The blogosphere is circulating a link to an awesome German food photography site today, which compares package photos of food with what’s inside for around 100 products. Sure, it’s all in German, but the Industrial Food Revolution is the same pretty much everywhere. We looked around for a good “secrets of food photography” and found this article at Photocritic which lists some of the staples any good food photographer has at every shoot, including motor oil, cotton balls, and brown shoe polish. Mmm!

From Photocritic’s “secrets” article:

Here’s some of what you may find on their shopping lists, and at least one reason each has its rightful place in the photog’s apron pocket:

Blowtorch, for browning the edges of raw hamburger patties, the goose-bumpy skins of nearly raw poultry, and hot dogs. (Caution: simmer hot dogs for a while before torching, unless your goal is an action shot of a pink-meat food explosion.)

Motor oil, as a stand-in for unphotogenic syrups.

Glycerin, along with various sizes of artist’s paintbrushes (to make seafood look like it was just caught that morning) and a misting bottle (to spritz lettuce salads, giving them that just-picked-and-rinsed look).

This alternate page of the German food photography project skips the original site’s tiny thumbnail layout and opens all the full-size images in one window, if you prefer that kind of presentation.

“werbung gegen realität” [Pundo3000] (Thanks to Ben!)
“The dirty tricks of food photographers” [photocritic.org]
(Photo: Pundo3000)

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