Image by: Brianna Vasquez

I strongly believe that despite how good food can taste, it must first look presentable. The famous saying which states how your eyes eat before your mouth does explain my theory.  As all of us post onto OpenLab or other sites, we all post photographs to truly evoke and support our article efficiently.

Food styling is all about the science of displaying food properly to evoke a sense of persuading each viewer to want to eat and enjoy the meal being presented. In food styling, presentation is key; it revolves around what the viewer’s ideal interests in that particular dish are and how to captivate them in a single photograph to entice them. Mostly, food styling is used as a means of advertisement to coax those to purchase their products but it can be used to show the outcome of a recipe or to display an edible, artistic masterpiece.

Food styling may sound easy to achieve to eventually lead to some beautiful food themed photographs but there is so much more calculation that is articulated before ever hitting that button to take the first picture. Each photograph must be taken from the right angle with the best lighting to show the best qualities of that particular dish. It is most important to think of what you and viewers must be captivated by such as the color or shape that needs to be captured in the photograph. Also, food styling does not always have to show entirely edible food sometimes inedible products are used to exaggerate certain qualities. For example: it is extremely common for a photograph of a cake slice to be publicized from a particular brand but the cake can be deconstructed by each layer then separated by each layer by a cardboard piece and then frosting will be piped onto the cardboard to show that the frosting is literally oozing out of the cake to present how truly great the cake is and constructed although that may not be honest and you might not get what is promised.

As I aspire to be a pastry chef, I thoroughly enjoy capturing each creation that I have had the chance to make whether through my classes or for leisure. I love seeing how the dessert I have made can bring a smile to someone’s face and getting photographs of my desserts makes that moment cherishable for virtually forever.

I have taken some photographs myself that have some filters to feature the food presentation better by way of blurring the background, black & white, or color enhancements but sometimes, it is simply the dish itself that evokes its own beauty by the way it was prepared.

The following photographs were all taken by me and I only used a few additions of filters to present the main objective in my photographs in a better way. In the first photo, I reversed it to create an awkward look but to show off each drink in a different way.

Image by: Brianna Vasquez

This photograph shows that the sautéed vegetables are the star of the show by being the liveliest part of the picture colored with each of its vibrant variety of colors while the background is in black & white.

Image by: Brianna Vasquez

This photograph is shown by having the main objective of the iHop mug remain in black & white while the creamer which is small component to the entire photograph is in color to capture the viewer.

Image by: Brianna Vasquez

This photograph below was actually just brighten up with some lighting but it is the original photograph yet it evokes the shininess of the raspberries and the richness of the pastry cream that lay upon the cream puff which was made in my Baking and Pastry Arts I class. It didn’t need a lot of revisions to show off each component’s best qualities.

Image by: Brianna Vasquez