Lights, camera, drama: Hacks for capturing Insta-worthy food pics

With food photos in ads and videos, some secrets are already out. What looks like ice-cream is often raw dough (so it doesn’t melt under hot lights). Cereal bowls are filled with glue, not milk, so the corn flakes stay crisp. Shaving cream is substituted for whipped cream, the maple syrup on those pancakes is actually petrol. With new items on menus comes a new bag of tricks. Three food photographers and stylists: Goa-based Aishwarya Rivonker, Gurgaon-based Abhishek Khanna and Chennai-based Ashwin Vijayaraghavan, offer lessons on making real food pop on the ‘gram.