Sunday, March 8, 2009

Food-o-grafie # 3

(alleen in het Engels)

Quick, quick.... it's the last day to enter my post for the Food-o-grafie part 3. All about light. It still feels a bit... well let's say...silly to make a post about it with just the use of a compact. But I wanted to give it a go anyway.

So weeks back I shot several pictures of carrot bread, which had an ordinary color, set on a bright yellow underground with a bright orange place mat. I can tell you that it gives the most amazing and confusing effects. I wrote everything down, but... lost my notes. So I shot some buns instead... as most of my shots are off breads, a few days ago to enter.

And I must admit I shoot most of my foodpictures in a bad setting. On top of my cooker with the light (a tube light) coming from the back. I don't have a preset 'studio' that wouldn't be too hard to fix yourself, just takes in too much space here. There is no window close to the "scene of shooting", so I probably break every rule to make a good picture in the first place. It's probably a wonder how good they turn out considering the circumstances :-).

If I would put my camera on automatic (left photo below), it would flash. And foodpictures with flash, that's just a no-no for me, those will hardly ever look real good.
The right picture is made with the "tube light" setting (in "P"rogramme). That sometimes works but depends a lot on the colors used in the setting, they have a great influence on the end result. (Also the colors influence each other, especially with strong colours). In this case it's quite reasonable. (1/15 - f 2,8)

There is also a AWB-setting (Automatic White Balance) that is used in the left photo below. That gives a yellowish tone. I use this very seldom, because even if it doesn't look very abnormal, it's not the color of the rolls. (1/20 - f 2,8)
There is also a manual White Balance (on the right) that I use more and more (now I finally figured out how to use it). On most occasions it gives the best result that resembles the color that I see. (1/15 - f 2,8)

I shoot almost all pictures in the "my colors"-section with the "lively colors"on, this gives more contrast and colorintensity so the colors are much brighter. ISO is on automatic. Sometimes I reduce or add more light to the scene to compensate really dark colors (like brownies).

4 comments:

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

I see tuna salad, chicken salad on those rolls . . . they look terrific!

NKP said...

It is amazing how different the pics can look in different settings. I just use a hand-me-down point and shoot with a desk lamp for lighting.
Your buns look really good - I agree with Tanna, tuna or chicken salad would be perfect on them!

Cookie baker Lynn said...

It is always surprising what a difference lighting makes. I think your buns are gorgeous. I'll bet you get told that all the time, right? ;-)

zorra said...

Thank you for your participation. And your right, not only the light has an influence to the photo also the color of the food.