The short answer is it makes the work better.?A photographer is expected to know lighting, to know composition. He or she knows lenses and file types and filters. But they don't know cooking. That's where the food stylist comes in. It's the stylist's forte to know how to cook the food (or not) in the manner that will produce the look you're aiming for. It's a combination of experience, talent and education that makes this possible. Food stylists are a great combination of master chef and visual artist. Most stylists have degrees in culinary arts and years of experience in the food service industry. They've learned the craft of food styling from apprenticeships as well as the occasional workshop or class at school.
Food Styling - Dos and don'ts
Here are a couple things that you can do as a food stylist for food styling that would be greatly appreciated by your teammate, the food photographer.
Arrive well before the client. Nothing starts a day off as badly as when part of your team shows up late to a shoot. This means the stylist, the photo assistant, and yes even the photographer. The day starts of under a lot of pressure and usually goes straight to hell after that. The client knows for a fact that he is spending a whole lot of money and wants to see the day progress as efficiently as possible. It’s his nickel, so we’re here to give him (or her) want he (or she) wants.
Unless the photographer specifically asks you not to make a stand-in, do it. You may think that you are saving time by not making a stand-in, but more times than not, you will be wasting time and creating a situation that will end up with a poorer final food photograph. The reason is… A photographer makes decisions about his composition and lighting based on what the food item looks like. When I say stand-in , I mean food that looks as much as possible to the hero, including size, shape, surface texture. If he has nothing to practice on, he can’t make vital decisions until the hero food hits the set. And then, the time required to compensate for what he thought it was going to look like, may take longer that the life of the food. Not only that, it makes the photographer look bad to the client. And believe me, photographers really don’t like that. And it may show the next time the photographer is involved in the food stylist selection process for food styling.
During your days chit-chat with the client, make it a point NOT to talk about other photographers. Whether it’s good or bad, photographers don’t like it when you talk about their competition in front of clients. Maybe we’re all just a little insecure, I don’t know. I do know that I really hope it when a stylist mentions another photographer in front of the client. When the client leaves, sure go ahead. Most photographers love to hear gossip just as much as anyone else in this world, just be careful of what you say. If you say the wrong kind of things, the photographer may wonder just what you say about him behind HIS (or her) back.
Compliment him (or her) on the way out the door. I know this sounds kind of shallow, but photographers are in a field where their egos are dependent on the subjective interpretation of their work. Everyone likes an “attaboy” once in a while and people tend to like people that let you know that they admire you in some way. It’s only human nature and besides, what can it hurt? Who knows, he may even give you an “attaboy” too.
