Food Photography & Styling Step by Step

During my food photography session at La Baguette, Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, I decided that I might want to blog part of the process (the initial 3 of the 9 hours, at least).

This is also a proud first debut of my spanking new Profoto D4 battery pack that I just got. The alpha wolf of power packs, this baby could channel the power of a whole city for your most challenging photography needs.

9:00am : Arrived at the bakery, found Food Stylist Randy Mon, scurrying away to his wagon with a large loading cart. Went to help him unload so that he could park. Carted his stuff to the bakery. Randy got the better end of the deal as I had to cart all my photo gear by myself. Next time, I'll be sure to swap out some of his pretty wares while carting his pretty props.

9:20am : La Baguette is located smack in the center courtyard, directly across Tiffany & Co.. So, they had to ensure that the mall management is aware of the shoot. We setup right outside the store. This shoot is somewhat different since I am not doing it in the studio. So, Randy surrounded our working area with tables.

It was fun working outside too as curious passerby gets interested and stop and lengthen the already long line that is forming outside the bakery throughout the entire day!! Business is really good. I told Scott the owner, photoshooting outside is always a great publicity.

10:00am : Since we had to shoot in the open, the sun sprinkling its beams unto the set make lighting the set quite challenging. I had to shade the entire set with a scrim. However, throughout the shoot, I get to harness the ambient light to fill the shadows instead of using some stupid white cards. I had to be extremely precise with my metering as the day changes and light, along with it.

The tables and backgrounds are somewhat put together and the shoot begins. I used between 2 to 5 lights on most of the images. My proudest shot of the day incorporated the sunlight into the image. I'll explain later.

**Be aware that these sequence shots are straight out of the camera with zero touch up. These shots are meant to be documentary in nature.**


10:30am : Here's the first run through as Randy threw the french bread, baguette, loaves of bread (the brioche loaf smells fantastic) together. He thought we might want to use an earthy dark green cloth as the background. So, I took my first shot. We didn't like the background and decided to use a darker theme.


A tanned background is brought in. I casted a touch of light unto it to make it look like a dark tanned background.

I noticed that some accent light is needed on the right side of the brioche loaf. I'm also looking to cheer up the overall ambient of the image by bringing the overall lighting up.

Randy decided to move some of the props around for a better look, maybe add a loaf behind that is out of focus.

I will also need to swap out my short lens for a longer reach around 135mm to create a nice depth that has less background in it.


The out of focused loaf looks too big (ok, partly the fault of a longer lens. And it's not out of focus enough and lie right behind the brioche. Not very attractive.

Also, I informed the stylist that the cloth in the left basket was sticking out wierd.


"How does this look?", the stylist asked me while holding the out of focus loaf further behind the table while I stared through the viewfinder. We struggled to find a position for it to rest on and finalize on a spot that we cleverly constructed on the fly. ;)

The image is coming together very nicely so far. There just needs to be something in the foreground to create a beautiful depth. Something bready...


Not bad but the white sesame created a wierd out of focus texture that we didn't like the look of when we were looking at the computer monitor. It's also too bright, detracting attention from the hero, which is the french bread in front.

Randy agreed and swapped it out with three raisin breads. Much better.


Stylist then noticed that the direction of the knife is pointing parallel to the french bread. Something bad that I missed. Well, actually, I wasn't even aware that causes bad composition. But now that he brought it up...he was quite right.


The knife was rotated but the tip was showing. I protested right away. It look "scary", not in the horror movie sense but you don't want any form of scary in a food image. So, we moved the tip away, right away. Can you say that really fast, three times?


11:15am : I think we are nearly there. This is one of the last shot we took for this set before we tore it down for the next image.

Post processing had to be considered too since I had to clone out the handle of the basket, working out the best crop, tuning the colors, etc. But as you can see, a lot of these tedioius work can be made simplier when the lighting is setup well, a professional food stylist present, some art direction, patience and fun while doing it.

This may appear like a simple process but the entire process I explained above took 2-3 hours.

