6 Must know food photography styles

Ever wonder how to style food for your photography? It is important to evaluate the dish and decide on the style of the photo, then choose how you want to ‘plate’ your food. Finding your food photography styles is all about how you want your dish to look. You want it to be visually appealing and make people hungry enough to eat it, but also not too distracting so that they focus on the food instead of what the dish is supposed to represent.

What kind of mood, tone, scene, do you want to set?

Take time before going to the grocery store to plan out what mood you’re trying to create so that ensure everything (backgrounds, props, ingredients) matches.

6 Main Food Photography styles

1- Product Food Photography

Product photography is often an advertisement for a Food. It’s not typically overly creative or artistic, but it can be done as such! The purpose of this type of food photography style is to highlight the beauty and benefits of the foods being advertised.

Product food photography are great for food blog content or social media advertising since they tend to stand out more in those formats! One benefit of this type of food photography style is that it is easy to achieve and usually doesn’t require a high level of skill. Another benefit, depending on how the photo is used, can be its ability to show off the freshness or quality of an item. Try using an all white or black background. The drawbacks for product food photography style are mainly that they are boring and not as creative.

2 – Journalistic and Straightforward

Journalistic food photography style is a straightforward photograph that has no props or styling and usually focuses on the quality of ingredients. This type of photography is often used for restaurants to provide an overview of what they are offering, but it can be creatively played with! Especially, for travel photography. Try either overhead process shots or action shots. The benefits for Journalistic Style Food Photography are that it’s really easy to achieve, and the styles of food don’t matter. The drawbacks are that it’s difficult to create a photograph with depth without some sort of prop, and when there is no styling involved this type can become boring, if you don’t get creative with your food composition.

3 – Bright, light and airy

The Bright food photography style demonstrates an idyllic atmosphere by using brighter but softer light and fewer shadows and a variety of bright props. Light and airy styles can either have one big prop which is dominant throughout the photo or many props scattered around for decorative purposes. This type of style has a lot of creative freedom and the photographs can be very artistic. This style usually requires a little bit more skill than other styles because of balancing the exposure and highlights. A pro of this type of food photography when dining out would be the variety of styles in one photo: you could see how they make their salads or pizzas for example but also get an idea about what kind of atmosphere they have. The drawbacks are mainly based on the skill level: if you don’t have much experience with props and styling, it can be difficult to achieve a feel that is both fun and appetising.

4 – Lifestyle-inspired

Lifestyle-inspired styles of food photography use props and styling to create a scene that will evoke an emotion in the viewer. These styles are often surprisingly creative, using natural lighting! This type can be achieved with minimal lighting or it could take over your kitchen if you’re feeling really wild! This style is popular because people love to see what other people are eating and how they’re enjoying it! The drawbacks of this type of food photography is that there can be a lot more work involved in the styling process, and if you don’t have a good sense for styles or props then your photograph will lack creativity.

5 – Bold and Clean

Bold and clean styles of food photography are about making the dish as clear, bright and colourful as possible. It’s not always easy to achieve this type with a lot of depth. Try a food focused close up or solid backgrounds. The benefits for bold and clean styles is that it makes a very attractive photograph because there isn’t anything distracting from the food itself: no props, no styling, just the dish. The drawbacks of this type is that it’s sometimes difficult to create a good photo with depth and without bright colours coming off as too garish or jarring for the viewer. This style would be perfect when dining out because there are no props on your plate so you know exactly what you’re getting: just the dish.

6 – Chiaroscuro aka Dark and moody

Chiaroscuro means “light and shadow” in Italian. This food photography style is all about using very carefully placed lighting to create the contrast and depth that’s missing from a lot of other styles. This type is used mainly for dishes with colour or texture because it focuses on just one aspect without anything else getting in the way, like props.The benefits to this food photography style is that it can look very artistic and elegant but also make your dish look really decadent! The drawbacks are mainly the difficulty of achieving depth in your photo- if you want a dark background, then there’s going to be nothing behind the plate other than darkness because everything else would be too distracting.The drawbacks of this type is that it’s not always easy to achieve styles like this, and the moodiness can be too much for some people. This style would work best when you’re looking to create a dramatic scene: think dark lighting with a spotlight on your dish as if there were only one source of light in the whole room.

How to Style Your Food for Photoshoot

Choosing a food photography style is about matching the mood, tone and atmosphere you want with the right colours corresponding both outside and inside your dish! And make sure that there is enough light (natural or artificial) to help you achieve the style of your choice.If you want to learn more about how you can create a new look with your food, if it’s looking tired or old, then check out Flawless Food Photos. We show you how to use some basic everyday items, as well as taking the same shot in different styles so that you can see how to style your food for a photoshoot.

Remember that every dish has its own story, so be creative in how you want to tell it.