Hold on to your stomach, because in this article we're going to look at what a packshot photographer might get up to with food. Specifically, we're going to look at some of the less savoury tricks of the trade which are used to create that catalogue photo or advertisement picture which looks so good you can almost taste it.

You'd think that photographing food would be relatively easy. After all, many dishes served in restaurants look good enough to photograph just as they are. But often what the eye sees, and the mind interprets the eye as seeing isn't the same as that seen by the rather unforgiving camera lens. Often it takes a good deal of jiggery pokery (that's a technical term used by professional packshot photographers) to make food look as good as you expect it to.

It's important to bear in mind that a professional photography studio is not the ideal environment for fine food. The lights are very hot, the air may well be warm, and setting up a shoot may take a very long time. If you want to take a photograph of a steaming hot pudding then you have only two choices - cook a lot of puddings and take a photograph of each one just as it comes out of the oven in the hope that one of them will look just right, or cheat.

So how might a packshot photographer create the illusion of hot food without actually having hot food? The answer is cotton wool balls. These are soaked in water, popped in the microwave and then quickly removed and placed behind the food being photographed. They create perfect plumes of rising steam which make the food look piping hot and ready to eat, even if it's been sitting in a studio for four hours and is stone cold.

Another problem caused by the hot lights and warm studio is that food tends to dry out. Photographing moist looking cakes can be a problem, but there's a hair raising solution. Literally - it's hairspray! A few quick bursts of hairspray can make a cake look mouth-wateringly moist and fresh once again - although it wouldn't be advisable to try eating it of course.

Many syrups tend to look rather bland, flat and largely invisible when viewed through a camera lens. Pouring syrup over a pudding can look tantalizingly inviting in the real world, but in the flat world of a photograph they can be a real let down. So what's the secret? Believe it or not, motor oil! This stuff looks glossy, gloopy and both sticks to food whilst dribbling down the sides in perfect rivulets of gooiness.

Another bizarre ingredient which you won't find in the kitchen is shoe polish. Black and brown shoe polish is often used to buff up meat to make it regain that just out of the oven look. In some cases a blowtorch may be used either instead of or in addition to shoe polish, creating a freshly cooked, grilled or browned joint of meat or burger.

Have you ever noticed that in some photographs bottles of water, wine or even items such as lettuce look very inviting, because of the small droplets of water on them which suggests they're just out of the very cold fridge and ready to serve? Of course, a trigger spray in the studio recreates this look in most cases, but there are some looks which a trigger spray can't quite recreate. Small items such as grapes can just look wet rather than chilled, and so a spray deodorant often sorts this little problem out. At least the grapes won't sweat.

These are just a few of the tricks of the trade which might be used by a packshot photographer when recreating the look of delicious looking food. It's being aware of the many ways in which professional photographers achieve the looks that sell that make it clear that trying to save money by carrying out photography in house may well be allowing your competitors to steal your customers' taste buds from you.