What I learned about shooting ice cream
When I was asked to shoot for a local ice cream company I couldn’t wait to get started. I’d shot ice cream before but this time I was flying solo due to covid-19. That meant no food stylist, no art direction on set and just me (and my other half) left to eat it all at after! I had to buy an extra freezer just to house all the tubs but oh what a glorious sight - I’d never seen a more delicious looking freezer.
Ice cream is unforgiving, it’s unpredictable (apart from knowing it will melt to a puddle in no time) and it can be very difficult to work with. I had quite a few recipes to get through with this shoot so I knew I needed to be prepared.
The drips took no time to appear
I had already thought about pre scooping the ice cream and figured it would be a good idea. I’d watched a few styling tutorials before and it made sense to have a selection of scoops already frozen and ready to go on set. I’d read before about dry ice being a thing for styling ice cream so I looked into it. It can be bought in Northern Ireland in pellets or slabs but I didn’t have the room to house the 10kg minimum order (all my freezer storage was going to be occupied by litres of ice cream of course). So instead I bought a few extra baking sheets with the idea to freeze them to set the scoops on. I bought a glass Pyrex baking tray and an anodised baking tray. The glass one worked a treat, the anodised tray not so much. It froze well but as soon as the ice cream hit it it began to melt fairly quickly. The Pyrex glass held it’s temperature much better and froze the base of the scoops instantly.
Pre scoops ready to be used
Now it was down the utensils and the scoop. Any I had already were primarily for aesthetic purposes but now I needed a scoop that actually did a good job at scooping! I wanted beautifully round scoops with a perfect skirt (I also learned that’s what you call the ruffle of ice cream below). I settled on an OXO Good Grips ice cream scoop with a mechanism to release the scoop which came in extremely handy. Now I was all set.
This isn’t the OXO scoop but one I use a lot for aesthetic purposes
Knowing exactly what you are going to shoot and how you are going to shoot is vital with most food photography jobs but even more so when it comes to shooting ice cream. Ideally you want to build your scene with a stand in for the ice cream and have lighting, props and camera settings fixed before bringing out the real thing. There’s not much time for rearrangement once the ice cream hits room temperature!
Ice cream has a perfect scooping temperature, about -17 degrees Celsius or 0 degrees fahrenheit. My freezer was below this temp, I had to keep it more like a deep freeze as I was placing the scoops back in to re freeze them. Not ideal but I had to work with it - I let the tub sit out for about 5 minutes or so to soften very very slightly. With a bowl of boiling water to hand and a drying cloth, I heated my scoop before digging out the ice cream. After each scoop I dunked it into the water again and dried it off, this gave me a nice clean scoop each time. I set the tray full of scoops back into the freezer for about 2 hours or overnight while I planned everything else.
Chocolate ice cream bowl
For this shot I had multiple scoops ready to be layered into the bowl. I built up each one taking shots in between to make sure I was getting the angle right. The one downside about freezing scoops (especially darker ice cream like chocolate) is that when you bring it on set there is a layer of ice that forms over the scoop. It makes the scoop look very frozen - too frozen and not soft enough that you would want to eat it. The key to a good shot is that the ice cream looks ready to be eaten, you imagine digging in with your spoon and the texture being just right. I glanced over to my prop shelf, I saw a cooks blow torch and thought yeah that might work… So I gave the scoops a little blast of hot flame - it worked a treat! The ice cream melted very slightly, enough to give a nice specular highlight and the look I was hoping for.
Before blow torch
After blow torch
Ice cream sundae
The whole fake ice cream and mashed potato thing is a method used by many photographers. Ive worked with fake ice cream before and it looked amazing, just like the real thing with all the time in the world to poke and prod it. That wasn’t an option here as it was the product itself we were showcasing and it had to be the real thing. For this sundae however I did fill the glass with Smash as I knew you wouldn’t see it through the glass anyway. I drizzled some chocolate sauce inside the sundae dish and swirled it around, popped in the Smash, filled in any gaps with more sauce and then began to assemble with a pre frozen scoop of vanilla that matched the colour of the Smash perfectly. This wouldn’t be an option all of the time, and one I’d prefer to not use as the potato close up does not resemble the exact same texture as ice cream. Only because I knew it would be hidden in the glass I used it - otherwise no way.
