Skip to content

Top Navigation

Food & Wine Food & Wine
  • Recipes & Cooking
  • Drinks
  • Travel
  • Holidays & Events
  • News
  • F&W Classic
  • Video
  • Kitchen & Home
  • F&W Pro

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Your Profile

  • Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Wine Club
  • Podcast
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe Subscribe
Pin FB

Explore Food & Wine

Food & Wine Food & Wine
  • Explore

    Explore

    • F&W Cooks

      Food and Wine presents a new network of food pros delivering the most cookable recipes and delicious ideas online. Read More Next
    • Our 22 Best Crock Pot and Slow-Cooker Recipes

      Looking to amp up your beef stew but unsure where to start? A slow cooker can can take your comfort food to the next level. Read More Next
    • 50 Affordable Wines You Can Always Trust

      We’ve assembled a list of 50 of the world’s most reliable, inexpensive wines – bottles that offer amazing quality for their price year in and year out. Read More Next
  • Recipes & Cooking

    Recipes & Cooking

    See All Recipes & Cooking
    • Chicken Recipes
    • Comfort Food Recipes
    • Breakfast & Brunch Recipes
    • Salad Recipes
    • Dessert Recipes
    • Vegetable Recipes
    • Pasta & Noodle Recipes
    • Chefs
    • Meat & Poultry Recipes
    • Soup Recipes
    • Appetizer Recipes
    • Side Dishes
    • Fruit Recipes
    • Seafood Recipes
    • Special Diets
    • Cooking Techniques
    • Steal This Trick
  • Drinks

    Drinks

    See All Drinks
    • Wine
    • Cocktails & Spirits
    • Coffee Drinks & Recipes
    • Juices
    • Beer & Brews
    • Champagne & Sparkling Wine
    • Tea Recipes & Ideas
  • Travel

    Travel

    See All Travel
    • Wine Regions
    • Restaurants
  • Holidays & Events

    Holidays & Events

    See All Holidays & Events
    • Valentine's Day
    • Halloween
    • Passover
    • Hanukkah
    • Christmas
    • Gifts
    • Super Bowl
    • Easter
    • Thanksgiving
    • New Year's Eve
    • Holiday Entertaining
  • News
  • F&W Classic
  • Video
  • Kitchen & Home
  • F&W Pro

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Your Profile

  • Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Wine Club
  • Podcast
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home Chevron Right
  2. How To Chevron Right
  3. 12 Food Styling Secrets to Learn from the Pros

12 Food Styling Secrets to Learn from the Pros

By Food & Wine
Updated July 06, 2017
Skip gallery slides
Save FB Tweet
Credit: © Julia Gartland
Life is a beautiful mess, and so I love scenes—rooms, vignettes, place settings—that are perfectly imperfectly styled. Food stylists seem to have this nailed: highlighting a dish’s most gorgeous assets while also making things look a little rough around the edges, a little off. Of course, I realize it’s hard to make things looks so easy. So I turned to some of the finest food photographers around to find out what makes a meal picture-perfect. Read on below, and soon enough you’ll be earning scores of Instagram likes the next time you snap your lunch.This post originally appeared on Domainehome.com.
Start Slideshow

1 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Shrink Your Portions

Credit: © Sunday Suppers

While the guests at your next dinner party may be ravenously hungry and help themselves to multiple servings, stylistically, it’s actually more appealing to offer a minimalist serving than an overcrowded plate. Why? Much like the matte on a framed artwork, the blank space of the plate provides your eye with some rest, offers contrast, and effectively “frames” your dish.

1 of 12

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Create Contrast

Credit: © Alpha Smoot

On the note of contrast, expert food stylists more often than not select dinnerware that contrasts with the food being served. Additionally, they’ll use a tabletop or other background surface that contrasts with the plate. Think: a blue bowl with a creamy potato soup on a rustic wood surface, a white bowl with squid-ink risotto against a green tablecloth, and so on.

2 of 12

3 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Get a Little Messy

Credit: © Melanie Acevedo

This one requires skill and practice to get right; it’s where food stylists and photographers really sing! The idea is to make your dish look as natural as possible, and that requires a little mess. If you’re serving a salad with a poached egg and a little yolk oozes out, leave it. If you cut a slice of banana bread and some crumbs fall onto the plate or even the tabletop—let them be. If a piece of arugula wanders to the edge of your dinner plate, resist the temptation to move it back. This is where your serving, or photograph, comes to life. A touch of salt or bread crumbs in the corner of an image can also add interest to empty parts of the frame without stealing the show.

3 of 12

Advertisement

4 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Keep It Simple

Credit: © Amy Neunsinger

If your goal is to show off the food you’re serving or eating, it’s best to keep your dinnerware and flatware choices simple, so they don’t compete with the beautiful colors and shapes of the dish. Select pieces that are solid in color and don’t have a lot ornamentation.

4 of 12

5 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Show Off Your Food’s Best Assets

Credit: © Christopher Testani

If, visually, the best thing about your arugula salad is its vivid ruby red grapefruit slices, it’s wise not to bury the citrus under a bed of lettuce. Make sure they’re prominently placed on top of the salad where your guests or the camera can ooh and ahh over the. If you’re photographing a delicious cut of prime rib, don’t take a shot from above: shoot the meat from the slide so we can see all of its gorgeous color and juicy bits.

