Food Styling & Photography - Indian Food

On the onset, let me confess that I do indeed enjoy styling & shooting Indian food.

But you would ask why?

Well, as crazy at is sounds, it’s for all the reasons that most people find it difficult to style & shoot, such as:

- Almost all Indian gravies look alike

- Very cumbersome to make

- No variations possible in styling and camera angle

- Can only garnish with Coriander leaves

- All Indian gravies have to be served in bowls

- Need a lot of accompaniments to compliment the dish

- Can be only served in ethnic metallic plates & bowls & hence boring to light & shoot

- Most important is the close minded client, who thinks that Indian food can look good in only one kind of set-up

Let me enumerate each of the points in details & how I try to enjoy working in such restriction.

All Indian curries/gravies look alike

Well for starters --- they don’t!! The Daals, the Kadhis, the Rasams; every single gravy belongs to a different genre; each of these gravies are different in terms of look, color, consistency & texture. Yes, I agree that there are a number of Indian curries that have a similar style of cooking. But that is the challenge! With your styling and photography you need to show that difference. And that is exactly what I relish while styling.

Palak Paneer

Pakoda Kadhi

Egg Curry

Chicken Kolhapuri

Allow me to give you an example: I have now been styling for the last 15 years and I must have styled the famous dish, Dal Tadka, more than a 100 times or more, for different clients and purposes. But I have never managed to bore myself with it. Each of my food shots has something dissimilar, something unique that makes it stand out. It gives me great satisfaction to say that I have hopefully managed to incorporate that integral point into my own work.

Then there is also the problem that different curries may look alike, even though they are poles apart in terms of taste. I know that there will be a set of curries, or any food for that matter, in a job that may look similar, but it is the challenge of creating that difference that piques me and prepares me for another dull shoot.

So how do I achieve this?

I am a graduate in Hotel Management, from the Dadar Catering College-Mumbai. And I have studied Indian Regional Cuisine;the way food is cooked and served across the country. As a food stylist one needs to know the correct final look of all Indian food such as traditional methods of cooking, serving, etc. Indian food, be it curries or dals or rice or breads, all vary from region to region across India.

I actually find it fun to significantly alter the food presentation of each cuisine by using the so-called disadvantages such as lighting, layouts, garnishing, prop setup, etc. to my advantage! In my first book on the “Garnish” series, I have selected and shot 30 different Indian curies, illustrating each dish as diversely as possible. Few of the curries are showed in traditional props but few of them have been shot in a very contemporary setup. In fact I like to bend or break some basic rules while shooting an Indian curries. I like to combine my cuisine with that of a staple that it is regularly eaten with, instead of just shooting the dish alone. This helps me to improve the beauty of the shot and provides me with a completely new design.

Butter Chicken with Rice

Every Indian curry has a very unique texture, color & consistency. One cannot get away by saying that continental sauces are better to shoot as they easily look good due to their gloss & smoothness. I like working with coarse gravies. Besides styling food I even shoot food. And coarse gravies give a completely different lighting opportunity. Unlike continental smooth sauces coarse gravies catch highlights. They react very dynamically to directly light source and hence show a very appealing character. It’s actually fun to see how the coarse textures react to various sources of light.

As a stylist all you need to do is show the gravy texture correctly, ensure that all qualities of the gravy are enhanced and just enough for them to be recognizable.

Butter Chicken

Indian food be it gravies or Indian breads, you have an opportunity to shoot them in traditional, rustic setup with vivid backgrounds or you can make them really hi-key, I love shooting in both styles. Over the years, I have compiled an absolutely colossal collection of props bought from Good Earth’s to Ikea’s. And I ensure that my collection is always updated.

Dal Makhani (Traditional Setup)

Dal Makhani (Contemporary Setup)

I believe as a food stylist and a food photographer, one should know their food well, do a if required, good research & experiment with your creativity. Indian food shots rock!