As you can imagine, this is a pretty tedious process and some clients may not be aware of how much time this takes. I suppose you can shoot 30 dishes in a day (been there, done that) but it is pretty much just "documenting food", not photographing it. The amount of time you take to perfect a shot is a true representation of "Quality vs Quantity".

In my next blog, I'll show an image from this same shoot, incorporating and utilizing light from the setting sun into the shot. So, don't blink, cuz we have some bling bling coming right up!

- MS

Photographing the oh, so pretty Japanese sushi

寿司, or sushi has evolved from a traditional food base for the japanese to now an artistic dining experience. In its earliest form, dried or pickled fish was placed between two pieces of vinegared rice acting as preservative. The nori (seaweed) was added later as a way to keep one's fingers from getting sticky.

Photographing a creative and beautifully styled food such as sushi is a great experience by itself. Since most sushi are colorful to begin with and each piece is an art form, sitting them on a clean white plate opens the imagery to its simplest form of art.

I was in the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo at 6am one morning while the fishes were being hauled into the pier. There are many little drop-in sushi bars that one can just sit in while pieces of sashimi or sushi are being sliced and served. Toro (fatty tuna), the filet mignon of sushi, was what I ordered all morning. The thin slices of ginger cleansed my palate while I sipped hot green tea and dipped slices of toro into soy sauce and wasabi. It was heaven on earth.

Takara Japanese Restaurant that I shot for serves these wonderful pieces of fishes in bulk. What amazes me is that despite its heavy operation in a huge 8,000 sq feet location, they were incredibly organized. They were able to maintain a fresh load of fishes every day. On top of that, their staves are highly trained and thus their service, impeccable. They encourage the creativity of their chefs by creating new dishes every Friday. These dishes go through a battery of palate tasting and tests. The winners can end up in the ever changing menu. The losers may never see the light of day.

Their Nutty Shrimp, for example seems to have withstood the test of time. They serve 2,000 of them each day. THAT is a lot of roll. The Sunrise/Wasabi Sunrise dish on the right, is a testament to the artistry of sushi in the new generation that combine food and art.

Takara Japanese Restaurant
3775 Capitola Road (Next to Capitola Mall)
Capitola, CA 95010
(831) 464-1818

- Michael Soo

Food Photography for Birk's Restaurant

Shooting meat seems to have its good set of challenges in today's health conscious world. How do you shoot a rib eye, which is supposed to have fatty portions to entice the viewer without overdoing it, tipping a balance between alluringly delicious, and health.

One of the key lies in the positioning of the meat and the position of the light(s). Do not show too much fat smack in front and control the oil content. Using light to not fully expose the oil content (think light position and family of angles) but keep it subtly reflective to show the natural juice of the meat and not oil. That'll entice the viewer AND at the same time, display freshness and tenderness.

Now, dessert, on the other hand is easy as a cheese cake. People ordering desserts wants to be feel defenseless against the smooth decadence of chocolate, submit to their natural aphrodisiac qualities and smooth textures. Melting and swirling in sweet surrender.

Desserts have to look gorgeous, saturated and by the Gods, sexy! Oh yeah baby! To render those qualities, they have to be done in multitude of steps. First of which, is the smooth quality of light. They can't show as harsh of a texture like the entrées. They almost have to be done the same way as when I shoot models in a glamour setting. The smoothness of the light and the settings is extremely crucial here.

See all other images from the Birk's Restaurant.

- MS

Poor House Bistro of San Jose, New Orleans style

Define crazy. If you have been following my blog, you woulda noticed that I have always recommended a food stylist for my food shoots, for more reasons than one. On the other hand, one should learn to be flexible when need be. I guess balance is one of my strength, being a Libra. Jay Meduri of Poor House Bistro is a strong believer of food photo should be food served philosophy. Now Jay, he's a real great guy. Great attitude, very personable and willing to lend a hand anytime during the shoot, may it be carrying a table around or sprinkling some spices on the food. He recently signed up with the new amazingly wonderful online take-out eCommerce site called, All Appetites and he needs just a few images for the menu on the site. So, there I was, selling my food styling ability (or lack, thereof) to compensate for a non-existence food stylist for this shoot.

