Co.Design | business + design: Prop stylists, who choose everything in a photo that's not food, often go unheralded in discussions of food photography, but they play a vital role on set. "I can make beautiful food, but unless somebody brought a beautiful plate to put it on, who cares?" as food stylist Kristy Mucci tells Co.Design.
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This is interesting for me to know. It's quite different from where I'm from. There, prop stylists are treated just like food/fashion/living stylists. People see them as people who are very fashionable and cool and we adored them.Although in my personal opinion, I have to admit the fact that our society tends more towards materialism and people nowadays care so much about the image, which leads to the reason why stylists became one of the "Cool" career to the new generation but I still agreed that this career should be something that people should notice more of its existence.
I would related to being props people in theatre. It's all about tiny details that might not be seen clearly from the audience's view or someone may think it's not important (like why do you need to have a chair hiding behind the partition when no one's going to see it anyways), I think it's the tiny details that bring the image of the product into perfection (and classy), and I think it's very important.
Even as someone who is more familiar with prop work and behind the scenes activities than the average human, I hadn't really considered the prop work that goes into food photography. I had recognized the lighting aspect of it, but the prop work I hadn't given much of a second thought!
It's interesting to consider how similar yet different prop stylist's/master's jobs are based on what form of art they are designing for. In food photography it is better for props to be smaller while in theatre props are better if they are bigger. Even the difference in furniture between the two forms must be vastly different due to how close the audience is. I wonder how it is difficult for a props master to transition to props stylist or vise versa.
I had never thought about this before... When I think of food photography I just think of how amazing the food looks, but it's true, the food would just look like food without the props surrounding it. The attraction is very subliminal but it totally works. And her comment at the end where she said she would want to buy some of the stuff she's found for the shoot, totally understand that! This week, I was working in the prop shop for crew and I kept coming across random little things that I would think... oh my goodness, I HAVE TO HAVE THIS. And the paper flowers I made for Seven Guitars (bragging a little here :D), I want to make them all the time and put them everywhere!!!! I think that's the issue with props, they make everything look better and then you want everything to be yours... It's how you become a hoarder... ha!
Anyway, back to props stylist, I think it's really cool and I wonder how they know what kind of props go with what kind of dish or what feel is needed to show how amazing the dish might taste... Something to look into... or I can just eat the food, I like that idea too...
I'm going to be honest, I've had my fair share of experiences where I've wanted the perfect food Instagram photo, and shouted out to my friends "quiet on set" while I carefully arranged the plates and cutlery. In a way, I get what these people are going through. It's hard. Really hard. You can't really tell how the photo is really going to come out until you take it, so it can be a lot of trial and error.
I think its an interesting topic in that, people forget about these aspects in the realm of theatre as well. I've had to train myself to look carefully at how each set is dressed and pay close attention to the props, and some of the work that the set dressers and prop technicians do really should be more appreciated. Such is the life of a backstage artist.
So THESE are the people that make me want to eat the food right off the page! I think that the process of choosing the props based on the recipe of the food is a brilliant place to start from and one that I hadn't considered before. The other thing I didn't consider was finding items on the smaller end of the scale to account for how big it would look in a close up picture. I can see how practical it is to mostly rent the props, but I can also see it as a good way to also sell a budding artisan's pottery or kitchenware and promote their merchandise as well. This is just another interesting field where a lot of the selling point comes from the environment around the product, very much like how a set informs the audience of what the feeling will be like for the show.
I love looking at food porn, and it's always amazing to see how delicious a photo can look. I've photographed food before, and it was a definite learning experience. I knew that it wasn't easy, but I was surprisingly difficult to do. I definitely gained a lot of respect for people who are able to photograph food and to make it look good. This article pointed out a component that I never really considered, but props in food photography is super important. I usually notice the plates and table settings, but I never really thought that it was another person.
Two summers ago I worked in the photography department of a publishing company that produces some of the most beautiful cookbooks I've seen, and it was really cool to work with the images. One of the most interesting things I had to do was type out a script for the food stylist that outlined the recipes they were making, as well as suggested garnishes and things like that. I think we only worked with food stylists though, because I never heard anyone mention a props stylist. From the article it sounds like maybe that's just for food magazines and things like that where shoots are a larger ordeal, whereas with cookbooks the scale is a lot smaller. It's really cool that this job exists though, and what these people do is really phenomenal. It's so easy to try to photograph something that looks great in person but ends up looking like dog food on camera.
I think about food photography a lot. Like, when you see a picture on a menu at a restaurant, that is not actually going to be what the food looks like. But it must have looked like that at one time for the picture? Or is it editing? Or a prop? A rendering. It drives me crazy, because of course I want my food to look that good, but knowing that it won't doesn't stop me from hoping that it will. I've also found it interesting, beyond the reaches of this article, how many companies are turning to 3D rendering for photos. It makes sense, as this method can often be cheaper AND more effective. But, then, how long until I will be ordering food where the picture isn't even real food?
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