Comments on: The dirty tricks of food photographers

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:38:32 +0000

Hey, this is really really interesting! If a little horrible… Good stuff

By: Wallace

Wallace — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 09:48:08 +0000

Does the food in the photo look tasty and make you want to eat it? That is the job of a commercial food photographer, food stylist and prop stylist. Anyone who claims otherwise is being naive at best. How that is achieved is left up to you, but if it looks like crap then clinging to some notion of it being ‘Natural’ is not going to make your clients happier. You are selling an image of food, a perception. You are not selling the food that is going into someones mouth. If it is not about the image then why would anyone need to pay a professional photographer OR a food stylist. They could get Uncle Willie to take a snap with his cell phone camera. Let’s temper this ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude with a slice of reality.

By: Marty

Marty — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 03:27:05 +0000

I found a Great Web Site for Fake Food! They carry an large variety. http://www.auntbubbiesfakefood.com

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:42:13 +0000

I took a GREAT class over the weekend. You guys might be interested in attending. The link is

http://www.digitalfoodphotos.com/blog/?page_id=57

By: Burt

Burt — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:22:28 +0000

All advertising is false advertising.

By: zen

zen — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:51:50 +0000

And yes, that includes motor oil, spray deodorant and and brown shoe polish…oh yessssss :) nice trick

By: Ellie

Ellie — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:47:49 +0000

I agree with Kelly. I have worked with food stylists for a publication company and we only used natural styling. We wanted to enjoy what we made after the photo shoot, not toss it away. And we also didn’t want to deceive the readers. A great photographer paired with a great stylist will now how to make the food look delicious without the synthetic products.

By: kaitlyn

kaitlyn — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:11:01 +0000

hey. this site kinda makes me sick and i just ate and threw everything up.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:08:14 +0000

I’m a professional food stylist and food photographer and I can proudly say that I do not use fake tricks to make anything I shoot look better. Food is extremely beautiful all by itself without the need to douse it with disgusting additives like motor oil and hairspray. Everything that comes off my set is REAL and EDIBLE right off the set.

As was mentioned by someone else in the comments here, there are many food stylists who take pride in natural styling without faking it. I am one of those types of stylists, I take immense pride in the fact that what you see is what you get and there is nothing harmful or unedible in my work. I plan to keep it that way.

Alot of the horror stories of food styling you hear about come from days gone by, sure SOME food stylist still use these techniques but certainly NOT all.

It would be nice to see an article featured on the flip side of the coin concerning food stylists who do it all natural. But the horror show posted here is going to get you more reader’s rather than covering all the angles I suppose.

By: Kristina (ninjapenguin)

Kristina (ninjapenguin) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:49:20 +0000

Haha - I just found this randomly linked in the Consumerist, in an article posted last month. How funny for me to come across that. Congrats on the linkage.

By: Daniel Condurachi

Daniel Condurachi — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:55:10 +0000

a while ago I photographed cakes. Actually it was my first payed photo shoot. Here-s the result: http://blog.bycoddot.com/my-work/freelance/2007/04/17/heaven-delight-cakes/

By: Bunny_Chow

Bunny_Chow — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:48:51 +0000

Really people, you mean you DIDN’T think about how food was photographed? Just imagine how appetising a shot of a dried-out piece of steak would be? THAT would be really disgusting to look at, nobody would ever eat at that restaurant again! Thanks to food stylists, food looks juicy and wonderfully good.

Putting strange substances on food while photographing is no more a waste of “perfectly good food” as is cooking ten to twenty different real eggs (and discarding) to get the perfect one.

Americans should not speak about waste really…considering that they probably waste more food (and other resources) than the whole world put together.

But, does anybody have any tips on how to photograph a fried egg well? We have real trouble achieving that, after two minutes it glazes over and looks really disgusting.

By: Jake Jeeter

Jake Jeeter — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 23:48:30 +0000

Holy Cow! Who give a crap? It’s not like you’re eating the fake food. Photographers always use props and techniques to defy what is >>actually

By: sweet

sweet — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 04:41:05 +0000

no wonder why my food photos don’t compare to the ones on glossy pages…..