Waffle cone
This was a perfect scoop - it came out a great shape and fitted the cone perfectly. I wanted to shoot this scene as it was and not a composite so I had to lay the cone flat onto the actual ingredients. This posed a problem as when I lay the cone flat the ice cream fell out! Here’s what I did - I grabbed a strawberry that fitted tight into the bottom of the cone - this worked perfectly as its a similar shape and was firm enough for me to stick cocktail sticks into. I used three cocktail sticks and fixed them into place so the scoop of ice cream could be skewered on top and be locked into position. When I lay the cone flat now, everything stayed where it was meant to be. I poured the sauce onto the cone upright before laying it down again to give the sauce a chance to drip down the ice cream as it would naturally.
There you have it kids, my take on shooting ice cream. I feel a lot more comfortable with it now and with more experimentation I’m sure we’ll be best friends in the studio as well as the kitchen.
Take care and happy shooting!
Sharon
Siena International Photo Awards
This was my first year entering the Siena Awards so when I discovered my image had been shortlisted I was naturally delighted!
Siena International Photo Award is one of the photo contests with the highest international participation ever. 2019 edition has received nearly 48.000 images from amateur and professional photographers from 156 countries worldwide.
As a photographer and a creative it’s hard not to criticise your work and beat yourself up with doubt and inadequacy. It’s a constant battle but one I think you also need in order to progress and ‘up your game’.
Entering awards such as this and qualifying removes some of that doubt, at least for a short period of time anyhow. It validates you and your work in a way that others cannot. I think the fact that it’s judged by such revered figure heads in the industry, they demand a certain respect and to be honest I crave the approval. I know they are looking at my work and I know they have no idea who the hell I am but are judging this one image amongst thousands of other amazing images. For them to select that image, for it to be good enough to reach the next stage and then the next, wow.
Anyway - enough blabbering! Here’s the image ‘Honey Cake’ awarded Highly Commended in the Food & Beverage category.
The Festival
"Siena Awards" Festival represents an unmissable occasion for all the photography lovers who will arrive in Siena from all over the world. An entire month of Festival, during which many photography events will be organized: the “Imagine all the People Sharing all the World” exhibition with the most beautiful images presented at the contest Siena International Photo Awards, unique tours around Siena, post-production courses, workshops, conferences given by famous photographers and more exhibitions held by important international authors. An unforgettable experience realized and tailor-made for photography lovers, which will let you discover one of the most interesting places in the world, with wonderful events linked to photography. The Festival’s goal is to lace a cultural and international initiative to the name of Siena, a city of extraordinary inspiration for photographical research, beginning with the unique Festival which gives us the most intimate representation of the city: the Palio.
This year would have been the 6th edition of both the awards and the festival which has sadly been cancelled due to the pandemic.
I can’t wait to enter again next year and with any luck be making it to the awards festival!
Pink Lady Food Photography Awards 2020
This year so far has been a very strange one - for obvious reasons and a year so far of mixed emotion. To find out I had 3 images shortlisted for the prestigious Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year awards was just such an amazing feeling. To then find out and 1 of those 3 was a FINALIST image - I just couldn’t stop smiling! Anyone that knows me knows I have coveted this accolade for some time now and this was my year to finally get through.
My husband and I ready for the ‘party’!
I was disappointed but not surprised to hear they wouldn’t be hosting their usual annual awards ceremony at Mall Galleries in London due to covid-19. They did however broadcast an online version of the awards for everyone to watch - not quite the glitz and glamour of London but we brought London to us that night! My husband put on a suit, I did my hair and make up (first time in weeks due to quarantine) and I donned a nice dress albeit with no shoes on lol. We cracked open a bottle of Prosecco, plonked ourselves on the sofa and tuned in. As my category came up I was nervous with excitement as the winners were announced.
Elderberries - Finalist image Highly Commended
Category Food Bloggers
When my image (above) came up on screen with my name next to it and ‘HIGHLY COMMENDED’ it just meant the world to me! The recognition from such a prestigious photography competition in the world of food photography has been the highlight of my career so far.
Black Sesame Ice Cream - Commended
Category Food Bloggers
I want to thank Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year . This is a year that has so far been a very trying and testing one for many across the globe. For me this has made 2020 memorable for all the right reasons.
Category Food Bloggers
Huge congratulations to all those who got through to the final and to the overall category winners - some amazing work from extraordinarily talented individuals.
Now to start filing away images for next year’s competition!
Stay safe, stay well.
Love Sharon