Food Styling for Photographers

BREAKFAST FOR THE CAMERA

easily to the plate. Continue building the eggs to achieve

desired height and shape. If there are holes in the egg

build that need to be fi lled, use tweezers to place indi-

vidual egg curds in these areas. Place the bacon on the

plate after the egg build is completed.

is important. Some techniques, like bubbles in coff ee and

on bacon, and glisten added to eggs, do not last very long.

So these will need to be completed last. You can start by

adding the jam or jelly to the cut biscuit. I built some

height in the jam in our shot so light could play across

the surface for visual interest while conveying freshness.

Th e undulations in the length of the bacon create peaks

and valleys. Th ese areas are treated diff erently by the food

stylist. With an artist’s brush dipped in corn syrup that

TRICKS OF THE TRADE A word of caution: Try to avoid fi lling

in all holes and shallow places, because the scrambled eggs will look

too formed and will lose the interest created by some variations of

height and depth.

On Set

Before you go to set, make sure your set tray has every-

thing you will need. Your set tray should include samples

of all food elements on the hero plate; a cup with bubble

liquid for coff ee, a cup with bubble liquid for bacon

foam (see below), along with separate dispensers for

each; glass cleaner; cotton-tipped swabs; paper towels;

a small container of clear corn syrup; a syringe; an art-

ist’s brush; and tweezers.

When the plate is on the set, it is time to check the posi-

tions of all elements on the plate. Make any necessary

corrections before proceeding. Th ere are several tech-

niques to apply before fi nal photography of these specifi c

breakfast foods. Th e order of performing these techniques