Contrast is relative which means that the tones we consider highlights are always determined in relation to tones that are considered darker shades. This might sound obvious at first, but there’s a bit more to it. The SAME tone can appear both as the brightest or darkest tone in a scene depending on what tones it is compared against. For example, a photograph that lacks a good white tone for a highlight may still possess a green color as it’s brightest tone in comparison to the rest of the colors in the scene. In this case, the green becomes the highlight of the scene even though it is actually just a middle-tone in comparison to white. This is exactly the kind of situation that is happening in many of the featured food photographs. Many of the photos have a dull/lifeless quality simply because the brightest tone in the original scene is actually nothing more than a middle-tone in comparison to white. Similarly, many of the photos lack a black color or deep shadow which would provide a very dark tone. In the end, most of the tones in the photographs are actually just middle-tones and there’s very little real contrast.

For anybody that might be interested, I’ recommend a book by Josef Albers on the relativism of color. It’s very accessible to folks that are new to color contrast relationships and it’s a great read for photographers that are interested in learning more about the relationships of original tones within the scene.