INTRODUCTION TO FOOD STYLING
in it. Before the photographer could stop him, her client
popped the cork on the champagne bottle. Yes, you guessed
it, right over the set. Champagne shot everywhere. Th e
entire set had to be dismantled in order to clean the surface
and the glassware. Unfortunately, the champagne incident
forced them to start the project over from scratch. Needless
to say, it was a very maddening experience for everyone.Rule Five:
My rule for stand-ins is to provide a very loose translation of the
hero. A few examples of my stand-ins are a wadded-up paper towel
for ice cream and a brown grocery bag with a roll of paper towels
in it for a turkey! Not only does this strategy give me more time and
creative energy to focus on building the hero, but it doesn’t set a
rigid mental image for the art director, photographer, or me to latch
onto. There are a few exceptions to this rule and they will be
mentioned in the appropriate chapters.I learned the hard way about stand-ins. During the fi rst
few years of my career, I usually made a realistic looking
stand-in for the client to critique and for the creative
team to look at while building the set. On one occasion
the client fell in love with the stand-in and wanted the
hero to be built exactly the same. By the time the set was
fi nalized, the stand-in was well past its prime. My task
of re-creating the hero to perfectly resemble the stand-in
was painfully frustrating and time consuming.Rule Six:
Have a plan. Be prepared. I can’t emphasize this enough: Make sure
you have everything that you might need in the studio the day before
the shoot. The only exception to this rule is salad greens, berries,
maybe fl owers, and ice if you don’t have room in your freezer to store
it overnight.HAVE A PLAN
Th e simple fact is that every shot is diff erent. When
clients make the decision to produce a selling shot, they
want a shot that is unique to their product. Th ey may
choose to borrow some elements from other shots that
they have seen, but their main objective is to create
something new and diff erent. Encourage clients to
provide you with tear sheets (examples of previously
printed work) that they like to give you an indication
of what they want. Th en ask them to identify elements
within those tear sheets that they want included in their
shot. Th ese go-bys help you and others on the creative
team by providing a starting point for the project. I have
been in studios where the photographer put up a dry
erase board and listed the separate elements that the
client wanted in the shot. He posted the go-bys next to
the board for reference. I saw how these tools helped to
give the entire team direction. I’ve also witnessed times
when the team decided to take a total departure from