Hiring a food stylist for your shoot could be the difference between a food brand succeeding or failing. Stylists know how to make food look mouth-wateringly good on camera. They know all of the ways to get the most authentic “performance” from your food and a few tricks to make them visually tasty.
Here is our quick guide to styling food for stills, video or stop-motion animation. Follow these tips and your food will be deliciously appealing!
Use natural light near a window for a fresh and clean feel. Open those blinds, pull back the curtains and embrace the sunlight! If the weather isn’t on your side, a professional studio will have all the technical equipment and lighting expertise to create natural light and bring out the best in the food.
The photo should feel as though a viewer could reach out and take a bite, almost forgetting that the camera is there at all and natural lighting can pick up the color that a flash just can’t capture.
Chefs use a garnish as a final accent on a meal. What can you add to your image that will bring a flavor to life or set your food into a mood or some context?
From flavor elements like vanilla beans and luscious lemons to stylish plates to romantic candles, food stylists have tons of ways to set the mood and get us to think about the taste of the food.
Consider anything and everything that’s in the shot. From the table, the crockery, the cutlery, the glassware, pets, plants,- they all play their part. They can each add something to the story. Just remember, most often, less is more. Keep what you are selling front and center and let your “garnish” be the accent.
Use oil and a brush to create shine for baked goods or fried food and make the food look as fresh and appetizing as possible!
Don’t be afraid to leave clues as to how you got to the finished dish too in its setting. Often shiny food looks good against a matte background. Freshly drizzled oil straight off the pan or a dusting of flour in the background can tell us how it began. This all makes for a more emotional connection with the food.
Allow a dribble of grease to run down the side of the burger or let the yolk spill by cutting into it. These shiny food details are styling gold. A trick to styling food is to make it look as tempting and realistic as possible, but never too staged or fake.
Textures help people “feel” an image, adding the sense of touch through visuals. They can also add depth to an image, helping viewers feel that sense of space and deepening viewer engagement.
Tiles, newspaper, a textured placemat, all help the consumer to imagine your food in their world.
Stop motion animation and video will capture more attention. An animation on a landing page increases conversions by as much as 80%!
Using stop motion to animate food creates a magical, playful mood reminding us that tasty food is fun. Video can experience food more fully. Think about the slow pour of steaming coffee from a pot, the artful plating of a fine dish, the sip of the iced drink. Each helps us experience the sensation of great food.
A brick-and-mortar shop can deliver more sensory information - smells, sounds, touch or texture. The right food styling from a bona fide food stylist can trigger those senses just with visuals, motion and sound.
User-generated content (UGC) helps brands promote food products by conveying authenticity, demonstrating how a product works and fits into our lives, and by connecting with new customers via the personality of the content creator.
When creators make a video featuring your food, they share their own story, their take, their use of a product or service. Great creators think about their audience and find ways to make the video instantly relatable. A good creator can get your taste buds tingling if they show food being tasted and how they enjoy it, inspiring the viewer to try it themselves.
What makes UGC ‘great’? How can you tell the good from the not-so-good? Here are three examples from our UGC creators at KittyKat to illustrate the good stuff.
Interested in trying great user-generated content for your product or service? We started KittyKat Creators to make it easier for brands to solicit great content and find the best creators for them.
