Food photographers in London, throughout the UK, and all over the world work to beautify food. They modify plated dishes and portray them in their best light to appeal to viewers at home.
Food is an essential part of daily life for everyone, as eating is a necessity for survival. For some people, however, food is just that: a necessity and little more. These people are either unable or unwilling to put effort into their procurement of food, either due to busy schedules or a simple aversion to cooking or fine dining. While these people may go through life well fed on fast food or micro-waved cuisine, they will miss out on some of the finer points of living. Nature provides an abundant variety of foods which can be combined in near-infinite combinations, most of which will be far more delicious than any fast food cheeseburger could ever hope to be (not to mention healthier).
For other people, they may see a delicious recipe in a magazine or on TV and try to replicate it, but when they do they find that their own dish looks nothing like the visual delight they saw on the screen. Instead, they are left with an ugly, though likely delicious, dish which is not fit to present to their friends and family. The reason that televised food looks so good is in part due to the added skill of TV chefs and in part due to proper food photography.
Food photography is the art of properly arranging food and lighting on a plate so as to make it appear very visually appealing to would be TV viewers and home cooks. A great food photographer may be able to make a mediocre casserole appear to be a well crafted dish straight out of a five star restaurant. These professionals specialize in monitoring various factors including food colors, sheen, portion size, and related food facets in order to make sure the food provides an enticing visual experience to viewers.
In their work, food photographers UK use various tricks to improve their end results. For one, they may add water or oil to the top of a plated dish so as to make the dish’s sheen appear much brighter under the camera light. Second, they may reorganize items on the plate in order to obscure blackened or otherwise unattractive sections of the food, thus creating the illusion of a perfectly plated, impeccably prepared piece of delicious feast-worthy food.
Food photography is so essential to creating visually attractive meals in the UK and throughout the world, it is no surprise that every magazine and televised network which deals in food writing hires these specialists. In a single day one photographer may take pictures of hundreds of dishes, many of which are likely to be cut from the final clip or issue. They may require chefs to repeat a dish or modify it so as to create something they know the audience will love, but in the end they are always successful.
