HYDERABAD: Social media, specially Instagram, has not only become a medium to chronicle our occupations or daily lives, but also to earn serious monies. Instagram influencers are much sought-after for brand promotion. Therefore, if you want to become a food influencer and somebody tells you how to style those dishes to get more ‘likes’, you gotta listen!
Shivesh Bhatia is not an unfamiliar name in the baking world. With 180K followers on Instagram, he has also aced the art of presenting his creations. We catch up with him as he holds a Food Styling workshop at Fab Cafe, Banjara Hills.
“I have been baking for a long time now. My nani and mother, who are expert bakers, were my inspiration. I started working on food styling after I joined Instagram. I could see that the desserts that looked well got more ‘likes’ and were more popular. So, I started experimenting. I did not take any course in food styling, but learned it on the job for five-six years. Food styling is something that can be best learned from your experiences. It’s quite a creative process,” he says.
While he talks, he goes around the tables, looking at the food pictures that the participants have taken. “The focus could have been more on the food rather than the background,” he tells one aspiring food blogger. Elaborating on the process, the baker says: “The food styling has a lot to do with composing the perfect photograph. It’s about the light, the angles and the props. It’s also about making the dish look good with the right garnishing and plating. If your final dish looks good, half of your battle is won.”
Giving a couple of tips on how to make food look attractive for children, he says,“Making a meal look like a bowl meal works well with children. You can also turn the chapati into a roll.”But do we need complicated props for a good photo? “You can never have enough props. You can use glass bottles, wooden chopping boards, chapati rolling boards etc.You also do not need a fancy camera to begin with. Most of the smartphones nowadays have decent cameras. I also started out with my smartphone, but am using Canon 700D camera now,” he reveals. His Instagram handle is @shivesh17
— Kakoli Mukherjee
kakoli_mukherjee@newindianexpress.com
@KakoliMukherje2