How are website images created?

Question

So if a restaurant owner asks a web developer to put some appealing pictures of the food he sells on his website. I imagine that the web developer will just receive a simple and regular picture of a plate of food. So how exactly are images like this made?

Quentin · Accepted Answer

They are photographed on a plain table separately. [Note the beans are not dribbling off the plate so the plate is horizontal but photo­graphed from an angle. ( Those two plates look like they are at different angles anyway! ) ]

The pictures are imported into Photoshop* and the background (ie the table) removed.

A fuzzy oval is drawn with the oval drawing tool. One is placed under each plate. Giving the impression of shadows. [Real shadows wouldn't be so fuzzy and the fuzzyness would be less where it is close to the plate's rim.]

There are also some fuzzy  yellow things. They would have been photographed sharply then later after being imported into Photoshop* made fuzzy with the Gaussian blur filter.

*Other editing tools are available.

Also note that the food is often manipulated and not what it appears to be. So shiny food is often sprayed with artist's varnish. Bits of wire poked in the food to make it stand up, useful for a wilting lettuce leaf. Various tricks to make it look fresh. Ice cream is really colored mashed potato. Dribbling cream is really white glue.

? · Answer

You can use DSLR and studio lighting equipment.

∅ · Answer

usually with a digital camera, or a smartphone. it saves images as JPGs.

keerok · Answer

If I were to do it, I'd go to that restaurant and shoot the food myself with my trusty dSLR and studio lighting equipment.

? · Answer

You take a photo with a digital camera. You upload the Photo to the Web Host's Server.

You write HTML code to link to the Photo. In the example below the Image food.jpg is in a folder called images on the file server. The Image Tag <img> Displays the photo in your browser.

HTML CODE:

<!DOCTYPE html><html><body><h2>HTML Image</h2><img src="images/Food.jpg" alt="Plate of Food" width="500" height="600"></body></html>

HTML Image

EddieJ · Answer

Photos like the ones you have shown are usually taken by professional photographers.  Photos like these have been taken in the past for newspaper ads, billboards, and to put on menus.

If it's a chain restaurant, an advertising agency might be involved and they might hire a "stylist" to make the food look better, using a variety of techniques.The website developer doesn't have to know any of these details.  To the developer, the photo is just a photo.

Anonymous · Answer

The web developer usually gets a photo in digital form, either as it comes from the camera or prepared for the purpose. It is rare to get a photo on paper any more, which would have to be scanned. Then the developer may use software such as Photshop to crop or modify the photo to fit the web site.

How are website images created?

7 Answers