The Food Stylist’s Handbook

Every food blogger, and food blog reader, can appreciate a well-styled food photograph and there are a good number out there who love food photography as a hobby and have dreamed about the possibility of becoming a food stylist. If you fall into either category, The Food Stylist’s Handbook is a book well worth reading.

The book is a completely guide to food styling and food photography and it takes you through not only the technical aspects of the work, but the professional aspects as well. It starts off explaining what goes into food styling as a career, discussing many of the things that food stylists can do, different niches in the industry and gives advice on both starting and marketing a food styling business. This part of the book is fascinating and will definitely give you a new appreciation for the work, as it is packed with tons of real life examples of photo shoots for print and TV. And it goes without saying that it’s interesting if you’ve considered getting into the industry.

The rest of the book is dedicated to the how-to of food styling, from putting together the perfect looking burger to scooping a flawless scoop of ice cream. There are many suggestions about what tools and products you might want in your “tool kit,” too. As you would expect from a book about food photography, the book is packed with excellent photos that show methods of preparation, different photography techniques and lots of “hero” shots of the finished product. It makes you hungry, and it also makes you want to play around with your own food – especially if you’re a food blogger already! It’s a great introduction to an industry that we all see every day but most of us don’t know that much about, and the book does a great job of making it sound and look as appealing as exceptionally styled food.

The authors of the book also have a blog, if you want to read about more of their on and off camera work!