We live in a world of foodies and hashtags food porn .Instagram and Facebook overflow photos and videos of delicious meals and spectacular recipes.But the passion for food images It's not new.Social networks are just the tip of the iceberg. It's in our genes: we eat by the eyes (and the food industry and advertising have been taking advantage of it for decades).
RelatedCulinary styling and gastronomic photography are the order of the day.Also called food styling has to do with much more than a couple of filters and a zenith photo of a Japanese dish.It has grown as an art and has become a highly demanded profession in the food sector.It has developed its weapons to capture consumer interest and stimulate its appetite with a simple look.
We eat by the eyes
For this, food photography has taken advantage of some preprogrammed information in our genetic code."You eat by the eyes" sure we have heard it sometime.And science has confirmed what they already knew our grandmothers .Psychiatry researchers at the Max Planck Institute demonstrated, as early as 2012, that a simple image of something delicious opened our appetite without the need to perceive smells, textures or flavors.
Since then, different studies have obtained similar results.One of them, published in Brain and Cognition in 2016, even dares to deepen the evolutionary causes of this behavior.It maintains that the brains and visual capacity of most Animals developed in an environment of relative food shortages.As such, those who were able to detect nutritious and energetic meals more quickly would triumph over those who did not have this ability.
Returning to the Max Planck Institute study, the team of researchers led by Axel Steiger proved that the image of food increases the blood concentration of ghrelin .Known as hunger hormone, ghrelin is related with the regulation of the sensation of appetite.
"The findings of our study show that the release of ghrelin in the blood for the regulation of food consumption is also controlled by external factors.Our brain processes these visual stimuli and the physical processes that control our perception of appetite are triggered.unintentionally.This mechanism could lead us to eat a piece of cake just two hours after breakfast , "says Petra Schussler, co-author of the study.
The culture foodie is centenary
Let's park for a moment the motivations that lead us to eat everything that seems appetizing.Since the human being began to paint, he began to record what he ate.First they were only images of nature.Then representations of banquets.Already in the Italian Renaissance they began to compose exclusive portraits of food.Soon after, the genre of the still life was born, which would be widely accepted for several centuries.
Food represented people's daily lives .It talked about the ins and outs of entire societies.The idea remained in the background in much of the art of the twentieth century, with Andy Warhol and his can of soup as one of the best known examples.Photography was not left out of this phenomenon and many photographers were dedicated to capture food since the beginning of this technique in the nineteenth century.
"From the 90s [of the twentieth century] there was a boom of chefs celebrity, television cooking programs and culture foodie [...] Names like Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson, Mario Batali, or Gordon Ramsay became very well known, "explains gastronomic photographer Sandro Desii.And the internet, social networks, hashtags and instagrammers arrived>.
The rules of the photographers
The foodie phenomenon has become a trend thanks to social networks and, in particular, to Instagram (don't miss these accounts).Even has given rise to hybrid movements, such as dorosha.Its followers are dedicated to take pictures of food using drones or, at least, to mimic the aerial planes.
Culinary styling and gastronomic photography are claimed above passing trends.They seek to awaken all the senses with an image and, above all, appetite.to be a good culinary photographer.
Control the camera and the environment .Technical aspects are key, both of the device and of the light and the composition of the image.Here we explain the keys that every photographer should handle.
The image has a state of mind .Before taking the picture, the food stylists and photographers think they want to get and transmit and then define the style.
The importance of props .If all the materials that accompany the food are known in the world, plates, forks or napkins should never detract from central foods.
Let yourself be guided by trends .Originality is important, but keeping up with photographic trends is even more important in the world of advertising and marketing.It is not the same to make images for a magazine that It is printed that for a blog or for a catalog of products.
And three weird tricks to finish
Surely we have ever thought about it.How does advertising get a dish to look better than in reality? There are many tricks and many go precisely to hide this reality.
The food, raw .Vegetables and meats lose water and smoothness when cooked.Something to avoid (especially if we take photos in high resolution).Therefore, the vast majority of food images contain raw ingredients and decorated with suggestive grill marks or golden paintings that are not real.
Textures are not what they seem either .How to get the noodles of a bowl of soup to remain on the surface? Or that the cereals do not sink into the milk bowl? Glues and jellies are the order of the day.
Maintain the structure .The order and placement of food in a photograph is essential.The clearest example is that of hamburgers.In these images, all the ingredients are attached with chopsticks so that they do not dislodge And the sesame seeds of the bread are placed one by one.
Images | iStock, Pexels
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