Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Food-o-grafie #2

(alleen in het engels)

This second edition of food-o-grafie is about lenses. Well I don't have much to say about that really at this point. That's why I wanted to skip this time, and also because of the busy holidays. Later I saw that the deadline was changed and I decided to throw a little post in anyway.
I was so close in buying a SLR during the holidays, saw a really good deal for a Canon EOS450D, but in the end no new camera. (won't bother you with the reasons) So I still have my Canon G7 compact... and not much lenses to talk about.

One fixed lens with two settings: close (a flower) and normal (a mountain). The latter takes sharp pictures from about 40 cm I think, so for food pictures I normally just use the 'flower'.
I use the P (programme) setting the most and not the auto. And of course which setting I use depends on the spot where I take the picture. I always look for the setting that makes it look colourwise like it is in real... logical.
Optical zoom (6x) I don't use a lot for foodphotography, that's more with scenery and people.

I am using the white-balance more these days, not only because I finally understand (or think to understand) how it works, but also because one light setting that I tend to use a lot, sometimes gives a pinkish undertone depending on the surrounding colours. It didn't do that at first... don't know why that happens now.

Perzische Kardamomkoekjes (p.415)

This photo "Persian Kardamomcookies" (from the book "Home Baking") is shot in Macromode and here are some other EXIF-data:

Camera: Canon PowerShot G7 - Canon
Exposure: 0.05 sec. (1/20)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 7.4 mm (35 mm equivalent: 34.3 mm)
Flash: Off
Max Aperture: 2.8
Resolution: 180 x 180 dpi
Dimension: 2736 x 3648 pixels

If you want to see more EXIF data you can see them
HERE. Frankly most of them don't mean much to me, I don't even know what some of them mean. I'm not that technical, though learning more everyday. Whén... ah when I'll ever own a SLR, I'll buy a book and learn more about it and or take a course.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

De G7 heeft zo veel mogelijkheden.....heb mezelf beloofd dat ik eerst alles uitgebreid moet hebben geprobeerd voordat ik aan de SLR begin...;-)
Jouw foto's zien er altijd super uit en die P stand is toch wel tricky (zonder statief).Wisselen met de AV stand geeft bij macro ook mooie resultaten...

Anonymous said...

I was thinking about skipping this one too as I do not have to say much of lenses.
But now that I read your post I think I will make mine too. :)

Have to look for this white balance thing too. Mabe I can play around with it a bit :)

NKP said...

I like the way you describe the process. I usually get scared and tune out photography details (still using a cheap little point and shoot) but I do feel like I should get a grown up camera one day! You take some of the fear out of it, thank you.

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

aaa, I want a cookie please.

Karen Baking Soda said...

Lien? I need private tuition please!? White balance... I do recognize the mountain and the flower...

zorra said...

When is your birthday? Perhaps you get a new camera then. ;-)

I like the photo of your cookies. Yummie!

Regarding the pinkish undertone, perhaps you changed your light?

Lien said...

@ Marl1, je hebt gelijk dat er nog heel wat uit 'ons' toestelletje te halen valt, 't is toch niet de eerste de beste. Blijft ook handig dat 'ie zo in je tas gaat en je juist niet hoeft te klooien met lenzen... dus voorlopig knippen we vrolijk verder!

@ Astrid, Natashya and Baking Soda. I finally made an effort in reading the manual a bit closer... and voilà white-balance. It just needs time which isn't always there. You can learn a lot here too: http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/

@ Joyce, welcome and thanks for visiting and commenting. It's always nice to have new visitors!

@ Zorra, well that will take quite a while.
The lighting wasn't changed, but the pinkish undertone appears depending on the colours around the subject. The more light colors the less problems.

@ Tanna, I must admit they looked better on the picture than they tasted :-(