My Day at Photography & Food Styling Class

A few weeks ago I took my second class from the talent Clare Barboza, documentary food photographer. For this class she was joined by Chef Becky Selengut, author and food stylist of Good Fish. Together they taught us their tips and tricks for styling the food and props to create delicious images. Here are my favorite shots of the day:

Our first shot was an appetizer. I will be honest, this shot was a struggle for me. I had it in my mind that I wanted to shoot it on a silver platter, but that was not available. I think one of the tricks to making a good image is making it work with what you have. . . (my favorite Tim Gunn quote “make it work”). So making the fig the star of the shot, I found the window light gave it a lovely sparkle.

Shot number two was all about the salad. We were taught how to dress the salad without causing it to wilt too quickly, how to make beautiful grill marks on the food and how to add an element of surprise to our shots. Our star of this photo was the grilled apricot. I found this yellow honey comb plate from the prop shelved and knew I had to incorporate honey into the salad somehow. It was quite tasty too!

Our final photo was of traditional Indian food. Saffron rice with dal was our big challenge of the day. We were to style a shot that looked as good as it tasted. I think what made this shot was finding the teal piece of fabric with the gold trim in the linen drawer. I chose metal dishes, orange/red touches to bounce with the orange chutney and scattered the spices onto my wooden platter to add texture. Ummmm. So tasty!

Thanks to Clare and Becky for offering this fabulous class! For the above photos I used a Canon 5D Mark II and a 50mm fixed lens. Everything was shot with natural light.

Lia

Lia is a daily crafter, maker, designer and DIYer. Find more of her creative inspiration at liagriffith.com.