What Food Photo is More Appropriate or Enticing?

How about some examples?

 

They look nicer in the second picture imo. I understand that's what sheet trays look like many places, but a customer might mistake the discoloration as being dirty.

 

It's always best to show your food as you would present it to your customer.

 

My vote is for the image of pies, staged and arranged.

 

If you try to sell something retail, they should look done. Like this:



Showing the items still in a pan is better when you're trying to entice someone into making them, so you would use this kind of photo in a cookbook, for example.

 

I prefer the crumby baking photos, but I would stage them to look good. Baking sheet presentation with somewhat imperfect and crumby goodies (to me) implies quality scratch made, whereas the perfectly presented pastries seem factory mass produced / lower quality.

 

If you have a large number of pastries staged on a tray it could look very nice, or have you thought about a buffet type presentation with lots of pastries staged in a nice way?

 

I think for the menu - the finished product. If you are shopping, you want to see what it will look like if you buy the item.

For any social media you may do, the in progress pictures are a great way to show you are making the items yourself and not purchasing mass produced.