As a food blogger, there is constant pressure to include stunning photographs of dishes and ingredients to draw in readers. We are all visual eaters – we want our food to be beautiful. I’ve been steadily improving my photography skills, and upgrading my equipment. But I know one thing for sure – I will never be a food stylist.
Exhibit A: Patriotic Pound Cake – Elvis’ favorite recipe.
At first glance it’s a great photo. It’s well lit, the colors are well balanced and there are lots of rich textures. But then you notice that I left the stem on one of the blueberries. Do you see it? Is it all you can look at now? Are you transfixed by the errant blueberry stem. Me too.
You see, food stylists spend hours perfecting the content before they take a photo. Spending lots of time painstakingly arranging and nudging and highlighting various components of a dish. A detail like the blueberry stem would NOT have escaped the careful eye of a food stylist.
Exhibit B: The Ultimate Fudgy Homemade Brownies
Yummy looking brownies, no? Trust me they’re tasty. Though I did put in a little effort to arrange the brownies interestingly, I apparently couldn’t be bothered to wipe the crumbs off of the right side of the tray. Whoops.
Exhibit C: Edamame Hummus – posted this very week. You must try this.
This is perhaps the most flagrant violation of food styling code of conduct. Note the olive oil and kosher salt just to the right of the dish. A quick wipe of a paper towel would have taken care of that.
At the end of the day, I’m still pretty proud of my food photography skills. I’m excited to keep on learning about my new camera. I’m saving up for additional lenses, and once I finish grad school and have my life back, I would love to take lessons..
I’m certainly not beating myself up about these food styling flubs. In fact, I think they are, to an extent, a badge of honor. I have no interest in being the type of food blogger who has a mini photography studio set up in my home. I don’t want to spend 30 mins prepping for each shot. I simply want to make yummy food, snap a few pictures and then eat it. I admire those who have been so disciplined about their approach to photography, but I’m in no way working towards professional food photography and styling as a goal.
Food is meant to be enjoyed. My readers get to enjoy what I make by looking at the pictures and reading my descriptions. I get to enjoy the food by actually eating it or sharing it with friends. The less time between plating and first bite, the better. Eating a cold dinner because I spent 40 minutes prepping for photos is not what I’m after. If it means I get actually enjoy eating my food and still get to share high quality photos with my readers, ccasional styling errors are a compromise I’m happy to make.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I think your photographs are stunning, personally! Errant blueberry stem aside, they always make your food look amazing.
I need to set aside my laziness/phobia of large cameras with lots of buttons and upgrade from my grainy iphone pics.
One of these days….
I love your photographs… and the errant crumb or olive oil drip just affirm the “hey, I can make that too!” feeling I get when I read your posts!
One reason I cannot worship at the Alter of Martha is that I find that type of perfection to be unwelcoming and cold… Does the woman ever make a mistake (aside from, ya know, the insider trading bit)? Food is meant to be eaten and shared with family and friends… neither of those things can happen if you’re too busy gluing a haphazard lettuce leaf into place!
So glad you wrote this post! I often feel pressure to get pretty food photos, too. I only allow myself three shots, at the most, of each dish before we sit down to devour it. I’d much rather eat it than stare at it through a camera lens!
I agree with Kate’s 2 main comment points: (1) the oversights comfort me; and (2) perfection is unwelcoming and cold.
Besides, isn’t it true that food being photographed for professional purposes basically gets the pancake make-up treatment and is actually completely inedible? What a waste!
Ummm. . .I am SUPER impressed with your pics. . . I HATE gross unprofessional pics of food (like on a cheap Mexican or Chinese menu). . . it makes the food look DISGUSTING when it really might be quite good. . . with that said. . . yours are beautiful and I don’t even bother with pics. . . I just use (and cite) other people’s pretty pics or don’t use pics at all!
I feel the exact same way! Sometimes I save leftovers at dinner so I can photograph them in daylight, when I’m not hungry. I figure you can’t tell in the picture if the food is cold, but who knows? It’s not like I’ve ever gotten close to perfect. One time, I thought I was so clever and I propped up some homemade ice cream scoops on top of a ramekin that I had hidden inside the bowl, because I didn’t have enough ice cream to fill the bowl as high as I wanted to. I took a million pictures of that stupid bowl of ice cream and I thought I had done the best photo job of my life until I looked at the pictures at full size and you could totally see the stupid ramekin in almost every single one.
Kristina I have totally done the leftovers approach in the past! You’re right that many things (soup I think in particular) photo graph the exact same way regardless of if they are freshly prepared or cold from the fridge.
I used to get all in a flutter about using the “best light of the day”, but my current home is very dark because the houses on either side are close together. I’m trying to just cook, snap a quick pic and enjoy. Thanks for reading!
Keep it real, girl – styling is for non-eaters! I like Emily’s rule.