This IS in fact REAL ice cream. The challenge of course is photographing it before it melts on set. A "stand-in" was used during the time necessary to get lights and camera arranged. A food stylist had scooped numerous balls of ice cream (easily 50 or more) the day before and placed them in a deep freeze where they froze overnight. This freezer being much, much colder than the average in home freezer, the ice cream was nearly rock hard at shoot time. Once lights and camera were all set and "hero" scoops were selected, they were brought on set. Once in place some edges and flakes of ice cream were melted with a hair dryer to just the right point and the exposures were captured immediately. This was then done again with 2 or 3 more groups of ice cream to allow some options when final images were selected after the shoot. This image was done on a 4x5 camera with Kodak Ektachrome film.