I love chocolate. Unfortunately, chocolate doesn’t love me – I am diabetic. I truly enjoy shooting chocolate. I get a chance to create beautiful images surrounded by beautiful aroma and I get to lick my fingers when I’m done.

Chocolate however, is as bad as the mother of the bride when it comes to thinking that it is looking good. (Has any mother of the bride liked the way that she looked in photos?) Scratches, dust, fingerprints, holes, blooming- everything but wrinkles. So, what’s a photographer to do? Well, a good stylist is great at minimizing the blemishes on chocolate but, they can’t work miracles. A gentle amount of heat can also help but, overdoing it and melting it, makes the chocolate look worse than it started.

I’ve found a secret in post production. Granted, I am not a professional retoucher, nor do I even play one on TV so, I am not sharing the secrets that they possess. I wish that I could do what they do but, I’ve found a technique that has served me well.

It’s a combination of the spot healing brush, clone tool and my deep dark secret. If you’re nice, I’ll tell you.

Since chocolate reminded me of the mother of the bride, I decided to treat them in the same way and use the tools that can soften skin to soften chocolate. It works! Not as well as a professional retoucher but, it really helps. Compare the two images of this milk free, nut free, gluten free chocolate. (Why couldn’t it be sugar free as well?)

Oh, one more thing – I was just reminded when commenting on someone else’s photo. White balance is very important. It is better to err on the side of being warmer rather than being cooler. Blue chocolate is definitely not appetizing.