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Food Photography’s Secret Weapons

  • Dani Peters
  • September 1, 2011

We always get that craving after seeing a king size burger on television or in posters and billboards. But it does not mean it looks like the real thing up close. Be aware of the tricks of the trade when it comes to food photography. Pictures are made to entice spectators, and they make a good marketing strategy.

Taking still life pictures is not as easy as it looks. Unlike a real living model, you can’t just instruct food to pose for you or tell it to look perfect and find its angles. In food photography, the smallest details are the ones that matter the most. We often look for meat that looked like it just got off from the grill with the grill marks, appearing shiny, and greasy; veggies that looked so scrunched and fresh and moist, and all; fruits that glisten in the light; and desserts that are oozing with creaminess on the edge. While the U.S. law states that an actual food product should be used in a food ad, it is difficult to make still pictures look enticing without a little tweaking and the like. Like in fashion photography, the model should look fresh and lively. But how do they do that with food? I tell you, it’s not just the Photoshop that does wonders in photography.

You come in at your favorite fast food chain looking for that tall, appetizing burger meal, and you get a little soggy burger and fries instead. This fact is not for the faint-hearted as not all food products you see in food ads are as edible and delicious as they look. Yes, many customers have been deceived of what they see on food ads. Advertisers know well that to be able to sell the food, it should look as attractive as possible even going to the extent of using of motor oil, toothpicks and some dental tools, glycerine for that little shiny and moist look, food stabilizers, cardboard, glue, and even wood varnish. It all depends on what kind of food ads you are shooting and what the advertisers are want to achieve.

Here are some popular tricks to make your food look good in pictures, minus the editing, that is.

-To keep the ice cream from melting during photoshoots, the photography team uses the smoke from crushed dry ice for that little freezing temperature around the ice cream before the photographer takes the picture. And to create some mini melting spots, they would blow some air using a straw. That way, the ice cream appears to have a perfect melt down, not messy.

-Use some microwaved cottonballs dipped in water to achieve that “fresh from the oven”smokey effect.

-Cereals can get soggy once they dive into that bowl of milk. To have a picture-perfect bowl of cereals and milk, add in some Elmer’s glue to keep everything in place.

-Don’t overcook your burger patties, instead just place it on the pan for at least 10-15 seconds to keep it from slimming down. You can use some hot grill sticks to make grill marks on your patties as if it was perfectly done in the griller.

-For that juicy and moist meat look, you can use some food coloring or even a liquid shoe shine to give it a really scrumptious appearance. Just don’t forget it’s not as edible as it looks.

-Spray or brush some glycerine to seafoods to achieve that “fresh catch”look. You can also use this to make your lettuce and other veggies look very moist and fresh in front of the camera.

-Use some deodorant spray to give you grapes from frosty finish in time for its photo session.

-Make use of these small toothpicks to keep every piece of your masterpiece in place. You can fold everything in, make your veggies and burgers voluptuous, and just prevent some mashed up finished. This is one of the trade secrets in shooting burger and French fries ads.

-Syrups can be hard to work with, especially in pictures. Make sure you have your dandy motor oil in the sidelines for the good-looking, smooth and tasty syrup on the plate.

Food Photography’s Secret Weapons-If you have tried making cookies before, you know that every cookie that comes out from the oven does not look the same. Some may have huge cracks, some don’t and the toppings are not absolutely in place. Food stylists would use dental tools to create that perfect cracks on cookies, keep toppings perfectly in place and the like.

There are still many tricks under food photography. Like in any other photoshoots, there’s always a photographer, a stylist, and a make-up artist. Food photography also has this team that make sure that the food product looks picture perfect, appetizing and would definitely stir up people’s imaginary cravings. The important thing is the consumers should be able to recognize what is real and what is not. Food ads really are great enticers. They never fail to sizzle your imaginations.

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