R
Ranger 9
Guest
Those are really impressive food shots, especially for an "ad hoc" shooting situation.
Of course, it may be doctored up with Kitchen Bouquet, corn syrup, floral clay, spit, etc., etc., but it IS real food.
Editorial food photography -- i.e. what you see in the food magazines -- is a different matter. That stuff could be anything.
Another special case is ice cream. It's not USDA-regulated, and it's really hard to shoot the real thing (the top guy in the field, before he retired, used a big walk-in freezer as his studio; once he set up the shot, he would blow on the ice cream through a soda straw to make it look just creamy enough.) Most people use fake ice cream, which is made out of cornstarch, shortening, powdered sugar, and various other ingredients, and then dyed with food coloring. Food stylists learn how to make it as part of their training.
It looks amazingly realistic, and isn't toxic, but it's just barely edible. An ice cream marketing guy I used to work with had a constant problem with people sneaking into his office and stealing product-sample ice cream bars out of his freezer, so he had one of the stylists make up some fake bars and put them in there. ONE of them got snitched... and after that, nothing was ever taken out of his freezer again.
In the US, at least, if the photo is for advertising or packaging of a USDA-regulated product, it has to be the real product, and the amount of each ingredient has to be realistic.A time ago i learned, that most food and/or food arrangements for potography are made NOT by nature but by food stylists and they will make them from wood, silikone, wax or other non-tasty stuff
Of course, it may be doctored up with Kitchen Bouquet, corn syrup, floral clay, spit, etc., etc., but it IS real food.
Editorial food photography -- i.e. what you see in the food magazines -- is a different matter. That stuff could be anything.
Another special case is ice cream. It's not USDA-regulated, and it's really hard to shoot the real thing (the top guy in the field, before he retired, used a big walk-in freezer as his studio; once he set up the shot, he would blow on the ice cream through a soda straw to make it look just creamy enough.) Most people use fake ice cream, which is made out of cornstarch, shortening, powdered sugar, and various other ingredients, and then dyed with food coloring. Food stylists learn how to make it as part of their training.
It looks amazingly realistic, and isn't toxic, but it's just barely edible. An ice cream marketing guy I used to work with had a constant problem with people sneaking into his office and stealing product-sample ice cream bars out of his freezer, so he had one of the stylists make up some fake bars and put them in there. ONE of them got snitched... and after that, nothing was ever taken out of his freezer again.