Tips for food photographers for styling desserts

Those with a sweet tooth not only relish all types of desserts, but also drool over photographs of those desserts. Be it cakes, pies, pastries or laddoos (an Indian dessert), every sweet dish has its own charm and fans.

Preparing desserts could be a time consuming process, but photographing it is an art indeed. From melting ice creams to layered cake, getting a perfect photo of dessert can be challenging and enlightening. But styling it is equally important as it gives an overall “sweetness” to the photo.

Some basic ways in which desserts can be styled are:

1. Get some classy and stylish dessert plates, platters, bowls, glasses, cake stands etc. Instead of plain and simple forks and spoons, use ones which are rare and have embellishments or engraved designs on it. A platter can make or break the look of your desert.

2. If you have to garnish your dessert, then do so and immediately start clicking. You will see that within two minutes, garnishes like coco powder or dry fruits and nuts can go soggy or dull. So don’t wait long after you garnish your cold or hot dessert.

3. Every dish needs to be styled differently. You cannot expect a Gulab Jamun to look good in the same setting and cutlery as a cake. So pay attention to where this dessert comes from, how it is generally served, then only then plan your frame for the photo.

4. The aim should always be to keep the temperature of the dish down in case of most desserts. There are some which are served hot. So in that case, click when you can see the steam rising from the dessert. That way, a viewer who doesn’t know how the dish is served, can instantly take his cue from the photo.

5. It is important to have a refrigerator in the room, kitchen or studio where the photographs are being taken. You might take a long time in styling the setup and experimenting with the perfect angle, but letting your dish’s temperature go haywire can have a disastrous effect. You don’t want a photo of a sundae in which there's melted ice cream running by the side of the dish now do you?