Styling & Photography

Food Styling and Photography Portfolio 

I’m in the process of designing a new portfolio website for my Food Styling & Photography  — In the meantime, please visit my Flickr and Facebook pages to view my recent work.

This past summer I took quite a few Food Styling and Photography classes and learned some advanced techniques that have really helped me develop my style.  James Peterson, a food photographer extraordinaire and Laurie Knoop, a professional Food Stylist, held a 5 week portfolio intensive at Studio 212 and Jim’s studio in Brooklyn. We focused on different lighting techniques; natural light, hot lights and strobes. We shot desserts, beverages, advertising and packaging food shots, still lives, ingredients and shots based on our interests. Jim and Laurie are amazing instructors and packed in a multitude of information in five all-day weekend classes. They always encourage students to be creative and innovative, building on the techniques they taught us and giving insider advice on working professionally in the industry – working with clients, working on set, preparing for a backup plan when necessary (i.e. food melting on set!), etc. This was an amazing class– kudos and thanks to Jim and Laurie!

I also studied an intensive online Food Styling course with Lisa Golden Schroeder of Foodesigns.com and learned even more advanced techniques for food styling focusing on in-depth training for specific food shoots: steaks, salads, chicken, beverages, burgers and sandwiches. There are so many ways of doing food styling but until you actually cook, style and shoot on set, that’s where you really learn what works and what doesn’t. Lisa’s online class comes with video demonstrations, an online gallery for sharing work with peers, an online Q&A session and a full set of online learning materials and articles for reference. Great class that I highly recommend to anyone interested in going into food styling as a professional.

My thanks goes out to all my talented instructors for giving me knowledge and encouragement to develop my professional portfolio in both food styling and photography.

View photos from the class

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Making Food Beautiful for the Camera at ICE

Watch the video as Lauren Glassberg from ABC News interviews Kristen Hess, the instructors and students on their experience at the Food Styling and Photography course at The Institute of Culinary Education in NYC.
CLICK THE VIDEO OR LINK TO VIEW | READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Food Styling & Photography is my first love, something I discovered while taking a series of cooking classes at the Institute of Culinary Education in NYC. I signed up for an intensive workshop taught by Jamie Tiampo, owner of seeFood media, James Peterson, food photographer and cookbook author of Meat, and Laurie Knoop, a NYC professional food stylist. We mastered the basics of food styling from prepping food to styling props and experimented with digital photography, lighting and editing. Each day we experimented with different styling, photography and lighting techniques, and chose our own food photography subjects by picking fresh ingredients from the Union Square Market. We cooked and prepared our food, styled our props and dishes and shot them in different lights, angles and environments. It was an amazing class and I have to say I am now officially hooked and never looking back!

View Photos from this class