Food is made to be savored with the tastebuds. However, the taste of food can’t be communicated over a distance. Food also has a beautiful appearance. This appearance can often act as a substitute for the taste for the purpose of luring people. The food photographer is the artist who can convey a sense of the taste of the food through artful, well composed food photography. The food photographer takes food, interesting dishware, and light to create an arrangement that highlights the freshness, juiciness, plumpness, and bright colors to make the viewer’s eyes see flavor and smell aroma. The world of product photography is a world of the five senses.

A cookbook’s success is enhanced by photographs of each recipe. Cookbooks are purchased in bookstores, far from the aromas and flavors of the kitchen. With just the list of ingredients and directions, the purchaser must use her imagination to mentally turn a list of ingredients into a flavor. Photograohs spark the imagination in this task. Back in the kitchen, the cook might read a recipe and say, “I might make this if I could see it.” If the cookbook has pictures, viola, there it is. And when it comes out of the oven, the cook can tell without tasting whether the culinary masterpiece turned out as it should.

Magazines build their success on good food photography. How often have you seen a women’s magazine that sold itself to you with a headline saying, “Lose 10 pounds in 10 days” next to a picture of imaginative cupcakes? That’s a double-whammy for your brain: advice for the parent in you and cupcakes for the kid. The interior the magazine is stuffed with pictures of food. One variety of photos illustrates the food section of the magazine. These pictures serve the same purpose as those in the cookbook. Then scattered throughout the magazine are the ads. Those that aren’t for the latest fashions are for food. You see the add for cheese with the melty cheese sandwich. This is followed by a salad dressing ad with crisp lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, and onions.

When you look at the menu at a family restaurant, what do you see? These restaurants usually have pictures of their menu items to whet your appetite. These pictures don’t have to be as fanciful as recipe illustrations, but they need to be realistic. If you are in a fast food restaurant, you’ll probably see the menu plastered on the walls and hanging from the ceiling. These pictures on the menu or on the wall also serve a more serious purpose. They allow people with disabilities indicate their selections by pointing to the dish that they want to eat.

Fast food restaurants want to make the driver on the highway hungry enough to come in for something to eat. These restaurants lure the driver with appealing pictures of their menu items on billboards. They don’t just serve the purpose of alerting you of a place to stop. They are convincing you to stop in even if you are not hungry.

Good food photography communicates more sensory information than just the visual. It stimulates your senses of taste and smell.