Photographer Defends Real Food Photography Against AI Slop
In a blog entry on PetaPixel, food photographer Danica Payne addresses a comment suggesting that food photography lacks authenticity. She defends contemporary photography as largely truthful, explaining her techniques, such as utilizing cocktail sticks for stability. Payne references a 2012 McDonald's video that demonstrates their advertisement burger is crafted with real ingredients. She contrasts this with deceptive AI-generated food visuals, mentioning a San Francisco café that incurred over $700 in costs to eliminate such images after facing criticism, and highlights Uber Eats' blunders, including burgers topped with four buns. Although she employs AI for tasks like website creation, she is against its use in marketing imagery. Research indicates that 78% of Britons are skeptical of brands using AI-generated individuals. Ultimately, Payne asserts that her business flourishes due to genuine images and introduces a tool named Rumbled to identify AI-generated content.
Key facts
- Danica Payne is a food photographer and graphic designer who wrote a blog post for PetaPixel.
- A commenter on a restaurant's Facebook post claimed food photography is fake, prompting Payne's response.
- In the 1960s-70s, advertisers used mashed potato for ice cream, motor oil for syrup, and PVA glue for milk.
- In 1970, the American regulator ruled against Campbell's for using marbles in soup ads, requiring products to be real.
- Payne admits to using cocktail sticks for support and once used shaving foam instead of whipped cream.
- McDonald's Canada's 2012 video showed their ad burger uses the same ingredients as the real burger, just with more time.
- AI-generated food images are not the actual dish and can mislead customers, as seen with Uber Eats' errors.
- A San Francisco cafe spent over $700 to remove AI menu images after public mockery and graffiti.
- Studies show people can only identify AI images 48% of the time and rate fake faces as more trustworthy.
- 78% of Britons would trust a brand less for using AI-generated people in ads (YouGov, July 2026).
- LinkedIn added a 'seems like AI slop' button in July 2026.
- Payne uses AI for business tasks like website building and grammar checking.
- A survey of UK photographers found over half have lost some commissioned work to AI.
- Payne built a free tool called Rumbled to detect AI images.
- All images in the blog post are real, shot by Payne on commercial jobs.
Entities
Artists
- Danica Payne
Institutions
- PetaPixel
- McDonald's
- Uber Eats
- Campbell's
- Burger King
- ASA
- SFGate
- The Independent
- YouGov
- Association of Photographers
- TechCrunch
- Grind & Unwind
Locations
- San Francisco
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Canada
- New York