When East meets West: Food styling and photography workshop review and sneak peak of Sweet Paul Magazine spring issue

The workshop was held in a Tribeca sunlight studio. We were lucky to have a bright sunny weather to start a wonderful day with. Six attendees from all over the country including Dallas, Boston and Chicago showed up at 10am. And these people flew in just for the workshop. What a good surprise!! The photos and recipes of this workshop are actually gonna be used in the Spring issue of Sweet Paul Magazine. So students can have a taste of what it is like to shoot for a magazine.

First thing first. Paul and Colin briefly talked about the history and trend of food styling and photography respectively. Two important food stylists in shaping the food styling fashion--Martha Stewart and Donna Hay. Important trend of food photography--studio light to natural light.

When Colin was still talking, Paul set up the table for the first shot. Then he gathered students around the kitchen to show them tips of styling the first dish-spring salad with hard boiled egg slices. His tricks include covering greens with a damp paper towel until right before plating to avoid loss of freshness; applying lemon juice to sliced apple will prevent it from turning brown. Paul loves to use blue fabrics, dish wares and props in general to go with food because the color contrast will make food pop.

While Paul was busy with the students in the kitchen, Colin was setting up the camera and doing test shots. Then Paul brought the plate over and did more styling on site. Then Colin took photos and showed to the students on computer, explaining why this angle, why this aperture and such. Finally students took turns to snap their own pictures using what they just learnt. This is the basic procedure of all the dishes of the day. We then did pea soup, limeade, lemon custard, lamb chops, lobster and at last lemon pie.

student shooting lemon custard

It's overal a great workshop for food blogger who want to improve their photos, for people who want to get into a new hobby and for enthusiasts who wanna be professionals in the future.