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Why doesn't food look like it does on TV?

Well, that's thanks to food photographers and stylists who have tons of tricks to get the perfect shot.

Watch the video above: Chief National Consumer Correspondent Jeff Rossen goes behind the scenes to show you all the food photography secrets

Food photographer Skyler Burt has been shooting food for years. He’s also worked with food stylists and knows all the tricks.

"My job is to take the fresh ingredients and build it, make it look good and photograph it," Burt said.

Burt said food photography can be done in a studio with a kitchen and a chef who will make the food for the perfect shot. Sometimes it's up to the photographers and stylists to bring the ingredients and build the shot themselves.

When you order a burger or sandwich, it sits inside the cardboard or is wrapped in a paper bag where the steam from the food compresses it.

Meanwhile, for the perfect shot, photographers spritz water to make vegetables look fresh, squirt ketchup and mustard in specific places with a syringe and even place sponges inside the food to make it look fuller.

Burt has shot several ads with pizza in it. For that, they'll cut out pieces of cheese that look good on other pies and melt them into the pie on camera to make sure it looks perfect!

Styling a hamburger for a picture? Burt's got a halfway solution.

"The back of the burger isn't going to look good, but the front will look great," he said.

Burt said food commercials are similar to car commercials.

"You wouldn’t shoot a dirty car sitting on the street. You would shoot a nice, clean car that’s been washed and polished," he said.

Food and beverages sit in front of the cameras and hot lights for hours on set, so sometimes a bit of movie magic is necessary.

Here's how some of the most popular dishes go from drab to fab:

Heat guns can bring cheese on food back to its warm, melted form.

For beer, all they do is spin a wooden chopstick in the drink to build the foam back on top.

If the coffee appears stale, a little bit of dish soap does the trick.

Cocktails can be photographed for hours because the ice cubes are made from resin or acrylic. Water droplets are added to the side of the glass or to fruit garnishes with glycerin.

Want to see more of Skyler Burt's work? Click here to see a similar video he did on food photography tricks and click here for his YouTube page.

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