'Food Styling at Home for Food Bloggers' : The 'Beginner's Guide to Food Styling + Photography'

tutorial

www.aldentegourmet.blogspot.com

Welcome

My way to food styling is simply a “natural approach” Food Styling “Au Natural’’—Styling with Real Food.

In this issue you’ll find practical ideas and tips about food styling / how to style your food using what you have at home –for more creative results – leaving room for your own personal touch.

As a trained cook my knowledge and training in ‘’food design/styling’’ comes mostly from my experience working in professional kitchens. As well as taking different workshops to improve my skills.

So my suggestions here are the result of my own experience as a food blogger author / cook and food stylist.

And things that I’ve learned throughout the food blogging process.

Sharing this work is certainly a great opportunity to connect with anyone who loves food. Particularly with amazing food bloggers, cooks and food stylist around the world that enjoy creating wonderful food presentations.

Who can read this tutorial?

Mostly anyone! This work is dedicated to food bloggers and to those of you that want to express your joy for food in a more creative way.

And of course, to my virtual colleagues who are a true inspiration to me.

Hope you like this. Enjoy!

Aldy

Food + Style Food Styling ‘Au Natural’ Green Food Styling At Home for Food Bloggers-Things I’ve learned about Food Styling and Styling Food the way I like it.

We all want to share our delicious recipes with wonderful photos. We all food bloggers want this! And having to ‘’design food’’ and preparing it for the camera could be quite challenging job.

Food styling or food design is a concept that I’ve learned since I started my career as a cook and I could say that I’m very familiar with it. But ‘’Photography’’ well …that concept was (and still is) very new to me. That became even more serious since I decided to start my blog.

And believe me, words such as patience, creativity, workshops, techniques and photography have been in my mind quite often since then.

Cooking the food, styling the food and then taking the photos…

Food photography…Not as simple as I thought! Sometimes it could end in a total frustration and sometimes the results are simply gorgeous. It’s all about trial and error. The best way to learn and improve!

Styling….food….food styling ….food photography?

What’s all this... And what’s the difference?

Food Styling or …

Food Photography Styling food is one thing and Photographing the food a total different thing all together! To me they’re both absolutely essential to express and translate the beauty and delicacy of any dish.

Styling food: The design of food. Food Photography: This relate to different techniques on how to photograph the food.

I could say food styling is my favorite subject.

As many of you know I’ve been working in the food industry for more than 11 years and as a consequence I have had the opportunity to prepare, cook and make food look fresh, beautiful and appetizing for quite some time now.

The concept; ‘’We Eat with Our Eyes First’’ well…that’s something that I heard chefs saying all the time since the day I started my career as a cook.

To pay careful attention to the details, presentation of food when serving a dish— A very useful and interesting concept that I also apply (as a food blogger) to the food I style and photograph.

But life as a food blogger is a little different to me than in a professional kitchen– Yes! It’s a way to express my other ME. The artistic ME.Indeed! It requires dedication = more time and an extra ‘eye’ …

I called it ‘’The Picasso Eye”.

The Design of Food food styling and food stylist?

The dictionary definition says; a person whose job is to arrange food in an attractive way for professional photographs or broadcasts.

I say; Food styling is simply ‘the design of Food’ –An Art. A combination between ‘Art’ and your ‘Passion for Food’ to add more beauty to food and throughout this process be able to achieve better *much better* results in your photographs.

The Distasteful Tricks The distasteful tricks I’ve learned that I would never ever *ever* use!

Soon after I started my blog I decided to submerge myself a little bit more into this ‘’food designing world’’—So I started taking workshops regarding the subject. But my first experiences were not very good!

I became very disappointed when I learned that many professional food stylists use very distasteful tricks to prepare and make food looks as attractive as possible.

Things like; shortening mixed with sugar and food coloring to simulate ice cream, hair dryers to cook a slice of turkey , a combination of chemicals to simulate smoke or steam, baby oil and glycerin to give salads a fresh and rinsed look, shoe polish for meat and many other things that really disgusted me. I couldn’t believe my eyes!

I was horrified!!!

I believe sharing photographs of ‘No Edible’ food certainly loses it beauty, value and integrity.

FORTUNATELY, Not all Food Stylist Use this Unpleasant Methods!

Food Styling ‘’Au Natural” As a person in love with food and good eating—to me Food is Marvelous and Beautiful au natural-- all by itself!

As a person in love with food and good eating—to me Food is Marvelous and Beautiful au natural-- all by itself!

There’s No Need to douse it with such a disgusting and unhealthy tricks and chemicals.

Everything that is prepared to photograph must be EDIBLE. And yes, everything that you see in my blog is EDIBLE! And yes, it is possible! And if you ever consider working as a food stylist I just ask you to *Never* deface the beauty and simplicity of natural food and cooking. Please!

Green Natural Food Styling At Home—REAL FOOD There are many healthy and natural ways to create a fabulous presentation. Easy styling tips that I’ve been using myself as a cook when cooking in kitchen’s restaurants and as food stylist/ blogger at my home kitchen. *Remember, you don’t need a professional studio or expensive equipment to style your food successfully!

Always

Pre - plan

Food Style

When eating out

When preparing

Making a pasta presentation

7-Less is better. Try not to crow your plate and give a little space to show ingredients used in the dish as much as possible. Making the dish more neat, delectable and mouth-watering!

8-Eating after Styling. After having photograph your favorites, eat some of your creation and photograph that eaten portion. To show that what you’re sharing is not only delicious and good looking but REAL. 9- Keep it Natural and Delicious. Don’t be afraid to show crumbles from your pie, muffins or cupcakes. Even that creamy sauce falling on the plate could spice up your photos.

10- Inspire yourself by keeping a FPSD {Food Photography Styling Diary)-- So you can take notes of different styles that helped you achieve successful results in your food presentations and shots.

11- Style and photograph whenever natural light is available. This will make your shots more alive and fresh.

12- Always update your skills and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Learn to love the process and don’t be shy to Be original! Now, go practice and take some gorgeous photos of your favorite’s food.

Until next time! www.aldentegourmet.blogspot.com