Food Styling for Photographers

CHAPTER THREE

Before applying any treatments to the hero glasses, remem-
ber to clean them with soap and water. Dry the glasses
with clean paper towels. Next, clean the glasses both inside
and outside with glass cleaner and dry with clean paper
towels. Make certain your hands are clean and thoroughly
dry before handling the glasses. To salt the rims of the
hero glasses, separate the yolk from the white of one egg.
Put the egg white into a small glass bowl with about 1
tablespoon of cool water. Mix the egg white and water
thoroughly with a whisk. Pour the mixture into a plate. On
another plate, put a level layer of margarita or gourmet salt
about 1/8th to 3/16th inch thick. Use a spatula to level the
salt. Holding one glass upside-down, dip one edge of the
glass into the egg white mixture and rotate the glass in a
circular motion to coat all edges.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE If you put the glass fl at into the egg

white mixture, the pressure created within the glass will force the

egg whites unevenly inside the glass. To avoid this, angle the glass

to rotate through the egg whites while one edge of the glass is above

the liquid.

When the glass rim is coated with the egg mixture, con-
tinue holding it upside-down. Remove any drips with a
cotton swab. Dip the glass into the salt mixture using the
same rotating circular motion. Gently push the edge of
the glass through the salt but avoid pushing the glass

down too hard because it will mash salt away from the

edge of the glass rim. Place the glass right-side up on a

clean surface. Level the salt in the plate with the spatula

before dipping the next glass. Repeat the process for all

hero glasses.

Going to Set with the Margaritas

We used some of the original margarita mix in our

stand-in glasses to help compose this shot. When the