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Food Photography: More than meets the eye
(Puji Purnama)Beautiful, mouth-watering food pictures are everywhere â from street corners to TV and magazines â making you completely forget about your diet
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(Puji Purnama)" border="0" height="500" width="426">(Puji Purnama)Beautiful, mouth-watering food pictures are everywhere â from street corners to TV and magazines â making you completely forget about your diet.
What many people are unaware of is that these photos take hours to make â with the help of a food stylist.
In a nutshell, a food stylist is makeup artist for food. While a makeup artist helps a model to look drop-dead gorgeous, a food stylist helps a dish look appetizing in the photos.
Say, for a burger ad, the food stylist carefully selects several of the best-looking buns out of hundreds and chooses the freshest lettuce and the reddest tomatoes to create irresistible photos of burgers.
He then arranges the cheese, pickles, onion, tomatoes, lettuce and ketchup neatly while making sure all ingredients are clearly visible as well as looking very appetizing.
Food stylists have lots of tricks and tools to create picture-perfect dishes.
In their toolbox, there are usually toothpicks, needles, yarn, glue, tweezers, rulers, scissors, pins and more â all needed for the many tricks to make food look its best: A mineral water spray is used to freshen vegetables wilting under very hot studio lights and olive oil is brushed on food like grilled meat to make it glisten deliciously.
Before the economic crisis hit the country back in 1997, many expatriates worked as food stylists in Jakarta, but when the ads dried up and jobs became scarce, many left the country.
As the economy bounced back, and companies again set budgets to advertise their products, it opened up opportunities for Indonesian food stylists like Puji Purnama.
With 20 years of experience as a professional food stylist, he has a solid roster of clientele, including renowned food companies like McDonaldâs, Pizza Hut, Blue Band, Indomie and many more. He has also styled food for cookbooks, print and TV ads as well as for Brownies, a romantic flick.
He also took up training in cooking, such as at the popular Oasis restaurant and at the Indonesia Culinary Institute, while sharpening his food-stylist skills working for leading food magazines like Selera and Primarasa.
âI also learned cooking techniques from chefs in Bali, Hong Kong, Bangkok, France [Le Cordon Bleu] and Italy [Apicius],â said Puji, who has won several prestigious awards that relate to cooking.
Even though it is not compulsory for a food stylist to start out with a solid culinary background, he found that having a fundamental knowledge of cooking and baking techniques benefited his line of work.
He revealed that for a cake flour ad, the food stylist usually bakes the cake that will be photographed alongside the flour being advertised.
(Puji Purnama)
Puji said he always comes very early to a photo studio to bake the cake or cook the dish needing to be captured by the photographer.
When shooting ads for restaurants, he said the food stylist would normally shop for the ingredients as well, meaning they must know where to buy the freshest produce available, be it fruit, vegetables or meat.
Food stylists, he said, should also know where to shop for beautiful or unique tableware, as they are in charge of providing the props on set as well â after all, the right tableware will make dishes more visually appealing.
Puji, who has styled food of all shapes and sizes, has found that ice cream is the most challenging item to style, as it rapidly melts under the hot lighting.
Fake ice cream, which can be made of mashed potatoes, is a convenient alternative, but he personally prefers to use real ice cream â but it is a very challenging process that requires great teamwork.
The team, he said, must work very fast when shooting ice cream and the studio must be made as cold as possible to maintain the ice creamâs structure for as long as possible.
Puji disclosed that he always made plenty of perfect scoops in advance and kept them in a freezer to keep the ice cream cold and hard between shoots.
Today, he said digital imaging was widely used to create flawless, beautiful food photos. While the Photoshop program can easily fix a cakeâs imperfections, he would always put the icing on his cakes carefully.
He would not let himself reduce the quality of his work by relying too much on Photoshop. âPhotoshop can fix imperfections, but there is nothing like the real thing,â said Puji, whose meticulous attention to detail, and dedication to perfection, has won his clientsâ hearts.
A delicious-looking food photo is a collaborative work between a food stylist and a photographer.
Puji and Roy Genggam recently worked together in an advertising project that involved food photography. The collaboration was not their first. Together, they have produced various ads, such for Gulaku, Masako and Bimoli.
Roy said the most influential factor that affects the result of a food photograph is the lighting set-up.
âThe perfect lighting set-up can make the viewers feel hungry,â said Roy, whose portfolio includes portraiture.
Setting up Roy Genggam Photography in 1990, he started using digital photography in the early 2000s. He has invested heavily in his premier studio lighting equipment and when his skills combine with high-tech equipment, the result is beautiful photos that look good enough to eat.
âWhen it comes to food photography, you must think from the cameraâs eye, which is not the same as we do,â Roy says.
He explained that before the actual food is taken â while the food stylist is preparing the food, the photographer will take many test shots on non-food items until he gets the perfect configuration.
The non-food item stand-ins â like cups, bowls and bottles â are usually similar in shape and size to the real items that will be photographed later.
Food generally looks appetizing for only a short time under hot studio lights â but soon colors change or sauces dry up, making it important to get the perfect configuration before the dish arrives on the set.
There is more than producing great food pictures than meets the eye, they bring food to life.
(Puji Purnama)<)
(Puji Purnama)
Beautiful, mouth-watering food pictures are everywhere ' from street corners to TV and magazines ' making you completely forget about your diet.
What many people are unaware of is that these photos take hours to make ' with the help of a food stylist.
In a nutshell, a food stylist is makeup artist for food. While a makeup artist helps a model to look drop-dead gorgeous, a food stylist helps a dish look appetizing in the photos.
Say, for a burger ad, the food stylist carefully selects several of the best-looking buns out of hundreds and chooses the freshest lettuce and the reddest tomatoes to create irresistible photos of burgers.
