Food photography trickery

[nthach]

Who would have thought motor oil would be a good substitute for syrup(in a stock photo of course)...
https://petapixel.com/2018/11/30/tricks-food-photographers-use-to-make-food-look-delicious/

 

[dogememe]

Incredible video! And probably the only thing Pennzoil is good for!

 

[KrisZ]

And yet our brains are so wired to accept this as true despite seeing real food every day. It is only when you see how they do it, you realize some of these look fake.

 

[WyrTwister]

Go to McDonalds . Look at the size of the food servings in the photos on the menu board . Compare to the actual serving size when you receive your order .

 

[maxdustington]

When I was a kid, I read an article in school that had a similar theme. They paint the grill marks on burgers, then I think they used salt to draw the moisture out and make them look juicy.

I worked at Harvey's (Canadian burger chain) while I was in school and they were obsessed with grill marks. It got to the point where you would cook the burg mostly on one side to get that nice dark cross hatch, and then cook the bottom just enough so that it was cooked through. The customer would only see the top, and it was important that it resembled the advertising.

Grill marks on a medium rare steak are proof that whoever cooked it knows what they are doing, burgs not so much.

 

[Hall]

Originally Posted by WyrTwister
Go to McDonalds . Look at the size of the food servings in the photos on the menu board . Compare to the actual serving size when you receive your order .

They'll generally taste just fine though (if one is going to McDonalds to know the differences in menu pictures and actual items, they must be okay with the food).

 

[StevieC]

In Canadian advertising it's illegal to do this with food other than with Ice-Cream. It has to be actual food.

The way I know this is from the discussion I had while they were shooting a commercial for the brand of restaurant we were a franchisee of at the time.

Pretty interesting to see them toast the bread with a heat-gun, film the steam separately against a green-screen and then position it over the otherwise cold soup afterward.
Placing all the brocoli in the soup by hand in perfect placement so it looked more hearty. Wilting cheese with a hair dryer.

It was all real food just really position perfectly for looks.

It literally took 2 full 12-hour days of shooting for the 30 second spot.

 

[eljefino]

I've noticed ice cream cones that seem to have mashed potatoes in them in photos.

Macdonalds tends to cut the burger patty in half then spread the halves to fill the bun.

I thought pictures had to be of "food", not motor oil, but that it's okay to have a mashed potatoe cone.