Customer Reviews

Food Styling for Photographers: A Guide to Creating Your Own Appetizing Art

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Finally, there is a Food Styling book for Photographers. I took 2 food styling classes in LA before - the purpose was to understand how food was prepared for the camera and also to see how food photographers setup their lights. I love food photography and read many popular food blogs with their work. So when I know this Food Styling for Photographers came out, I can't wait to order a copy and I was very happy after flipping through the book.

This book gives you many tricks of the trade and notes from photographers with lots of setup photos, both food setup and camera/lighting setup. The printing quality and the page layout are very good - the font size is easy to read, the color pictures are clear, clean and colorful. They gives you details on how to buy the food, how to prepare the food, how to assemble the food, how to plate the food, how to decorate the food, etc. They gives you before, during and final photos.

I also own Digital Food Photography by Lou Manna and Working with Plate by Christopher Styler and David Lazarus. In my opinion, if you are interested in food photography, buy Food Styling for Photographyers and Digital Food Photography and you are good to go. Highly recommend these two books.

This book is an excellent way to get started in food photography. It has chapters dedicated to meats, drinks, ice cream, garnishings, and more.

Each with a shopping list of what was used for the featured photo (or photos) for that particular chapter and tips for shopping for food photography in general which I found very interesting.

It does leave out something which would be nice to have, such as how to prepare beer for photograpy but, they mention this would require a full book dedicated to it which I think is fair, I wouldn't expect someone to write a book on every item of food out there.

Bottom line: A very buy. Well worth the price.

From the original review on [...]: This recently published book is a fine how-to primer on preparing food for the camera. Bellingham is an Oregon-based stylist. Bybee is a Dallas-based commercial photographer. The detailed content runs the gamut: cold beverages, salads, pasta and sauces, burgers and sandwiches, grilled and roasted meat, vegetables, ice cream, desserts, breakfast and garnishing. My only complaint is not about the information on styling - which is comprehensive and easy to follow. Rather, as a food photographer, I am naturally interested in the sets and photo techniques used to create the hero shots. While there are a number of set shots and brief descriptions of how the shots were created, their small size and limited number suggests that they were an afterthought. Again and again, I wished that Bybee's comments on her vision and process had been greatly expanded into the ample amounts of adjacent white space. Clearly, the book was written primarily for food stylists. A more appropriate title would have been Food Styling For Photography. Nevertheless, Food Styling For Photographers is an important read for both students of food photography and styling.

My status as a photographer is almost professional, since for the moment i work part-time however I LOVE food photography wich is why I decided to buy this book. I just got it 2 days ago and for what I've read its a must have book. (Also very much recomended: Digital Food Photography by Lou Manna) Just to give u an idea. These r the chapter titles: 1)Intro to Food Styling. This includes simple game rules, shopping tips, planing ahead, list of supplies often used and a how to versions on how to assemble your own food styling kit. 2)Sets and Settings. This includes tips for choosing sets and surfaces for food photography, table setting tips, working fabriks on set, and tips on how to make your image POP. 3)Chilling fact on cold beverages. This includes beverage choises, frosted glass techniques, making a frozen margarita, making and placing bubbles, and more. 4)Making a Salad for the camera. This includes salad ingredient selection shopping and handling tecniques, supporting techniques, fruit salads, how to dress a salad for photography, and more.5) Pasta and Sauces. This includes perfect pasta for camera, sauces and vegetables for camera, building your pasta food additions to pasta...6) Burgers, Sandwiches, and BEYOOOOOOND. This includes prepping tips for burgers sandwiches and patties, shopping tips building tips, on the set tips, bulding a half or cut sandwich for photography.7) Meeting meat..8)veggie perfect 9) ice cream for hot light (very interesting) 10) Desserts. 11) Breakfast for the camera 12) Garnishing basics. Like i said this is to give u an idea of what u will be purchasing. Happy buying and break leg!!

This was a very easy read. The examples and images provided were very clear and useful for a novice food stylist. Now I analyse food photography in magazines/books and easily spot the obvious styling constructs - both good and bad. I haven't applied the tips yet but am confident that the info provided will be very useful. I am not a photographer and so can't comment on the value of lighting tips, but I can see that if food styling is not the photographer's main art, then this book will be useful.

Just received my book a few days ago and have read it entirely through once and bookmarked several pages for future food shot self assignments. I had the pleasure of meeting Jean Ann Bybee a couple of weeks ago and got to tour her studio to see where all the magic happens. I was as impressed with her as I have been in her book. The illustrative photographs are excellent and the how and why to use certain things to achieve a perfect food shot ending is superb. I've been a professional photographer for over 18 years and started shooting food just two years ago. If you are interested in shooting and styling food then this is the only book you need to get a very pleasing result. Good luck and happy reading!

Throughout the book there are blocks titled,"Tricks of the Trade."
The whole book is about tricks of the trade. You won't need another book on the subject unless there is a sequel.
Easy read; Clear instructions; Excellent book; buy it.

This is the best book of FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY I ever seen! I'm a still life and food semi pro photographer and this is my perfect book.

I suggest this book to all the photographers .. not only for food photographers. Everybody in the sector must have this book.

It's really easy and helpful!
Thanks to the authors to share with everybody the secrets of food photography.

This book is titled aptly! It is food styling information for a photographer, as opposed for food styling for food stylists. The material tackles common issues that I've come across in food photography such as drooping salads or bland meat, and how to address them. Now whenever my client can afford to, I always do get a food stylist, however, there are a few cases when they're not willing, and it is interesting to get some insight, as a photographer, into how stylists are able to make the food presentable for the camera. More interestingly, I've found that by knowing some of the tricks mentioned within (such as how to give pasta more volume), I've been able to be more creative in the shots I take, since I have a better understanding of how things are put together. My only issue with this would be the lack of coverage on other cuisines such as Mexican, Indian or Japanese. That being said, I believe that this book provides you with some of the basic know how to tackle these situations if and when they arise.

A great place to start with shooting food, but there aren't as many details as I'd like from an educational book. They don't explain their lighting set up, etc. This is 99% about food styling, just as it says. Not food lighting.