He then arranges the cheese, pickles, onion, tomatoes, lettuce and ketchup neatly while making sure all ingredients are clearly visible as well as looking very appetizing.
Food stylists have lots of tricks and tools to create picture-perfect dishes.
In their toolbox, there are usually toothpicks, needles, yarn, glue, tweezers, rulers, scissors, pins and more ' all needed for the many tricks to make food look its best: A mineral water spray is used to freshen vegetables wilting under very hot studio lights and olive oil is brushed on food like grilled meat to make it glisten deliciously.
Before the economic crisis hit the country back in 1997, many expatriates worked as food stylists in Jakarta, but when the ads dried up and jobs became scarce, many left the country.
As the economy bounced back, and companies again set budgets to advertise their products, it opened up opportunities for Indonesian food stylists like Puji Purnama.
With 20 years of experience as a professional food stylist, he has a solid roster of clientele, including renowned food companies like McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Blue Band, Indomie and many more. He has also styled food for cookbooks, print and TV ads as well as for Brownies, a romantic flick.
He also took up training in cooking, such as at the popular Oasis restaurant and at the Indonesia Culinary Institute, while sharpening his food-stylist skills working for leading food magazines like Selera and Primarasa.
'I also learned cooking techniques from chefs in Bali, Hong Kong, Bangkok, France [Le Cordon Bleu] and Italy [Apicius],' said Puji, who has won several prestigious awards that relate to cooking.
Even though it is not compulsory for a food stylist to start out with a solid culinary background, he found that having a fundamental knowledge of cooking and baking techniques benefited his line of work.
He revealed that for a cake flour ad, the food stylist usually bakes the cake that will be photographed alongside the flour being advertised.
Puji said he always comes very early to a photo studio to bake the cake or cook the dish needing to be captured by the photographer.
When shooting ads for restaurants, he said the food stylist would normally shop for the ingredients as well, meaning they must know where to buy the freshest produce available, be it fruit, vegetables or meat.
Food stylists, he said, should also know where to shop for beautiful or unique tableware, as they are in charge of providing the props on set as well ' after all, the right tableware will make dishes more visually appealing.
Puji, who has styled food of all shapes and sizes, has found that ice cream is the most challenging item to style, as it rapidly melts under the hot lighting.
Fake ice cream, which can be made of mashed potatoes, is a convenient alternative, but he personally prefers to use real ice cream ' but it is a very challenging process that requires great teamwork.
The team, he said, must work very fast when shooting ice cream and the studio must be made as cold as possible to maintain the ice cream's structure for as long as possible.
Puji disclosed that he always made plenty of perfect scoops in advance and kept them in a freezer to keep the ice cream cold and hard between shoots.
Today, he said digital imaging was widely used to create flawless, beautiful food photos. While the Photoshop program can easily fix a cake's imperfections, he would always put the icing on his cakes carefully.
He would not let himself reduce the quality of his work by relying too much on Photoshop. 'Photoshop can fix imperfections, but there is nothing like the real thing,' said Puji, whose meticulous attention to detail, and dedication to perfection, has won his clients' hearts.
A delicious-looking food photo is a collaborative work between a food stylist and a photographer.
Puji and Roy Genggam recently worked together in an advertising project that involved food photography. The collaboration was not their first. Together, they have produced various ads, such for Gulaku, Masako and Bimoli.
Roy said the most influential factor that affects the result of a food photograph is the lighting set-up.
'The perfect lighting set-up can make the viewers feel hungry,' said Roy, whose portfolio includes portraiture.
Setting up Roy Genggam Photography in 1990, he started using digital photography in the early 2000s. He has invested heavily in his premier studio lighting equipment and when his skills combine with high-tech equipment, the result is beautiful photos that look good enough to eat.
'When it comes to food photography, you must think from the camera's eye, which is not the same as we do,' Roy says.
He explained that before the actual food is taken ' while the food stylist is preparing the food, the photographer will take many test shots on non-food items until he gets the perfect configuration.
The non-food item stand-ins ' like cups, bowls and bottles ' are usually similar in shape and size to the real items that will be photographed later.
Food generally looks appetizing for only a short time under hot studio lights ' but soon colors change or sauces dry up, making it important to get the perfect configuration before the dish arrives on the set.
There is more than producing great food pictures than meets the eye, they bring food to life.
The Trends
Just like fashion, make-up and hairstyles, food photography changes with time. When in the old food ads the dishes usually looked very stylized, this time around, it is different.
Food stylist Puji Purnama said these days, the food no longer looked 'too staged', since globally the natural style is in vogue ' such as with a bit of dripping chocolate sauce on a cake or a tad of melted ice cream.
Many food stylists, he said, admire how Ginny Rolfe styled Jamie Oliver's dishes for the celebrity chef's food photo shoots, as they looked natural.
However, he said no matter what the trend was, the end results were usually determined by the client's taste. Citing an example, he said there were Indonesian clients who still wanted the ice cream to look perfect, without any drips at all.
Another trend is, he said to use real food as opposed to fake food ' which ranges from motor oil to
plastic items.
Sometimes, substitutes are used for convenience. For instance, shaving cream is used in place of whipped cream that melts quickly under hot studio lights and due to its beautiful texture and thickness; or motor oil is a popular substitute for the real maple syrup in a pancake shot.
Substitutes, he said, were also used due to budgetary reasons ' it certainly takes countless containers of ice cream to get one perfect photo of the sweet treat.
However, today, he said more and more food stylists preferred to use the real food. Some do it because they are ethically bound to use what they are advertising, such as a photo in an ice cream ad must use the real ice cream from the brand that they are advertising, as opposed to creating a fake by using mashed potatoes for convenience reasons.
Others do it because simply to them, nothing is more beautiful than real food.
