I have a new toy...that I am still trying to get to grips with *snigger*. My lovely hubby bought me a Canon DSLR for Christmas, so for the last few days I have been playing and fiddling A LOT....still haven't quite got the perfect picture though. I'm all confused (it doesn't take much) with aperture/exposure/ISO/f thingies/white balance. So, I have a question for all you really good food photographers out there.....in normal daylight conditions what settings should I be using to shoot food (and should I be doing so on manual, program, macro (I have a macro lens too which I haven't even opened yet), av.....??? HELP!!!! All hints and tips would be most welcome.
On to the salad, which is basically a concoction of leftovers from the fridge, in this case salad leaves, cucumber, apple, walnuts and cranberry goats cheese, finished off with a simple white wine vinegar dressing. It was delicious and a most welcome 'lighter' meal after all the heavy rich food I've been eating over the last few days. As much as I like Christmas, I'm now itching to get the decorations down, clean my house and get back to normal in time for the new year...hubby and kids have been calling me scrooge!
Leftover Festive Salad
Ingredients (to serve 1...the kids and hubby had cheese on toast):
Handful of salad leaves, washed
Cucumber, chopped...a small handful
1 Apple, chopped
Handful of toasted walnuts
75g crumbled goats cheese
Dressing:
Glug of White Wine Vinegar
Glug of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Seasoning
Method:
Step 1: Combine all salad ingredients in bowl.
Step 2: Mix together dressing and pour over salad.
11 comments:
Husband works for Canon. Suggests using flash and low ISO.If using auto settings try the macro/portrait setting for close up with flash. If manual try 100 ISO, fast shutter speed 1/250th approx and low aperture i.e lowest f stop of your lens and flash on.
Thanks Saffy...I'll give it a try
If you need more help I can put husband on and he'll be able to take you through step by step.
Oh man, I am not the person to ask. I got a fancy new DSLR too and am totally lost.
i would say that's a gorgeous photo for someone new with the camera! I'm definitely not the right person to ask ><
Try here http://www.photography.com/articles/techniques/how-to-take-pictures-of-food/ gives some hints and tips
It depends on the lens but ISO 200 should work up to F4.5 to get in close and blur background. Your macro lens will prob be better for food but again it depend which you have. I generally don't have much time for my shots so end up using the macro function with flash disabled. Or A function on lowest aperture setting. To start off set white balance on auto and then you can experiment as you get more comfortable with your camera. If there is a camera club near you then I would recommend joining it as I have picked up so many tips from other members. Hope this has helped!
Off to experiment with macro lens..will let you know how I get on
I totally recommend Canon for Dummies, the book, excellent and easy to follow advice!
Hi Beth,
you need to use daylight from a window, or good quality artificial lights, and if you want the sort of shallow depth of field pics common in food photography, you'll need to set to Av mode, (i use this 99% of the time) and then set your aperture as wide as possible, ie the lowest f number you can achieve. You then need to select where you want the point of the focus to be, so half press the shutter butter to focus lock, then you can adjust the position of the camera for composition.
I've been using my canon slr for 5 years now so happy to help if you have any questions.
Don't use flash!! unless you have an off camera flash setup, boost up the ISO if you get blurry images. Use a tripod or rest your camera on the table.
Cheers
Marcus
Thanks Marcus...lots of useful tips. Will give it a go tomorrow
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