Several months after I did these, I saw a show on Food Network dealing with food styling. I've heard of some of the trickery to get food to look good, but I had never seen it in such detail. Of course, these folks had to cook their food, and style it themselves, so I'm glad I only had to take pictures.
It was very humid that day, and it was difficult finding a location for this glass. I know I wanted natural light to help, but by the time I found a spot, my fingerprints were all over the glass. A quick wipe down, and we were good to go. While I didn't drink this after the shoot, I did have a Pearfection, and it was tasty! Actually, we never got around to the Pearfection. I wanted to get some fresh pears as a backdrop, but the ones at the store were unacceptable.
The main reason for doing this was to promote new dishes at the restaurant. These included some Mexican and Asian fare. Setting this plate on the bare stone of the fireplace, which we lit on one of the hottest damn days of the year, was too stark, so Jeff ran home to get the blanket.
This was the second shoot. It took forever to get the angle where the fullness of the plate was most evident. Lucked out on finding the tablecloth on the premises. We did dumplings as well, however, they're very pale to begin with, and a different color plate may have worked better.
This was the third and final shoot. Again, lucked out with the tablecloth, and I switched out several paintings before settling on this one. I think it helps "class it up." Another very tasty dish, too!
After taking the photos, I picked the better ones, then worked on cropping to best showcase the product. This was one of the few times where I did major cropping after taking the photo. The original shot of the KC Ice Water shows the whole glass. But in cropping it, and closing in on the beads of condensation forming, the wetness is really emphasized. People were really surprised how good that image turned out. "You took the picture?" one asked. Yeah, and thanks a lot! ;-)
When I was satisfied with the photos, I worked on creating logos for each dish. BBQ is charred, South of the Border is stucco, etc. Then I added the descriptive text and the Il Spazio logo. I arranged them on a legal size sheet, and after printing, sliced down the center, folded in half, you have a table topper!
They also asked me to do an ad for the Index, the college newspaper.
I used existing photos for this. The background photo is their pizza oven. Takes me back to the days where I had either a burger, chicken tenders, or a grilled chicken sandwich (and a stout) for Sunday brunch. (Seriously, it was a stout that put hair on your chest with one sip, took it off with the next ... Delicious!)
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