The guys who are in charge of "tabletop directing" (shooting photos and commercials for big name food chains) would call it "enhanced" photography and video, not straight up falsification. In a $4 billion industry - yes, that's how much is spent on advertising by restaurants and food conglomerates every year - it's essential to make the food in the ads look perfect, by absolutely any means necessary. Or is it?
Tabletop directors will spend hours or even days trying to perfect exactly the right shot to satisfy a client. In an article by the New York Times, writer David Segal explains the extraordinary measures that are taken to achieve so-called "perfection" in food commercials. Tubes (that look like large needles), sauce injectors, clothes steamers, marbles, glue, acrylic ice cubes, silicone gel, and lard were all mentioned as "necessary" equipment to get that "perfect" shot by industry standards (as seen below).
Personally, we find this all to be a little too much. To us, a little imperfection IS perfection. We prefer food photography that is real and looks real: crumbs, drips, and all. Maybe it's because we're designers, but the imperfections of "real" food photographed in a natural setting (like these photos below by Gentl and Hyers Photography) is much more appealing to us than traditional chain photography and video. Don't get us wrong - we'll go to great lengths to get the shot we need for a client, but as far as food goes: why spend a whole lot of time and money trying to fix something that isn't broken in the first place?
