Food Photography: 8 Style Ideas to Tell Flavors, Mood and Experience Through Images
Exceptional food photography can make an impression on how a product or brand is recognized.
As a type of still life photography, the goal of food photography is to ensure that the subject, whether it’s an elaborate meal, beverages, or ingredients looks as luscious as possible and the shot should capture the taste and the aesthetic of the brand. In such a manner, professional food photography is not only about mouth-watering images but also about telling a story that is aligned with the brand identity.
We use these styling ideas to tell flavors, mood, and dining experience and do a ‘lil bit of experiment by combining our love for food and fashion through images.
1. Natural Light
Natural light gives an authentic and sleek look to the image. Direct sunlight provides us with much higher contrast and stronger shadows while window light creates a softer image. One thing that we want to avoid is to shoot in a harsh light. That’s why the time of shooting always matters. Morning typically has a bluer color temperature while golden hours give a reddish hue to our pictures.
2. Studio Light
We do use artificial light for food photography in Supercool Studio Bali. The lighting setup that we recreate sometimes can be basic and oftentimes feels experimental. Versatility is key to lighting setup. The more we try new things and start experimenting, the more we nail it.
3. Color Component
The use of color is to enhance the image rather than distract. To avoid distracting the viewer from the real subject, we choose secondary colors that complement the main color of the food. The colors that we composed also reflect the style and the type of dish that we are shooting. Warm and bright colors reflect the summer vibes while cool colors produce calm and refreshing looks. We believe in colors to evoke the mood of our dishes.
4. Minimalistic
In this styling idea, the food is obviously the hero. We opt for no props at all or keep it to a minimum because less is more. This makes us really focus on the food that we are shooting; The more we pay attention to the little detail of the food and how it looks, the more appealing our images become.
5. Styling with Garnishes
When a dish is so simple, we love to style it with garnishes. It’s like a little detail in food photography that emphasizes and identifies the flavors in the food. Garnishes on the top or at the side of the meal make it look professional and give it a finishing touch. It also adds pretty color and inviting detail nicely.
6. Food Compositions
With a cool composition in mind, you’re navigating the viewer’s eye toward the main subject of your photo. The most uninteresting meal can become a magnificent photo because of its great composition. The opposite also applies: bad composition can make a luscious meal look boring.
7. Super Ingredients
While most food styling ideas focus on the final product, we surely don’t want to miss the beauty of food in its natural state. This is where we love to capture raw ingredients. Mother nature produces some super ingredients that bring out the most beautiful colors. The raw ingredients can also be captured when they’re halfway through the process of cooking. For example, pasta dough is perfect for this shot. These raw ingredient shots can also be used as teaser posts or photo stock collections.
8. Make it Fashion!
In collaboration with Kanvaz Patisserie by Vincent Nigita, we combine our love for food and fashion through an editorial approach. Behind their creative process, food and fashion share things in common. Both involve inspiration, a willingness to experiment, and a meticulous selection of ingredients and tools.
Ready to elevate your brand through professional food photography? Get in touch or look for more inspiration from our food portfolio.
