It was hard to get a good picture, sorry it’s not that amazing of a photo 😅 thoughts on how to better photograph a smashburger are welcome if something comes to mind

Just some cheap buns
Two smashed pattes on each (w/salt and pepper)
American cheese
Sliced poblano
And ketchup & mayo

I used to really like doing fresh jalapeno, but now generally have to avoid spicy food for dumb reasons so poblano has been a nice substitute.

For the patties you just roll ground beef into a ball roughly the size of a golf ball, maybe a tad bigger if you want, get your cast iron super hot, and then place your patty ball on the cast iron, and smash it down with a suitable metal implement- I use a flat, non-slotted cookie scraper and use the butt of a silicone spatula to press down on the top of the spatula since it’s hard to get good leverage on the cookie scraper without putting your hand too close to the sputtering hot pan

  • Sophocles@infosec.pubEnglish
    5·
    2 days ago

    Looks delicious! There are a couple of techniques to get good pics of food; here are a couple I can think of off the top of my head:

    Take the picture in an area void of distractions like an empty table
    Center the item of interest in the middle of the plate and make sure it’s clean of crumbs or fingerprints
    Use garnish to make colors pop (e.g. like green chives on white mashed potatoes)
    Take the pic in good lighting, sunlight from a window is best
    Get close enough to the food to fill the whole frame, leaving a little space on the edges . Get even closer to get good food textures

    • Cris@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      Those are all great tips. Sadly I usually can’t have sunlight due to a sleep disorder, I have two layers of blackout curtains over all my windows

      I think the big thing I’d wanna have done differently is that after putting one layer of pepper slices I put one more slice on top as a second layer, and it made the buns sit really high and cast a shadow over the peppers and beef

      I definitely feel like centering the burgers on the plate and taking the picture a little closer could have been nice. Sadly my kitchen is often a mess, hence why I took the pic in front of a wall lol

      Thanks for the tips! ☺️

      • snugglesthefalse@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        Diffuse “daylight” lights can work fairly well, you want around 5600k for a neutral light. You want the whole food to be in focus but having a wide aperture can help lock in the focus to just the food. The rest is composition though and part of that is just rearranging until it feels like it looks good. Oh and i think you’re better off not cutting the plate off like that or being closer, so centering more like you said could help.