All those ice cubes in magazine ads (before alcoholic beverages became virtually illegal) has to be painted. Ice can’t withstand the lights. 1. Where do you ethically draw the line?, and 2. Why bother to draw one?

Good provocative thoughts.

Let’s go a step further. Lighting. How often do we as commercial photographers recreate what might look like early morning light coming in through a window in a small country kitchen … all within the neutral gray space with concrete floors we call our studio. We not only fake the lighting we also fake the scene with our plethora of props, backgrounds and sets.

I’m very much a purist and absolutely enjoy capturing on film … er, uh … pixels … what naturally occurs when a wonderfully plated dish lands on the table in a fantastically picturesque location. If only all our commercial shoots could happen at a fine bed & breakfast as the sun reveals itself on a clear crisp morning.

Unfortunately, commercial photographers are in the ‘control’ business. We have to control the lighting. We have to use stylists to control a dish that will die on set while the art director is trying to decide whether the onion should go on the left of right of the fish.

I believe we have a great responsibility in working to make food look real and not misrepresent the actual product being sold. I prefer to use real food but not all circumstances lend themselves to this high ideal.

Now, let’s open up even more debate … what about post processing? Should we accept what comes directly out of the camera with out any WB adjustments or contrast or dust removal? Yikes!

At the end of the day, I think we simply need to look at ourselves as artists. And, as artists there is much responsibility and conviction about how we handle our art. It’s a very broad spectrum and honestly, no hard fast rules. There’s a place for it all, and the market chooses what it will accept depending on its mood.

Happy shooting!
- Kyle

Can’t agree with you more. using non-edible things and making it appear edible is like lying.

I guess there are some tricks, like putting a cotton ball behind the cup of coffee to show the steam. I think tricks like these are understandable and I am okay with that. But glue and shoe polish…. I would rather pass the opportunity to shoot, rather than compromise in cases like this.

I shoot real food and have “tricks” — like using crumpled tissue paper to set up an ice cream shot. Then I work like lightning when I place the real scoop in the dish. But the ice cream I use is real. Made by me. You can even see it melting in some shots.

Because I don’t “cheat” with the pictures, I’ve had to accept that there are dishes I will never blog about because they’re just too ugly. No matter what you do, some food looks like it came out of the hind end of a dog.

I, too, blogged about the issues of food photography tricks and find people get discouraged when they can’t reproduce the results they see in the photos.

http://christiescorner.com/2009/08/06/the-truth-about-food-photography/