Katie's Super Food Photo Styling Tips

Hi, it's Katie here, senior food stylist at matsutake. I just wanted to share some of my super photo styling tips with you because this is totally my area of expertise. First, try to only shoot 3/4 of the dish or plate or in this case, the dirty frying pan. That helps keep the image from being too literal and makes viewers wonder about details like who were the guests at this party? What did they wear? What music was playing?  And what's in that frying pan anyway? Old gravy? 

Second, leave a utensil sticking out of the dish. If you don't have any vintage silver, use a plastic ladle. A crystal tumbler filled with your favorite sparkling beverage and garnished with a slice of fresh fruit helps set the scene, too, but you can substitute a second dirty frying pan in a pinch.

Third, lighting is key. I recommend closing the blinds and relying on the 40 watt bulb under the vent hood. It helps to create a golden, warm, greasy ambience. 

And last, try to photograph the food before you eat it. I accidentally polished off the remaining gravy in this frying pan before I got the camera ready because there wasn't really enough gravy left to save it in the fridge but it was too delicious to throw out. So I ate it.

And that's all for my super photo styling tips because I'm not feeling so well now, and I need to lie down for a while. 

Cheers

PS The point of all this is that I have THREE awesome tutorials coming up in the next few days so stick around like gravy in a frying pan.