As luck would have it, I have secretly learnt a trick or two from all the previous stylists I've worked with, from using tampons (don't ask) to using a cotton swap, I've picked up a few tricks along the way. By no means am I a substitute for a full blown stylist mind you; but I can still stand my ground when the need arises. Maybe.

I arrived a few minutes early, scouted a location for the shoot and setup right away. It wasn't easy, no photography assistants, no food stylist, no help whatsoever. On the bright side, I've been a mule on a lot of other non-commercial shoots I was in, so this isn't new to me. Being anal and a perfectionist doesn't help either. Last few assistants I hired inquired on why I even hire them since I like to carry the heaviest photography equipment and setup everything to my specifications. So, this is a head-scratching dilemma. Life is tough. I'll deal with it. ;-)

Gallery of images from the shoot.

- Michael Soo

Food Photography for Hot Wok Bistro

Joyce Wang of Hot Wok Cafe called me just a mere two days ago about doing a food shoot and she would like to have more info on pricing for the shoot. We decided to meet at her restaurant yesterday. I have to admit, I was a bit apprehensive since most Chinese restaurant owners are less savvy with the marketing side of the business; placing a decent amount of time, energy and money on anything intangible has never been the marketing strategy of choice for them. However, Joyce seems to understand the prowess of a good photographs for her business. She was questioning the use of a food stylist, however. I reassured her that it does makes a difference. She seemed to understand immediately. I got Randy Mon on board. We did a food photoshoot (from pepperoni pizza pulls to buffalo wings) for Milano International's 55+ chain in California, namely the Me-N-Ed's Pizzeria. Randy is a meticulous stylist and an artist. He would spend hours at arranging beans and vegetables for a dish to be photographed. It truly simplifies my post-processing for a food photoshoot when he's present. Plus, the client are a lot happier with the images. Can't beat a double bonus like that! ;)

The shoot is TODAY, just a mere 2 days after the call and a day after agreement on the shoot. And it's New Year Eve! Haha, is that speedy service or what?! The family owned business runs as smooth as silk and possibly one of the friendlist folks I've ever met in the restaurant business. Always a smile. Every customer that walked into the restaurant seems to know Joyce for years. Not surprising considering that they have opened for business for over 20 years, watching over local folks growing up going to the same restaurant for decades. The funny story is that their Kung Pao shrimp is a 20 year old cooking mistake that give birth to their famous dish! You've got to try it, as it is entirely different than other Kung Pao Shrimp dish that you'll ever try. It's GREAT!

Hannah & Tener, Joyce's only daughter and son were there to help. Hannah, a mind reader of sorts, seems to know exactly what Randy and I need, throughout the entire shoot!! May it be extra sauce for the mix, a plate or even where the misplaced chopsticks went. Brilliant woman. She is the type that will go places. Not surprising too, as she is now a branch manager for Wells Fargo Bank in mere 3 years after graduation.

We started at 10:30am, Randy and I agreed to get there 30 mins early to setup. We decided on silk linen for the table with a white background. White on white (white dishes, white props, white background, etc.) to make the food stand out like no other. The background, lighting, softbox, etc. were all setup within 45 mins. The first dish was the beef stew noodle soup. Randy used cold soup that allowed me to fiddle with the setup and take my time. The first shot out of the camera was already pretty darn good. ;) Randy would place the food items a piece at a time on dishes like the broccoli and beef. This man has amazing patience. We ran through all 8 dishes in a little over 4 hours.

Joyce feed us a late lunch after the shoot. Both Randy and I are picky eaters but found the food (especially the kung-pao shrimp) to be just freaking amazing. Randy stated that he's going to bring his family to this restaurant again. You guys/gals should check it out.

Hot Wok Cafe
2960 South Norfolk, San Mateo, CA 94403
650 . 573 . 1350

Here's the gallery of images