Food Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots

102 food PhoTogrAPhY: from snAPshoTs To greAT shoTs

fAking grill mArks And chArring food

If you want to add realistic grill marks on cooked food but don’t have the luxury of

owning a grill (or you just want the grill marks to look really good), another option is

to add them after the food is cooked. I like to use an electric charcoal starter, which

is a handheld device that has a big loop of metal attached to a handle (Figures 4.19

and 4.20). You could also use a grill pan with a ribbed bottom to get a similar effect.

Canon 5D Mark II

ISO 100

1/50 sec.

f/8

70–200mm lens

FIgure 4.19
By using a charcoal starter, I was able to add grill
marks to this already-cooked chicken breast.

Canon 7D

ISO 100

1/125 sec.

f/5.6

70–200mm lens

FIgure 4.20

I used the same method as in Figure 4.19 to

add grill marks to this piece of steak.

If you have food that is already cooked but needs a little more visible cooking to be

done on the surface, you can use a crème brûlée torch to “cook” specific areas of the

food (Figure 4.21). This is also handy if you want to add charring to a food item to give

it the appearance of being cooked, as I did to the asparagus in Figure 4.22.