Food is one of the hardest things to take pictures of. This
means a food photographer must create the best lighting to show off the colors
and depths of the food. As well as a food photographer, there is a food stylist.
The food stylist is in charge of arranging the food perfectly, and keeping the appearance
of the food fresh, so it is appealing to the people who see it. Because of all
these tedious steps, food stylists usually replace real food with fake food.
You might think you are looking at a glass of milk, when in
reality you are looking at a glass of white glue. Or a bowl of ice cream might
actually be a bowl of frosting made out of shortening, corn syrup, and powdered
sugar. This prevents the “ice cream” from melting while under hot lights.
So why do salads in magazines look one hundred times better
than the flat, dull salad you made at home? They actually place a smaller bowl
upside down in the bigger bowl and, cover that with the leafy greens. They go
on to add the colorful toppings but, they don’t use dressing because the weight
and slipperiness makes it hard to arrange the leaves. Instead they might use
olive oil and seasonings on the salad to create a shiny yet weightless finish.
Food stylists even use fake ice cubes made out of acrylic. They
use this strong, clear plastic because it doesn’t melt under the hot studio
lights. This makes it much easier to photograph than real ice.
Some soup ads don’t even use real soup. There might be a
picture of a bowl of steaming soup on a cold day but, it’s fake steam. The food
stylists use cool air nebulizers or a mixture of chemicals to give off smoke
that looks like steam.
They also use this steam technique on burgers to make them
appear hot. The photography of a burger takes a dozen or more steps to get just
right. The hamburger meat is cooked with a torch so the stylists can add the
right amount of brownness, the middle of tomatoes are cut out so they don’t get
everything soggy and discolored, and all the ingredients in the burger are held
together with toothpicks. The final touch is applying the condiments with an
applicator bottle to ensure that there is not a single drop of mustard in the
wrong place.
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