Is There Really Truth In Advertising?

I came across this post from a food blog I often visit. I couldn't help but laugh at the blogger's reaction.

Yep, that's how we take food shots.

I've been in so many food shoots that I have stopped thinking about the way food is styled for the shoot. Sometimes, Angel would comment that the food in the picture looks so delicious. I would nonchalantly tell her it doesn't look that way in reality. Precisely because I know how and what goes on during a food shoot.

I usually have several sets of the food prepared. Then, I have another set of just the separate ingredients that are seen on the plate when it is served to the diner. After which, we "bastardize" (can't think of an apt word to use right now) the food by taking it apart and enhancing everything. Sometimes, we spray it with oil to make things a bit shinier. Once, my photographer, Toy, had cigarette smoke blown through a straw to simulate steam rising from a hot plate.

I always warn clients that they may have to waste a lot of ingredients and food items in order to get the perfect shot. On a bread shoot once, I brought several trays containing loaves of bread. All that just to get one perfect shot of a slice of bread. The rest of the bread was eventually given to an elephant in the zoo. Long story on the elephant and one I'm not interested in telling right now.

Definitely, you cannot eat the food being used for a photo shoot.

So, why don't we just shoot the food the way it really looks? Because un-styled food is unappealing on a photo. For instance, the crispiness of fried chicken skin is not as obvious if you don't spray it with oil or harden it with something. Barbecued spare ribs look so blah without oil being sprayed on the sauce itself.

Do I ever feel guilty that I do this? No. It's just the way it is. It's not much different from enhancing a model through Photoshop and chopping off unwanted cellulites on her thighs. Which, by the way, I've also done on many occasions.

For as long as I don't veer away too much from the actual way something or someone looks, I'm fine with it. I make sure that the communication message - as expressed by the ad in its entirety - is clear and there is no willful or malicious intent on my clients' part to deceive the buying public.

Let's say I'm marketing an anti-acne cream and will be using a print ad as one of my advertising tactic. I have chosen a model that embodies the product. Unfortunately, on the day of the shoot, she gets a pimple on her face. I seriously doubt that there's a product that can remove pimples in just a matter of hours. So what do you do? You can't very well re-schedule the shoot because everything has already been booked.

Enter Photoshop.

Is that cheating? No. For as long as the product actually works, there is no cheating that happened. It's not the model's fault she had a pimple on the day of the shoot. It would be stupid to incur unnecessary expense by re-scheduling a shoot just because of a pimple. Not in this day and age when everything can be fixed and perfected by Photoshop.

I remember the days when trannies (transparencies) were still being used a lot. You can't waste a shot. You're only allowed so much pola (Polaroid) before the shot is actually taken. So, you can just imagine the preparations that go with each shoot. Not to mention the time spent just to set up one lay-out. Back then, if you tell me that I'm shooting 6 lay-outs in one day, I'll kill myself. Because that's one heck of a very long shoot.

Today, digital cameras have made our lives easier. You can shoot all you like and burn everything. Then, you just have to choose from the shots taken and enhance anything that needs enhancement on Photoshop.

Although there are some photographers who are such perfectionists that they say using a trannie for people shots is still better. I dunno about that one. I'm not a commercial photographer. I just need my model to embody the product she is endorsing.

Next time you look at a photo of mouth-watering food, remember that it underwent the necessary preparations for the food shoot. So, don't expect too much based on the photo alone.

Labels: advertising, food shots, photo shoot

Marketing Confessions of Sunny whispered 3:07 PM
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Comments:

hehe.. nice one.. i've worked for an advertising firm before and i know that not all models look perfect in a shoot.. enter photoshop. :P

# posted by  rin : Tuesday, August 07, 2007

 

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