5 Food Photography Styling Tips with Tara Milk Tea
Fashion, food and travel blogger, Tara Milk Tea, recently dropped by The Grounds of Alexandria to share her photography skills and food styling advice, using her trusty Canon EOS M6.
Here, Tara’s shared with us five easy-to-follow tips; including how to balance colours, the little details to pay attention to and how to add life to your shots to give you the most #instaworthy snaps!
Read on to find out more…
1. Use the right plates
I prefer to work with mostly circular plates to keep the shot cohesive, and to allow everything to fit together easily. I find that square plates can be too harsh, and can throw off the entire look.
Keep the style of your plates simple if you’re planning to make the food stand out. Go for simple patterns and colours that will compliment the food.
If you are working with rectangular or square plates, try to use ones with softer corners.
2. Create balance with colours
Keep your colour palette cohesive, and match your pieces with one another. If you have a hero piece (e.g. a cake), match your surrounding pieces according to this, such as colour matching cupcakes, drinks, and even fruits to the hero food.
However, don’t match everything to one colour. Make sure you think about the placement of your colours so the image is balanced. For example, if you’ve used a bright pink item on left side that stands out, unless it’s the hero piece, try to match the piece with a similar coloured item on the right side.
3. Use themed props to fill spaces
Think about non-edible items that will help complete your shot. I like to use flowers, teapots, milk jugs, napkins and so on. Again, think about the colours of these to compliment everything else in the photo.
4. Think about the little details
Little details can include cutlery, salt and pepper shakers, condiments, candles, for example. These are just little things you might not have thought about that can add that something extra to your photos. Small things like these can make the biggest difference to your photos, and can help the food stand out even more.
5. Add life to your shot
Having people eating and enjoying the food can really add a final touch to your shot. It’s not necessary, but I personally prefer photos with people feasting on a well- styled set up.
About Tara:
Tara Whiteman (@taramilktea) is a design and travel creative from Sydney, Australia. Her work is dedicated to documenting her daily lifestyle as Tara Milk Tea. This mostly includes her latest travel adventures, showcased through food, places and people. Her images are usually portrayed through a kaleidoscope of colour, as she seeks out the most beautiful and brightest places around the world.