How I developed my own unique style in my food photography
In a saturated market, it’s easy to worry that you haven’t yet developed a unique style in your food photography. When I first started I was obsessed with deciding what my style was going to be so that my work would be instantly recognisable. But developing a style is a little more nuance than that, so I’d thought I’d share what I’ve actually learnt in the process.
I tapped into the feeling
I would argue this is the most important part of any creative work. If I don’t know how I want people to feel when they seen my images, I’m not going to know where to start with my styling. Do I want people to feel calm and relaxed? Do I want them to feel invigorated and energised? Do I want to tap into a nostalgic memory that catapults them right back to their Granny’s dinner table?
It’s essentially asking myself ‘what does food mean to me?’ and starting from there.
The way I want people to feel can of course change from shoot to shoot, especially when working with different client briefs, but my overarching beliefs and emotions around food still play into my work. I want to capture the joy of food in every single image I share because it’s an important part of my own relationship with food. This means my style has evolved to feel homely and wholesome, whilst retaining an aspirational element and a clear focus on the food.
I started to prioritise what I enjoy
This might sound odd, but I had to give myself permission to say yes to the jobs I knew I was going to enjoy (and no to the one’s I knew I wouldn’t!) As soon as I’d niched down to what I wanted to be doing, I realised it was actually pretty easy to unearth my own sense of style - if I’m naturally drawn to a particular client brief, chances are it’s because I know my image style resonates with their goals for the shoot.
So I really started to lean into this.
Niching down into one particular style of photography (that I absolutely love to create) has helped me book a lot more jobs and make a lot more money.
I had to learn that niching doesn’t mean I’ll only ever create one style of imagery, or work with one type of client for the rest of my life - inevitably others will find me and resonate with an element of your work regardless - but it does mean that when someone is looking for something specific, they’ll come straight to me. You can read more about how niching helped me grow my business here.
I curated props and backgrounds that I love
Often our choice of colour, backgrounds and props can tell us a lot about our style. If I find myself choosing similar props over and over from the prop hire warehouse, or scrolling through specific Etsy sellers for hours, there’s usually something in their style that speaks to me. There’ll be something about the colours or the textures that I like, and when I’m able to hone in on that, I’m able to create a much more intentional collection of my own props that I know I’m going to use over and over.
Kimberley Espinel is the perfect example of this - in fact the grape red background she uses in many of her shots has become so synonymous with her work that I immediately know it’s one of her photos when I look at it. Having a small collection of things that I can use in lots of different ways has been a really powerful way to develop a style while also retaining variety in my images.
I started experimenting with portfolio shoots
Practicing my craft without the worry of a client brief has been a brilliant way to discover the kind of photography that I most naturally create. Portfolio work has been a huge part of my process this last year and has helped me further hone my style and build my skill set. I typically choose a subject I’d love to photograph, or a series of recipes that really embody what food means to me and captures a particular feeling, and then I shoot freely, experimenting with different compositions as I go. Once I start creating without rules, I tend to find hints of my own unique style coming through that feel natural and intuitive to me.
You can get the full behind the scenes of my latest portfolio experiment here.
I slowed down
The biggest thing I’ve learnt is that style comes with time. Like I said at the top of this post, I was obsessed with finding my own style as soon as I could when I started, and ended up trying to pigeonhole myself into styles I thought most potential clients would want. It’s only really in year 3 of my business that I moved away from what I thought I should be doing and started to embrace my own unique approach instead. It’s been a lot easier to create beautiful images since then!
Instead, my goal is to be patient with the process and enjoy creating and experimenting without limits along the way.
Think my style might be perfect for your next photography project?
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