Take a Tour of the Taste of Home Photo Studio

Get an inside peek into our photo studio, where we photograph around iv,000 images every year. Bonus: Larn professional tips and tricks for styling and photographing food.

After the Test Kitchen approves a recipe, it'south officially a Taste of Home recipe. Time to snap a photo for use in our magazines, books and website!

No matter what the nutrient-from Mom'south Meatloaf to Moist Chocolate Cake-we consume with our eyes first. We desire all of our dishes to expect equally pretty as possible. This is where our Photo Studio comes in. Our team of talented food stylists and photographers piece of work together to make the recipe picture-perfect.

Plenty of companies use unappetizing tricks to make food wait skilful on photographic camera-retrieve using dish lather in identify of bubbles on a glass of soda, a "roasted" bird spray-painted bronze, plastic ice cubes, and more gross but proficient-looking tools and chemicals.

Taste of Home never uses fake food or crazy editing techniques. Photographer Dan Roberts says, "The home melt should be able to reproduce annihilation we do in the studio."

Hither's how it works:

Set the Scene

Food is just one part of the equation. Set stylists stage the scene that surrounds the nutrient. Should the nutrient be served on a plate or kept in the skillet? What kind of surface should the plate sit on? Practise nosotros want any utensils, linens or extra ingredients to be seen?

Prepare stylists piece of work out of a massive warehouse-style prop closet that holds thousands of habitation goods including dishes, utensils, linens and glassware, organized past color and style.

Photography Manager Stephanie Marchese and Set Stylist Melissa Franco explain that their job is all most telling a story. They don't merely achieve for the newest or most expensive pieces-they similar to mix colors, textures, blueprint style and age, often combining quondam pieces with new. Their goal: Get in look homey. For instance, many people don't take an entire set of matching dishes, from coffee cups to dessert plates, and so they mix and lucifer. Y'all might have an heirloom serving tray mixed in with some plates from Ikea. If you happen to get inspiration for setting your breakfast table aslope our cinnamon rolls recipe, nosotros'll be all the happier.

Fun Fact: Out of our thousands of colorful dishes, which color is most pop? White. White dishes provide a bright, clean contrast with the bold colors of the food.

Style the Nutrient

Our nutrient stylists prepare recipes with way in mind. This can take several iterations to nail down-especially if nosotros're shooting a embrace for our magazines. For example, the team might set several roasted chickens to make one that looks merely correct.

Our goal: Brand the nutrient look both totally delicious and still approachable to real domicile cooks.

Lead Food Stylist Kathryn Conrad believes the art of presentation is simple enough for any cook and any meal, fifty-fifty the most casual picnic or breakfast. Dress up a soup with a handful of fresh herbs, for case. Keep packaged foods, like bottled dressings, off the table; toss the lettuce before you sit down; or consider serving a little dish of ketchup or other condiments for the family to share.

Snap Gorgeous Pics

When the phase is set up and the food is ready, our photography team steps in. They go on a busy schedule, shooting about 4,000 gorgeous images and videos per yr.

Shooting food can be tricky. Ingredients can await different as time passes-remember how lovely a steaming plate of spaghetti looks fresh from the pot, but the same noodles look gloopy and lamentable if left out too long. Salads wilt, ice cream melts, ingredients lose their luster. Our photographers have a bright play a joke on to avoid this: They use a "stunt double" dish that goes out on prepare first. This allows the food stylist, gear up stylist and lensman to play around with the image until it'south but right. Then they bring out the perfect, A-listing dish and capture their shot.

Here are the squad'due south three favorite tips for getting the best photos of your banquet at dwelling:

• Shoot food while it's fresh! Catch the steam rising or salad greens glistening by snapping a photo right away.
• Find good lighting. No need to overthink this one. Natural lighting from a window is oft the best light-not besides glaring or artificial. It makes most foods expect fantastic.
• Choose great subject matter. Odds are, you're not going to prepare four greenish edible bean casseroles until y'all make a perfectly gorgeous one. You'll exist happier taking pictures of naturally tempting foods, like a plate of decorated cookies or a lovely golden roast.

hansforddecorichiggy.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/take-a-tour-of-the-taste-of-home-photo-studio/

Share this post