Impact of color in Photo Styling ( Before and After)

As a photo stylist for major magazines its all about the accessorizing to get the look a magazine editor or art director wants.

For this Better Homes and Gardens assignment to be magazine noteworthy I created a fresh bold vibe by adding hits of color with art, pillows and other small furnishings

Before  and After

                                                                   

View the impact of added vibrant color  

Photo by John Bessler

You can produce this same effect as well:

Freshen up a space by adding grouping of bright colored pillows. The nuetral pallette of the room, mostly whites with light blue couch, is a perfect pallette for an EASY makeover.  Adding brights gives the space a cool uplift. Pillows adds punch as does the surprising colorful art.

We took out the brown sisel rug adding the neutral grey rug.

See how pulling the rug under the sofa pulls the seating area together.

Photo by John Bessler

One more tip:
Keeping fresh flowers in any room adds immediate invaluable impact.

Always look for what is blooming in season.

Bright pink azaleas were the perfect cutting for this spring shoot for Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

Multiples make an impact too, instead of just 1 or 2 votives add a larger cluster!

Personality Kitchens; Styling

 

I am always so excited when I find a project where the homeowners clearly have a style of their own. This is the kitchen of a 200 year old antique home, where every room is vibrantly slathered in color.  I  scouted this house, and sold this project to Country Living magazine, which I produced in 2009.

The homeowner, who is fearless  using color,  had been desperately looking for an expressive rug for the kitchen floor. I stepped in to suggest the rug above from Dash and Albert which I brought in for the shoot. The homeowner fell for it, and it became a permanent fixture to the home.

The before picture below demonstrates the before and after effect of styling. You can see the dramatic impact made by the rug, curtains, the additional props, and a beautifully set table that enhanced the setting for the photo shoot.

I could not resist the idea of making homemade biscuits with strawberries and cream for the table.

Styled by Karin Lidbeck-Brent for Country Living magazine May 2009

Photography:  by Johnny Valiant

It is tiny things and attention to detail that make the difference on a shoot. The homeowner had made some curtains with a crocheted edge in another room.  She was totally open to my suggestion that the kitchen window could use a curtain with the special treatment.