Ever flipped open a magazine or looked up at a billboard to see an ad for a cheeseburger? Melty cheese, crispy lettuce, and fresh slices of tomato and onion stacked high on a toasted bun against a brightly colored background catch your eye. Suddenly, you find yourself on the way to your favorite burger joint, and a minute ago you weren’t even hungry.
This is the power of great food photography. And in order to create these photos, you’ll need a food stylist working alongside your photographer to properly translate your ideas into a compelling image. This is true even if you are a chef, or have one on your team. Food stylists bring different skills to the table than chefs do (we’ll explain in detail below), and those differences make a huge impact on the quality of the final product.
There’s more to food styling than meets the eye. We spoke to Chicago-based food stylist Lisa Bishop on why food styling is a crucial part of bringing your creative ideas to life. In this post, you will:
Learn what food stylists do
Get 5 reasons food stylists are invaluable members of your photo shoot team
See 3 before-and-after shots illustrating the magic that food stylists can create!
So … What Does a Food Stylist Do?
A food stylist sets the scene — shopping, cooking, cutting, and arranging the food for a shot. These steps ensure that the final image makes you want to eat the featured food right then and there. They work closely with both the photographer and the client, making sure that the color, shapes, and flavors are translated through the image and captured in the best light.
“Anytime you see a photo published — whether that’s on a billboard, magazine, ad, etc. — there was a food stylist behind it,” Lisa said.
5 Reasons Food Stylists Are Invaluable
Reason #1: Food stylists create dishes that last
How is food presented differently between a chef and a food stylist? Chefs are artists in both their cooking and plating, but a chef’s dish is made to be eaten the moment it’s served. In other words, they present to both the eyes and the stomach. By contrast, food stylists prepare dishes so that they last through the length of the shot. They prioritize the appearance of the dish over the taste because the food will not actually be eaten.
Preparing the ingredients visually can include handling the food in a gentle manner, or undercooking an ingredient, keeping it intact for the shot. “A lot of clients think, ‘I make beautiful food at home all the time,’ but they don’t understand all the techniques that go into keeping food beautiful for the length of the shoot,” Lisa explained.
Lisa recalls a scene during one photoshoot where the photographer let her know that one side of a stack of waffles was getting too “blown out,” or too bright, on one side of the image. To fix the problem, Lisa stepped in and painted some soy sauce on that corner to make it darker and more easily captured in the shot. This may sound shocking because we don’t eat waffles with soy sauce! But remember — food stylists are focused on the look of the shot and not the taste, so soy sauce was the perfect solution to the problem.
On the left, a typical restaurant plating of a salad, with ingredients haphazardly tossed together. At right, the same salad with food styling, looking fuller and more appetizing because of meticulously selected ingredients and deliberate arranging.
Reason #2: Food stylists bring expert knowledge and special tools
Food stylists’ expertise is the sum of their formal education, their focused problem solving skills, and their many unique experiences along the way — all of which contributes to bringing your photos to life.
Lisa studied architecture in college before switching to a focus in food science, which helped her develop an attention to detail and learn how different foods react with one another. She also took some photography classes to help her better understand lighting and composition of a scene.
Each food stylist also has a suitcase or utility belt of tools that help as any problems arise: Lisa’s has a handheld broiler, tweezers, browning agents, and paint brushes, among many other things. The soy sauce example above is just one example of how food stylists bring their knowledge of food and dish appearance to set. Because they are thinking about how a dish will last on set, they can solve any “problems” that come up along the way quickly.
Reason #3: Food stylists introduce new and creative ideas
Whether a client’s ideas are outlined shot by shot in a design deck or described as a general list of dos and don’ts, stylists bring their expertise to make those shots possible and help them consider new solutions.
“A lot of times, clients bring in the ideas of their competitors or things they saw on Pinterest,” Lisa said, “but when working with a food stylist, there is always the opportunity for new ideas. You might end up with something you never even thought of.”
Food stylists know food and photography trends and will be able to help put together images that stand out from the crowd.
On the left, a typical restaurant presentation of a buddha bowl, appetizing but flat and muddled. On the right, a version by a food stylist, with perfectly selected pieces of each ingredient, more dimension, and less garnish so the egg in the middle shines.
Reason #4: Food stylists make the photoshoot go quickly and smoothly for the photographer
Photo shoots have their own flow: the team decides the shot order, the food stylist prepares the ingredients for the shot and makes a stand-in item for the photographer to make some tests, and then the photographer shoots the hero food.
“It’s like a dance,” Lisa explained. “The photographer sets up the lighting for the shot, and the stylist preps the food — and they hope to be done around the same time.”
Reason #5: Food stylists make the photoshoot go quickly and smoothly for the clients
Having a set shot list, beautiful dishes, creative ideas, and smooth workflow makes for an awesome shoot day. Food stylists help the team work more efficiently, so you get more shots out of the session that everyone is happy with.
“It’s fun to work together on something that everyone is proud of in the end,” Lisa said.
The Bottom Line: Don’t DIY Your Food Styling for Photo Shoots (Even If You’re a Chef)
Food stylists are necessary for getting the best photos for your food photo shoot. Could you do a food shoot without one? Sure. But having a food stylist sets your images apart, ensures you’re getting the images that fit your creative vision, and makes shoot day a breeze.
Lisa’s advice: “If you’re going to spend the money for photography, do it all the way.”
Lisa Bishop is a food stylist in the Chicago area. Connect with her on Instagram at @lisa.bishop.food.stylist or on her website, lisabishopfoodstylist.com.
