A stunningly beautiful picture of hot-fudge chocolate pots, strawberry ice cream with a cherry on top, served in a frosted glass; all are bound to whet your appetite. They can stimulate your salivary glands to the point where even your stomach starts to rumble. That is the exquisiteness of food styling and photography; to make you yearn for a bite when flipping through that food magazine. Food styling is the culinary art of arranging food in order to look fresh and overpoweringly tasty.
What does a Food Stylist do? Is their work valuable?
The main purpose of food stylists is to ensure that the food, in the finished photograph, looks stunningly attractive and very easy on the eye. The technique of making meals look their very best however is not easy. It takes a creative mind and alluring artful designs to make the food appear photogenic in a film, video or magazine. The food stylist is a culinary expert who can artfully and carefully enhance, for example, pancake syrup making it look really tasty or making drinks visually appealing.
The difference between the way a home cook or chef presents food, and the way the food stylist presents food is the time and effort a stylist takes to craft and cautiously arrange the food. Creative and sparkling food arrangements are an art that requires culinary training. Food stylists are mostly culinary trained as professional chefs in a cookery school. Some also have a rich background in home economics. So, in essence, a trained home economist can be a stylist.
However, in order for creative stylists to gain work experience, skills in the art of food styling, and entirely envision the finished photograph to style the food accordingly, they must first work as assistants to other food stylists and home economists. They also need to have a wide knowledge in cooking techniques and nutrition. The essentially a year of food styling experience, with credible certifications and seminar courses, can easily earn you a job.
Diverse Types and Importance’s of Food Styling
There are different ways food can be styled to appeal say, to feature films, TV commercials and magazines. In reality, food and drinks are generally styled to be photographed and appropriately used for menu cards, advertisem*nts in newspapers, restaurants or even posters. Diverse types of Food styling: editorial, advertising, packaging and labelling, feature films and TV commercials.
The importance of matching the right food stylist to the right projects is finesse. Use a stylist who is exceptionally creative and knowledgeable on how to translate the perception, appeal, aroma and taste of the styled dish, to a two-dimensional photograph or video. That way you will achieve utmost excellence in your photography and video projects.
