Food Styling for Photographers

CHAPTER THREE

Supplies used to complete the frosted eff ect for the white
wine shot:

● One hero glass and one stand-in glass

● Windex glass cleaner

● Bounty paper towels

● Krylon dulling spray

● One large standard brown paper grocery bag

● 4-in. × 5-in. piece of heavy paper or poster board

● Small level

● White wine

● 3/4-in.-wide black matte tape found at art supply

stores or masking or painter’s tape

Creating Condensation

My favorite technique to mimic condensation involves

corn syrup rather than glycerin, which some stylists

prefer. However, I use corn syrup mainly because I have

developed a certain comfort level with it. One advan-

tage with using corn syrup is that the water in the

mixture evaporates overnight and the corn syrup will

harden, leaving a semipermanent treatment. In fact, if

you handle the glass carefully and avoid getting the

PHOTOGRAPHER’S COMMENT—Notes on the White

Wine Set

I used a mixture of backlighting and strobe on this shot. The

backlighting gives the curves and shape of the glass without

refl ections in the glass. I used a small Chimera lightbank on very low

power to light the front of the set. The backlight also glows through

the wine and frosted glass. No fi ll cards were used because they

might create unwanted refl ections. The lens and Hasselblad 39MS

were set to capture the ambient light. A sheer beige material was

taped over the window to soften the outside light and give a warm

glow to the set.