Food Styling for Photographers

MAKING A SALAD FOR THE CAMERA

with a food stylist on a photo shoot that involves

produce, you are already aware of the careful shopping

that took place before the stylist arrived. As the stylist

unpacks the contents from grocery boxes and bags, you

are immediately aware that the beautiful, blemish-free

produce is treated like royalty: It’s pampered and care-

fully tended and nurtured.

For you to achieve success with your project, you’ll need

to adopt a stylist’s care with selection and treatment of

produce. Refer to Rule Seven in Chapter 1 for additional

information.

Handle everything gently, avoiding hard contact with

anything, especially the plastic or metal grid of a

shopping cart or basket. Avoid stuffi ng tender items

into plastic bags. And when you use plastic bags, place

only a small number of items in each bag. Tell grocery

checkers, before they start ringing up your selections,

that you are purchasing items for a photo shoot and

you would appreciate their care in handling the items.

You need to supervise the bagging process or, better

yet, do it yourself to make sure all items are safe. Use

separate boxes or paper bags for all greens, tender fruit

in one layer in boxes, etc. Once you select produce

from a store’s display, it is up to you to be its guardian

and protector.

Tips for Keeping Salad Greens Fresh

Salad greens will perk up, refresh, and stay fresh appearing

longer if they have a quick bath in cold tap water with

Fruit Fresh Produce Protector mixed into the water accord-

ing to directions on the packaging. Shortly before begin-

ning the salad build, place small bunches of greens into a

large bowl or a clean sink fi lled with cold tap water and

the produce protector. Th is process requires using small

batches of greens so they are not crowded or mashed into

TRICKS OF THE TRADE If your climate is too warm or too cold,

you will need to preplan to have insulated coolers available to protect

tender items such as greens during transport from market to studio.

They’ll wilt if too hot and freeze or bruise if too cold. Due to the

temperature sensitivity of salad greens and fragile produce, it helps

to keep the studio temperature a tad on the cool side the day of the

shoot. I would recommend a temperature in the mid to upper 60s.

If this isn’t possible or practical, you can rig a large, mesh-metal

strainer containing some dry ice pellets about 8 inches above the

hero salad as you build it. The cold from the ice fl ows downward.

Do not touch the dry ice with bare hands because dry ice will freeze

and burn skin on contact. Use tongs to maneuver the dry ice into

and out of the mesh strainer. Also, be sure to check the temperature

settings on the refrigerators in the studio to avoid freezing lettuce

and produce. I’ve experienced frozen produce a few times because I

forgot to check the setting on the refrigerators.