Food Styling Tutorial: How to Style and Photograph a Meal

Chef, food stylist, and recipe developer Jodi Moreno shows you how to perfectly style and photograph a meal for two

Whether we’d like to admit it or not, we’re all guilty of having taken a quick pic of a perfectly-plated meal as it arrives on our restaurant table, or smugly uploading an image of our poached eggs and avocado on toast in the morning.

While food styling has been around for a long time, in today’s social-media driven world, where thousands of carefully-curated culinary photos are snapped and shared every day, the phrase “we eat with our eyes” has never been more true. But there’s more to this trend than simply making a meal and taking a photo. Food styling is an art form in its own right, with elements such as light, color, and composition all coming into play to connect with an audience, create deliciously, visually appealing results, and tell a story.

Jodi Moreno is a chef, food stylist, and recipe developer based in the bustling, gastronomic hub of Mexico City. Her recipes and work have been featured in Bon Appétit, Vogue, Saveur Magazine, and more. In this tutorial, she shows you step-by-step how to capture the perfect culinary photo by styling and arranging a mouthwatering meal for two.

How to Perfectly Style and Photograph a Meal

Step 1: Choose your backdrop

Before you begin adding your dishes, it’s important to consider the background on which they will be photographed. Jodi chooses a piece of linen in a neutral color so as not to distract or take attention away from the dishes themselves. This is not to say that you can’t experiment with all kinds of colors and patterns, as long as you consider all the elements you are going to add to your table and whether they will go with your overall color scheme.

Step 2: Lay your main dishes

Begin with the main dishes as these will be your primary focal point. Place the two dishes at either end of the table, but not directly parallel to each other, to create a more natural visual balance. Then take your second largest item, in this case the soup, and place them at each side of the main dish, leaving some breathing space between each element.

Step 3: Arrange your linens and utensils

Jodi lets the linens fall loosely onto the table so that they don’t appear too rigid or staged, before arranging them around the main dish, one on each side. She finishes by placing the cutlery on top of each linen, in a relaxed, informal position.

Step 4: Add the finishing elements

Set the right mood with the finishing touches, such as flowers or candles. Each photo you take should tell a story, in this case, a romantic dinner for two. Adding these final elements are what will really help you capture the message you want to transmit.

Step 5: Begin your test shots

Start photographing from a range of different angles to get an idea of where you need to tweak your arrangement, such as fluffing your napkins or adjusting the position of the bowls. Overall, you want to create a visual line between your plates, materials, and props, but also make sure that there are areas of white space to create a balance and not overwhelm your image.

If you want to learn the art of food plating to style and photograph beautiful meal compositions full of colors and textures, check out Jodi’s online course: Food Styling: The Art of Plating.

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