Food Styling Tips for Pizza

Pizza. Flat. Round. Sometimes oblong. Sometimes colorful. Often little dimension. 

I love pizza in every form that I’ve encountered around the world, but the truth is, I’m not the biggest fan of styling pizza or photographing it. 

That doesn’t change the fact that my clients have me create and photograph pizza and flatbreads. I have also created it for my own cookbooks. Like it or not, I’ve had to develop some skills and styling tips for pizza throughout the years.

These are a few quick tips to help you style pizza and flatbreads. Some to think about before it hits the set and others to help it be its stunning self as you pick up the camera. 

Think about your garnishes before you take it to set. 

Sometimes when we look at pizzas we know there are so many good things tucked inside, but to the eye, it just looks like cheese. Think about what colors and textures you can add to the top to break up the monotony and make the subject sing for the camera. Fresh herbs, crushed red pepper, crumbled or shaved cheeses, cracked black pepper, flake sea salt, and ground nuts are a few ideas.

Pull a piece out.

Add some action and space between the sea of ingredients by moving some slices around on set. 

Overhead is nice, but don’t forget about 45-degree angles.

Overhead is often my go-to for pizza, but when it is piled with toppings for texture, an angled shot may turn out the be the winner. 

Elevate with boards. 

Pizza is most often flat. Give some distance between the whole pie or individual slices and the backdrop or surface. 

Add something to support the star. 

Pizza and beer are classic. But it might be wine. A bowl of crushed red pepper or a pizza cutter. When the pizza itself doesn’t have a lot going on for it, something added tightly in the scene can help complete the image.

Blacklight loves pizza.

Especially simple flatbreads where there is a lot of space that the light can catch. 

Change the set.

If your pizza is baked in an interesting spot - Outside, in a brick oven or on a grill - capture some of that scene. It’s so much more interesting than a pizza on a board.

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Club CreatingYOU.® is a community exclusively for solo creative stylist-photographers who want to grow their skills for capturing food, drink, and its origins while cultivating a distinct style. It’s always open to new members. This month we’re covering surfaces as they relate to style in our training and photo breakdown. The supporting podcast comes out next week where we’re talking about that elusive style and if you need to try so hard to find it, based on the work you hope to do. Hosted on Substack by me, Lori Rice.

Styling Soup - How It Got There

I have another edition of How It Got There and this time we are talking about styling soup for food photography. In these short videos, I take you through the project, prop selection, and the final shot so you can see what went into my thought process.

This month, I’ve been talking to you about creating or finding your style in our CreatingYOU.® newsletter. In today’s video, I talk about individual style as it relates to my own creative work and the work I do for my clients so that you can decide for yourself if you believe style is something that should be adapted.

Three Key Factors for Creating a Photography Style

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Identifying a style in photography is something I consider to be the most difficult thing in my work. It’s because I love A LOT of things. Dark, mysterious, shadowy mood is as interesting to me as bright oversaturated subjects on colorful backdrops. 

But loving just about everything and finding joy and inspiration in it, doesn’t mean it’s true to me. 

I’m on a style journey myself. I was warned early on that reevaluating your style and being drawn to new techniques in styling and how you take photos is something that will evolve - with your experience, age, and place in life. 

And I’m there right now. I’m asking myself - do I still love my work or am I ready to explore new looks? (It doesn’t help that I’m pretty sure the answer to both of those is yes. Haha!)

For me, style was something that I knew I needed, but I initially didn’t seek it out. I only knew I’d established one when people started telling me that they could definitely identify my photography style.

I’ll say that I think it’s a much better way to go if you seek it out first. But by reflecting on things and breaking down what I put into my photos, I was able to kind of work backward to better understand what had really created it. I sum it up into these three key factors.

Knowing what invigorates you.

Most people might say inspire, but I prefer invigorate. Invigorate means to bring energy and life to, to animate, and also to stimulate. When I see art or create art that speaks to me, I feel downright invigorated. I get excited, it gives me energy, and it stimulates a sense of creativity and eagerness to be productive.

Some examples of this in terms of subject for me is where our food and drink comes from and that extends from farms to food culture and travel. Human elements in food photos, but only hints and in abstract ways, like the knife in the artichoke photo on the left above.

I’m invigorated by captures of these things portrayed in muted tones, but not those completely without color. I fall into late summer and early autumn when it comes to seasonal color psychology. And I love photos that play with light and shadows.

This also extends to the type of environments that invigorate you. I love outdoor light at dusk and dawn, foggy days, and natural shadows created by winter light. This is why I also prefer natural light in a studio setting.

What invigorates you? What do you undeniably love when you see it – either in a photograph or another work of art? How can you bring that into your own work?

Using your location and experiences.

 We all live in a place that is unique to us and we have all had unique experiences, no matter how mundane your life may feel at times.

Place and geographical location is one of the top complaints I hear for lack of inspiration. I’ve listened to one person complain about living in New York City with a lack of flowers and vegetation while I simultaneously watch another person create exceptional photos and videos of the same place. I know people who feel the Midwest is boring. Meanwhile, I can’t wait to get out and see vast fields of corn like those I grew up in when I visit my family, just so I can create new photos.

What are you overlooking? What about you, where you come from, and where you have been can you add to the inspiration for your work? Does growing up around more concrete than vegetation allow you to uncover a beautiful perspective others miss? Does being a parent make you exceptionally organized in how you work? Does being single give you more control over your time to explore new techniques? Use it.

For me, while I live in California now, I grew up in Indiana and that is where my love of food and farm began. I also have a background in nutrition which drives my view of clean, simple, fresh produce. I travel a lot and I bring bits and pieces of that in the form of props and linens home with me to use in my photos. I’m also adventurous in how I seek out surfaces.

Find that thing you do.

 A style goes beyond a subject. You can carry a style through many subjects. Style also doesn’t have to be a choice between creating bright photos or dark, moody photos.

Style can come from the type of light you always use, the same aperture, styling with a repeating composition, the angle you most often shoot at, something creative such as always shooting through or always creating deep shadows.

Start with what you like to do and repeat it. If you don’t know what that is, take a look at past photos and see if you can identify any similarities that result from something you always do.

For me, if I had to narrow it down, this is really negative space. I love space in my photos, empty space. This goes for how I style food and how I capture photos outdoors. I also feel that always using natural light contributes to my style.

And this is the biggest area for me that I’m exploring in terms of style. I don’t plan to leave my current practices behind, but I’m working to establish more things that I do to build on the style I already have.

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Struggle with style? It’s one of the areas we cover in Club CreatingYOU.® Find your people, fuel your creativity, and grow your income

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Creating a Moody Farmhouse Kitchen Photography Backdrop

While my photography style has changed some over the years, one thing I still love to create is a more moody farmhouse kitchen look. But what do you do if you don’t have that type of kitchen to photograph in?

I find that piecing together wood boards with a vinyl surface can create a rustic countertop look as a photography backdrop. In this video, I show you one way to create it to give you ideas for what you can create in your own space. This is a photo I included for my Farm Fresh Photos stock photography membership.

Styling Burgers, Sandwiches, and Sliders for Food Photography

We’re about to hop into Memorial Day Weekend here in the U.S. It’s the time of year when things like burgers start hitting the grill in most parts of the country.

So today I thought I’d talk about some key elements when styling burgers, sandwiches, and sliders whether they are beef, vegetarian, fish, or chicken. 

I’ll be breaking down three photos in the video below with key elements and tips for styling, stacking, condiments, and angles. I’ll also share what I would do differently now in the older photos.