Pittsburgh Food Stylist, Ana Kelly
Shooting Food Photography for Packaging
We’re here in my Pittsburgh PA studio, in the middle of another awesome week of shooting food photography for packaging. I’d love to show you some of the great work our team has been producing, but the client doesn’t want us to post anything until the packaging is released. So…. Instead, I’ll show you a couple of the shoot’s crew members.
Who attends a food photography shoot
In case you haven’t ever attended a food photography shoot, I’ll tell you a little about the structure and who all attends. First, there’s me, the food photographer. I usually, but not always have an assistant. That makes two people. Then, 99% of the time, We call in a food stylist. Pittsburgh has three food stylists and from time to time, we’ll ask in another either from Philadelphia or Columbus. A food stylist’s job is to actually prepare the food for shooting, and yes, they have a million little tricks to make the food look good, even at the expense of edibility. All the things you’ve heard about using glue for milk and lard for ice cream are true. At least most of them are… The stylist usually has at least one assistant too… That makes a crew of four , not to mention the clients, of which there are usually one to three, or even more.
So, you can see, it takes a village. Or at least half a village to pull off a food photography packaging shoot.
This is soon to be famous, New York editorial food photographer Cala Zahoran. She is kind enough to come into Pittsburgh from time to time to give me a hand with some of these projects. If you’re wondering what she’s doing here, it’s not drinking cake. She’s blowing a little hot air (of which she’s full of) onto the chocolate to give it a little glisten.
Here are a few other behind the scenes from our latest Rich’s shoot.
Stylist Assistant Cheryl and Jake “client” sort through props for the next shot
You never have enough food styling props
Here we go! The meeting is over and the food is heading for the set!
Bald but talented and modest food photographer Michael Ray, plays with napkins, one of his many fetishes…
Food Photography and napkinology. Keep an eye out. That will be my next post.
The perfect napkin placement!
One of the great things about food photography is the leftovers…
Food Photography photo bomb!
In the world of food photography, if it works, it works!
Add a little of this ingredient and a little of that ingredient, and whala!
Ana and Cayla have a laugh… probably about the bald photographer… :o(
There you go! This is what happens behind the scenes of a food photography packaging photo shoot. It may not be pretty, but it sure is fun! :o)
