Any tips on how to photograph chocolate?

lolage

lolage

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Ben
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Hi guys,

This might sound a bit strange but has anyone got a good idea or know a good way to create a good mood for taking a picture of chocolate. I basically need to take a picture of the Cadburys Milk tray as I'm rebranding this product while creating a micro site for it for a university assignment.

I was thinking of getting a nice DOF picture of all the chocolates but has anyone got any idea how I can get a nice background? Was thinking bokeh? It will have to be a generally dark photo as this will be the theme of the website.

Any advise would be appriciated! Cheers
 
Try to think of the mood of the shot you want to create, ie romantic, fun,

Romantic as suggested purple silk, flowers
Fun, a childs face covered in chocolates

ask yourself what you want to portrait in the shots, give us an idea and we can throw suggestions :thumbs:
 
Dont think i could take pics of chocolate,would end up eating it :D

Just one thing try a keep it in a frigie,as long as you can if your going to use any strong lighting :)
 
A box of milk tray on the bedside table, with a scantily clad lady picking up the calling card left on top that simply has a silhouette of a man on it... :D
Or maybe the dark clad man holding the box with the calling card

And all because the lady isn't on a diet...


[youtube]n1pg1zpNgB0[/youtube]
 
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Just Dave said:
Or if you want just a straight shot how about something like this http://www.flickr.com/photos/smemon/4518589943/ by Sean MacEntee
Click to expand...

It's ok, but nothing with the product label in in and I'm sure the original product photography had shiney chocs. Not sure how you'd get them shiney though

Open box, box lid, or another box behind so you can see the name, plus a few scattered in front?

I guess you've got to make them appealing over other brands, i.e. why buy Milk Tray which may be seen as cheap, over say Thorntons or another brand.
Maybe that's an approach. Bloke coming home late at night, lipstick on collar, getting a box from the petrol station along with a cheap bunch of flowers. Young child saving up the pennies, or emptying pippy bank of pennies, to buy their mum some chocs to cheer her up? Shot of box of chocs next to broken piggy bank with a couple of pennies next to it and a suitable strap line. Milk tray, the best for less?
 
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Might sounds odd, but try a long exposure. Make the room as dark as possible with the dark voluptuous purple surrounding it, then shoot at a small aperture (like f18 or something) and run a light over the chocolate to give it a smooth look. Warmer tones will give the chocolate more of a glow in the photograph.

Thats just my suggestion, you never know how it could turn out! :)
 
Remember that food product photography isn't about the food being edible - it's about making it appear more attractive than it really is. So don't necessarily expect to be able to eat it when you're done (waste of good chocolate IMO :lol:). To do it well, you'll need to spend some time preparing the chocolates before you start shooting. It's all about attention to detail.

Take for example, photographing the chocolates in an open box. The reality is that you'll have some pretty dull matt chocolates and a shiny, cheap plastic divider tray to hold the chocolates in compartments - not what the eye wants to see.
You'll want to try lighting that divider tray to minimise reflections, or even going a step further and spraying it with a matt black paint before you start shooting. For the chocolates themselves, a light spray of oil over the top will give them that nice shiny sheen (spray will work better than a brush for a more eve coating and no brush marks). If you're going for shallow DoF, it may be obvious, but position the most perfect chocolates at the front and if they have visible scratches or imperfections you might even want to warm them very slightly with a hairdryer and use a small artists' brush to even those out. Also remember that your fingers will leave prints on slightly warm chocs and these will be visible if shooting close up, so touch the chocolate as little as possible.

As for the background, if you want bokeh (:gag: I HATE that word), try some fairy lights against a black backdrop and make sure that you have plenty of separation between the chocolates and the background. You could even try arranging the fairy lights into a heart or a cityscape or some other shape - get creative with it. (p.s. I do really like the earlier idea of purple silk or velvet around the box)

Another idea against a black backdrop, is to experiment with the misty, milky effect that moving water gets with a long exposure. Sit the box on a stand in a large bowl of water and agitate the surface with your hand or by blowing a hairdryer / fan over it to create a smoky, mist effect. It's something that I've been playing with lately.
 
You could melt some chocolate too and make it look like one of the chocolates in the box is literaly just being poured in, you'd need a helper I guess to pour and just cut one of the chocolates in half and pour the melted chocolate onto that to create the effect that it's just being poured there?
 
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