Food Photography for Birk's Restaurant

Shooting meat seems to have its good set of challenges in today's health conscious world. How do you shoot a rib eye, which is supposed to have fatty portions to entice the viewer without overdoing it, tipping a balance between alluringly delicious, and health.

One of the key lies in the positioning of the meat and the position of the light(s). Do not show too much fat smack in front and control the oil content. Using light to not fully expose the oil content (think light position and family of angles) but keep it subtly reflective to show the natural juice of the meat and not oil. That'll entice the viewer AND at the same time, display freshness and tenderness.

Now, dessert, on the other hand is easy as a cheese cake. People ordering desserts wants to be feel defenseless against the smooth decadence of chocolate, submit to their natural aphrodisiac qualities and smooth textures. Melting and swirling in sweet surrender.

Desserts have to look gorgeous, saturated and by the Gods, sexy! Oh yeah baby! To render those qualities, they have to be done in multitude of steps. First of which, is the smooth quality of light. They can't show as harsh of a texture like the entrées. They almost have to be done the same way as when I shoot models in a glamour setting. The smoothness of the light and the settings is extremely crucial here.

See all other images from the Birk's Restaurant.

- MS