V EGGIE
P E RFEC T
VEGGIES ON SET
Arranging vegetables on the hero plate requires consideration of the color, texture, and shape of the vegetables in relation to each other and to other ingredients on the plate. Unless you are specifically drawing the viewer’s eye to a focal point, the factor you want to build into your shot is visual flow. For visual flow, the eye of the viewer should move through the plate in a diagonal or S curve. Avoid abrupt edges unless they are a planned, integral part of your design. As a general rule, most vegetables in a photo image, both raw and cooked, look better to the camera moist, not dry. When styling raw vegetables in a display like the shot at the beginning of this chapter, most of the vegetables are spritzed with water. However, there are a few vegetables that should not be misted when raw. Examples of these are onions that have their outer paper skin covering intact, garlic, and acorn squash and other fall harvest squash including pumpkins. When applied to these vegetables, water mist does not look good to the camera. Depending on the specific presentation of vegetables on your set, cooked vegetables will require either an application of water or vegetable oil periodically while on set and immediately before final exposure or capture. If the vegetables are incorporated in a recipe having a liquid base or sauce, you have the option to use the sauce to 164
moisten the vegetable. If the sauce has oil as an ingredient, add a small amount of additional oil to some of the reserved sauce or use plain vegetable oil to keep the vegetables looking moist. Apply liquids to the vegetables with an artist’s brush. Vegetables that were steamed as the only technique for camera presentation will need to be brushed with an artist’s brush wet with water or misted with water occasionally while on set and immediately before final capture. Vegetables appearing either grilled or browned will need a light application of vegetable oil applied with an artist’s brush occasionally while on set and immediately before final capture.