By: Son Nguyen

Son Nguyen — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 03:52:28 +0000

I have always been wondering about how they shoot those things

By: Amanda

Amanda — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:06:07 +0000

Many times a branding iron is used to get those perfect sear marks on steaks and others cuts of meat.

By: Corgi

Corgi — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:14:09 +0000

It seems like an awful waste of food to me. I bet they could feed whole 3rd world villages on the food they have to throw out because it’s tainted with motor oil–what a pity.

By: peterg22

peterg22 — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:05:02 +0000

> 2- You must be tremendously naive to belive that one day your cookings
> would look as tasty as the pictures.

Hmmm.. ever been into a MacD’s and wondered why your burger looked, er, “different” ?

By: sir jorge

sir jorge — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:40:31 +0000

wow, i never knew! that’s so gross.

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:14:29 +0000

Aha! That makes sense - I always wondered what I was doing wrong with my food photography that kept it from looking as tasty as the pro’s. I’m not sure why I expected food photography to be any more real than other forms of photography, but I guess I did. Great job, this article is a really great reminder that we can’t always trust our eyes to lead our stomachs.

-tif

By: sid

sid — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:54:26 +0000

This is amazing! I like photographing food (http://gallery.sidkhullar.com), but never, ever thought of these! It feels a bit wrong to ruin perfectly good food, but ok I guess if seen objectively.

Sid

By: Pedro V.

Pedro V. — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:24:20 +0000

Oh people c’mon, stop being such a buch of lame asses and grow up will ‘ya!?

1- You ain’t gonna eat that food it is only for DISPLAY PURPOSE!

2- You must be tremendously naive to belive that one day your cookings would look as tasty as the pictures.

3- You can search for information about a good diet on the internet. Just f*cking google it for christ sake.

4- “Internet people” are oh so picky! Go out a little more and start caring about things that really matter.

By: Acidside

Acidside — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:01:52 +0000

Ok what di du say is correct, but not always…I don’t use tricks, ’cause I prefer to take a shot of what you eat. If the chef is a grate chef you don’t need triks, just a correct light.

By: Roberto

Roberto — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 16:32:54 +0000

OMG OMG OMG OMG, i will never look at food photography again. OMG OMG OMG

By: Antonio

Antonio — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:00:38 +0000

Colored smashed potatoes instead icecream so the light don’t melt it during the photoshoot…

By: Monica

Monica — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:27:29 +0000

Nothing wrong with these techniques at all. It’s simply what it takes to make food look like it should while working with the camera, lighting, props, et al, not to mention the time it takes to get just the right shot. Real food tends to ‘fade fast’.. steam never lasts long, ice cream melts, produce wilts or turns brown, glistening roasts dry out. If the final product (photograph) looks realistic and appealing, then the photographer has done his or her job, regardless of how its done - and it’s not an easy job to do well!

By: thegoosechaser

thegoosechaser — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:57:33 +0000

thank god not all food photography is the same and not all food stylist use the same old tricks that are disgusting, unhealthy and unethical. Food Photographers and food stylists who have pride in their job and respect the food they create can get along just fine without those tricks. there is a new trend on the horizont for green styling, senisitive styling and natural styling. Some can be learned in the new outdoor food styling seminar coming up in June of this year in Green County Wisconsin.
Please feel free to visit the website and find out more.

Don’t judge all Food photographers and Food stylist

By: Almost Vegetarian

Almost Vegetarian — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 02:19:52 +0000

Fascinating. And a wee bit repulsive.

I will never look at my Gourmet quite the same again.

Cheers!

By: anubarak

anubarak — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:21:27 +0000

but not to any other family.. like the european?

By: Hizzoner

Hizzoner — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:07:38 +0000

Any photographer who does this to food should be arrested and put in prison. IT MUST BE MADE ILLEGAL! STOP THIS SCOURGE BEFORE IT DESTROYS OUR SOCIETY. FAKE FOOD IS A THREAT TO THE AMERICAN FAMILY.