5 of 12

6 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Make It a Work in Progress

Credit: © Melanie Acevedo

The process, activity, and ritual of cooking is just as beautiful as the finished product itself. By all means, photograph a friend as he or she’s drizzling au jus on a moist roast chicken. If you’re entertaining, serve your guests a slice of pie and then come around to each of their plates to top it off with whipped cream, so they can see you in action.

6 of 12

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

7 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Add Utensils

Credit: © Julia Gartland

A food photograph looks practically unnatural unless there’s a fork navigating its way across a plate, a spoon edging its way into the frame, or a cake knife relishing in the fact that it just sliced into a decadent chocolate dessert. The trick is to place it as it would be used, as if you pressed pause during the middle of dinner; a fork, knife, and spoon photographed in a traditional place setting arrangement looks too sterile, and frankly, boring.

7 of 12

8 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Have a Napkin Handy

Credit: © Amy Neunsinger

A napkin can add a touch of color, pattern, and texture to any food photograph. It also adds movement—arrange them with some messy folds; it’s the equivalent of a brushstroke. Instead of placing a napkin directly parallel to a dish, place it behind the dish to create depth and/or at angle to add some interesting lines to the frame.

8 of 12

9 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Take a Bite

Credit: © Julia Gartland

While you certainly shouldn’t serve food to a guest that’s been eaten, in a food photograph it looks all the more appetizing because it sends the message the treat was too delicious to be resisted. Biting or slicing into food also lets the viewer see the inside, which can be especially important if it’s something like a medium steak or a blueberry nut muffin where all the goodness lies beneath the surface.

9 of 12

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

10 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Remind the Viewer of Humanity

Credit: © James Ransom

We’d bet the most successful photographs are those that show a trace of human life. We all thrive on personal connection, and there’s something about seeing a (well-manicured) hand serving a bowl of spaghetti or even a half-drank glass of wine that reminds of that. Be it consciously or subconsciously, remind the viewer that someone was here.

10 of 12

11 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Find Natural Light

Credit: © Amy Neunsinger

This is true of nearly all photography, and especially so in food photography. If you’re planning to shoot your meal (not just style it for the dinner table), shoot it in natural light or as near as possible to a window. This always gives it a glowy, irresistible look and prevents the ugly yellow cast you get from light bulbs.

11 of 12

12 of 12

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Be Swift

Credit: © Julia Gartland

Food doesn’t age well, and it tends to lose its bright, peppery colors and juicy, sparkly glow as it sits out—as well as its heat. So serve and photograph as swiftly as you can, or else you may lose the moment.

12 of 12

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

By Food & Wine

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook
Trending Videos
Advertisement
Skip slide summaries

Everything in This Slideshow

Advertisement

View All

1 of 12 Shrink Your Portions
2 of 12 Create Contrast
3 of 12 Get a Little Messy
4 of 12 Keep It Simple
5 of 12 Show Off Your Food’s Best Assets
6 of 12 Make It a Work in Progress
7 of 12 Add Utensils
8 of 12 Have a Napkin Handy
9 of 12 Take a Bite
10 of 12 Remind the Viewer of Humanity
11 of 12 Find Natural Light
12 of 12 Be Swift

Share options

Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message Print

Login

Food & Wine

Magazines & More

Learn More

  • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
  • Books from Food & Wine
  • Contact Us
  • Media Kit
  • Content Licensing

Connect

Follow Us
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Other Meredith Sites

Other Meredith Sites

  • 4 Your Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Allrecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • All People Quilt this link opens in a new tab
  • Better Homes & Gardens this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Insights this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Surveys this link opens in a new tab
  • Cooking Light this link opens in a new tab
  • Daily Paws this link opens in a new tab
  • EatingWell this link opens in a new tab
  • Eat This, Not That this link opens in a new tab
  • Entertainment Weekly this link opens in a new tab
  • Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Hello Giggles this link opens in a new tab
  • Instyle this link opens in a new tab
  • Martha Stewart this link opens in a new tab
  • Midwest Living this link opens in a new tab
  • More this link opens in a new tab
  • MyRecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • MyWedding this link opens in a new tab
  • My Food and Family this link opens in a new tab
  • MyLife this link opens in a new tab
  • Parenting this link opens in a new tab
  • Parents this link opens in a new tab
  • People this link opens in a new tab
  • People en Español this link opens in a new tab
  • Rachael Ray Magazine this link opens in a new tab
  • Real Simple this link opens in a new tab
  • Ser Padres this link opens in a new tab
  • Shape this link opens in a new tab
  • Siempre Mujer this link opens in a new tab
  • Southern Living this link opens in a new tab
  • SwearBy this link opens in a new tab
  • Travel & Leisure this link opens in a new tab
Food & Wine is part of the Meredith Corporation Allrecipes Food Group. © Copyright 2021 Meredith Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
© Copyright . All rights reserved. Printed from https://www.foodandwine.com

View image

12 Food Styling Secrets to Learn from the Pros
this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.