Chatting Food Styling on ABC News Breakfast – Dani Valent

Chatting Food Styling on ABC News Breakfast on June 28, 2016.

Every few weeks I drop in to ABC News Breakfast to chat about what’s happening in the food world. This time it was to chat about the ‘dark art’ and mysteries of food styling, something which is on my mind right now because I’m shooting my next cookbook.

In the segment, we show some of the extreme stuff that happens on food shoots, especially when creating advertising and packaging –  anyone ever screwed down a pizza? In my personal experience working on cookbooks and magazines, we tend to keep it pretty real. I work with one of the best stylists in the business, Caroline Velik, and it’s a delight to watch her choose props, plate up and generally coax the food towards loveliness. Of course, styling and photography go hand in hand: my photographer Greg Elms is fab too.

A few tips for those getting started:

  • it starts with the produce: plump fruit, fresh herbs and juicy meat are easier to make beautiful than limp, tired ingredients.
  • think about the angle you want to shoot from while you’re plating up: you may want to build your dish higher or further forward than you would if you were simply serving it for eating
  • set up your shot before you drizzle dressings, add final garnishes or pour icy drinks.
2017-10-06T13:26:51+11:00

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