Unbelievable Behind-the-Scenes of the Greatest Deconstructed Food Shot

For me, food photography has to be one of the most complex and technical types of photography in the industry. The ability to bring life and attraction to something you need to convince other to eat is pretty impressive. Steve Giralt has done the impossible by creating one of the most outstanding examples of a deconstructed burger I have ever seen. 

In the video below Giralt breaks down how he uses elaborate mechanics in a Phantom 4k, with high speed motion control robot to drop the visual down the burger as it falls into place. It plays out straight ouf of the class McDonald's jingle as cheese, bacon, pickles, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, ketchup, mustard, and a sesame bun drop across frame and into a perfectly placed sandwich below. Though the shot was actually brought together in a few separate takes over a white backdrop, it's still an amazing example of how you can push the limits of technology in photography to bring life to something as simple as a burger. Were you able to see exactly where each clip was spliced together to create the excellent timing of it all?

Check out the full BTS video below and let me know what you think. 

Andrew Griswold's picture

Andrew Griswold is a photographer and designer based in Indianapolis. Born and raised in Indy he has made a name for himself by staying very active in the creative community in both photography and design. He has also founded a community of photographers via Instagram connecting them with brands to work with and shoot locally.

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16 Comments

That's unreal!

Right?! Blows my mind they went through all that mechanical jazz to get the shot but DAMN does it look good.

You would almost think it could have been done way easier, but it sure looks really really cool!

Pretty insane! But yeah, his title is "Visual Engineer" as opposed to "just" photographer and you can see why.

Here is a perfect video to explain ... What is a GURU? Talk about another level !

This is AMAZING! Hope he patents this!

extremely cool

Hey All, Steve Giralt here. Thanks for the love for my craziness. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have about my project.

Amazing clip. I would never guess that was all done in one take in real time. It looks so good. Was this a paid job or just for fun?

Thanks Adam, It was actually done as 4 shots as all part of 1 camera movement. We shot the top ingredients, then the landing, then the ketchup and mustard collision, and finally the beer landing. This was just fun .. lots of crazy fun!

This is amazing, really enjoyed seeing this and its motivating for sure. This is the type of fun stuff I want to do as a cinematographer and photographer, I mean who doesn't like playing with their food (sorry mom). The artistic part of forming a shot but also the creative engineering of figuring out who the hell you're going to pull it off. Really love the shot and will be following your work from now on for sure.

Also I have some questions I would love to ask about your work (not just this piece but your work in general), would it be best to just email you through the email on your site?

Yes. Absolutely email me via my website. Thanks!

Brilliant! This is definitely several step beyond the simple machine I have built for similar shoots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poNBAbixHlo

wow! what an idea and engineering thought process!

Genius