Walaubagaimanapun pengetahuan mengenai ilmu kulinari dan kemahiran akan memastikan persembahan makanan yang menarik untuk fotografi makanan.

 

Tips on crockery, plate, props n etc

Crockery such as plate and underliner that are used in presenting food item is considered as one of the vital element to ensure the food look good. Remember! Food styling is the arts of presenting food for the camera - to make the food look tempting and attractive. Color, texture, shape and structure of the plate will influence the look of the food. If you choose a wrong combination the food will be 'submerged' or 'camouflaged' by the crockery used. A right and proper selection of crockery will enhance the look of the food product.
Peralatan pinggan mangkok terutama pinggan dan alas yanag digunakan bagi menghidang makanan merupakan salah satu elemen terterpenting bagi memastikan makanan yang dihidangkan kelihatan menarik. Perlu diingatkan! Seni Rias Makanan merupakan satu seni mempersembahkan makanan untuk fotografi - untuk menjadikan makanan tersebut kelihatan menyelerakan dan menarik. Warna, tekstur, rupabentuk dan struktur pinggan akan mempengaruhi rupa makanan yang dihidangkan. Jika pilihan pinggan yang salah atau kombinasi yang tidak tepat akan mengakibatkan menjadi makanan seakan-akan ditenggelami peralatan yang digunakan. Manakala pilihan pingan yang betul dan tepat akan menjadikan makanan yang dihidangkan tampil lebih menarik. 

Look at the photos above, the first photo looks dull. Transparent glassware will made the food absorbed by the background. To overcome this, stylist may use an underliner to 'break' the overshadowing of the background. Photo two, a white plate as an underliner used to block the background underneath the transparent glass plate, this made the food look more outstanding to the viewer.

Lihat pada foto di atas, foto yang pertama kelehatan agak suram. Penggunaan pinggan kaca yang lutsinar menjadikan makanan yang dihidangkan ditenggelami oleh rupabentuk latarnya. Bagi mengatasi masalah ini, Jururias Makanan perlu menggunakan pinggan alas atau sebarang alas bagi 'menyekat' bahagian latar hidangan dari mempengaruhi makanan tersebut. Manakala foto yang kedua kelihatan lebih menarik, di mana pinggan berwarna yang digunakan mampu 'menyekat' bahagian latar, ini membuatkan hidangan tersebut lebih menonjol dan terserlah. 

Both the photos above, shows how color and texture of a plate used will give a different mood to a same food product. White fondant icing on the cakes is blended together with the white colored plate used. This made the food looks dull. While in an another photo above where the cakes are plated on a wooden board with some noticeable texture of the board gives a different mood altogether.

Meanwhile the photos below shows a same cakes were presented on a different type of plate with different color. So pick up your choice and which of these three look more outstanding than the rest?
Kedua-dua foto di atas menunjukan bagaimana warna dan tekstur pinggan akan memberikan kesan  dan mood yang berbeza kepada hidangan. Warna putih fondan pada kek telah bersatu dengan warna pinggan yang juga putih. Ini menjadikan hidangan kelihatan suram. Manakala pada foto kedua di atas menunjukkan bagaimana kek yang sama dihidangkan di atas pinggan kayu yang menpunyai tekstur yang berbeza menjadikan hidangan tersebut berbeza dari segi moodnya .
Manakala foto di bawah menunjukkan kek yang sama kelihatan berbeza pada tiga cara hidangan yang berbeza dengan menggunakan tiga jenis pinggan/alas yang berbeza. Buatlah pilihan anda, mana di antar ketiga hidangan ini kelihatan lebih menonjo dan menarik?