Food Styling for Photographers

CHAPTER SIX

until you are ready to build the hero burger, place two or
three whole leaves together in a gallon-size Ziploc bag.
Refrigerate the lettuce in bags in the vegetable drawer of
your refrigerator.

For your fi rst time building a burger, I recommend that
you use one large-diameter tomato slice rather than over-
lapping slices, which are more complicated to build into
a burger. In the future, with one burger experience behind
you, you may choose to use more than one slice in an
overlapping arrangement. But as a good place to start,
one slice is best. Prep the slices to be 3/8 to 1/2 inch
thick. When a tomato slice is placed on top of cheese,
juices from the tomato might run onto the cheese. Th is
is a problem because the moisture will discolor the cheese
rather quickly. If the interior surface of the tomato slice
will not be visible to the camera, you can avoid this
situation. With a spoon, remove the juicy interior of
the tomato leaving the outer meaty edge only. Be aware
that this technique might not work if you plan to put
overlapping tomato slices on the burger.

If you choose to add additional elements or overlapping
elements like red onions or pickles, keep in mind that
they will contribute to the height of your burger. Depend-
ing on the camera angle and the dimensions of your shot,
the height of your burger could be an important issue to
consider.

My favorite cheese for burgers is prepackaged, individu-

ally wrapped cheese slices. Yes, that’s right, prepackaged

slices. Th ey look good to the camera, handle well, melt

well, and are very predictable. Because the fat content and

ingredients of prepackaged cheese slices are very consis-

tent, they make a good choice for photography. Also, they

are thin enough so that you can overlap two or more slices

with the corners off set, creating more visual interest.

Prepping Burger Patties

When purchasing burger meat for a photo burger,

choose ground beef with 10% fat. You will want to make

two or three patties for each hero burger in your shot

as well as stand-in patties. Purchase 1 pound of meat

for every four burger patties you plan to make. You can

shop for the beef the day before shoot day.

Look at the go-by shots you’ve collected. Normally the

only parts of the burger patty that are visible to the camera

are the edges or sides of the patty. Notice the shape of

the edge of the burger patty. Some are very square and

appear almost premanufactured, whereas others have a

rounded edge, making them look more custom or

handmade. After deciding which appearance you want to

achieve, it’s time to form patties for the hero burger. Even

though the burger patties will not be thoroughly cooked

during the prep process, some of the diameter of the patty

will shrink up when the patty is cooked.