One of the residents (chez moi) said there’s no excuse these days for putting out food that looks less than enticing. He suggested I go and try ‘enhance’ and ‘crop’ and ‘brighten’. I did all of these things. I think the plate comes over a little garish, that the centre of the pastelito resembles rather too closely a pregnant belly (a beautiful thing in its proper context) and that the oil shimmering on that belly is an unfortunate reminder of the way the pastries were probably cooked (by deep f**ing).
Nevertheless, it’s up to the reader now. Take your pick.
Talking of food, I beat same resident in an impromptu race to the end of the pool this morning (no, alas, not OUR pool) and we agreed it was probably because he had eaten porridge and I had not. Next time we’ll test the theory. I’ll porridge and he’ll (be) fast.
4 responses to “Enhancing the pastelitos”
Thanks, Grace. It’s great how we can choose our level of reality these days. The pastelitos were delicious in a slightly unnerving way — the texture of ‘membrilla’ (quiince paste) is an acquired taste, as is that of sweet potato paste.
The enhanced ones do look more appealing. I generally find people go for photos that are light and bright, with high contrast and high colour saturation. Even if they know the reality is more dingy 🙂
If you want to preserve the real colours of the plate while brightening the pastelitos, it can be done. Sometimes just tweaking the contrast up a little can fix a drab-toned image. Or selectively raising the mid-tones. An all-in-one enhance function sometimes has a nice efffect, and sometimes it’s much too much!
They look delicious, though. 🙂
I’m glad they whet your appetite, Claire, but unless we can find the recipe online, I fear Elena is a lost cause culinarily. You know she’s the woman (we’re whispering here) who cooked an omelette for 30 minutes? Half the joy in them was the mysterious appearance.
I can see both your & R’s points re; tweaking the pastries, Pen… for what it’s worth, your first pic sent me into a frenzy of almost-unheard-of-for-me-these-days apple pie baking. I couldn’t make it fast enough – had to lie a pack of frozen shortcrust pastry on the warm studio floor and wait for it to thaw! Do you have a recipe for your pastelitos? If so, perhaps we can tempt you to make a batch some time? ; )