Food Photo Tips

Part 13 - The Big White Box

noreply@blogger.com (Canarybird) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:36:00 +0000

Hi again everyone. I'm back with another entry on how to use your digital camera for taking tabletop photos.

There are several good tutorials on the web for making a light box and as we’ve already covered the mini white box, you will be familiar with the technique of papering the inside with white poster board or paper, cutting out windows for the lights and adding a white paper sweep inside.

Here is how I’ve made my big box from a printer box which was a little battered after being stored in my garden shed!

Measurements of this box :
Width 19" (49 cm), Height 13.5" (34 cm), Depth 12" (30 cm).

1. Cut off one of the small flaps on the top of the box, and using a box cutter cut out 3 windows, leaving 3" (6.5cm) window frames around the edges as in first photo. That’s two large side windows and the top opening where your main light will shine.Then cut strips of white poster paper to cover the frames around the windows inside the box.

2. Turning the box on its end, tape tracing paper to the outside of the two big side windows and paper the inside of the three remaining flaps using white printer or poster paper and a glue stick or liquid white glue.

3. Cut a paper sweep the length of one side plus enough to come right out to the front opening and attach it to the back wall with a couple of cello tape loops on the back of the paper. The sweep must be easy to remove when you want to change the colour or replace it when it’s soiled, so it’s not glued at the top.

4. The reason for papering the three white flaps in the front opening for the camera is so we can also push them up into position to act as reflectors.
The two long side flaps can be nearly closed, leaving just enough room for you to put the camera lens through the opening.

5. I’ve set up three lights on my desk: the top extension desk lamp with the CFL bulb which shines down through the top opening and two smaller side lamps to shine through the tracing paper windows on wither side. I needed books to raise up the two small lamps, both which have CFL bulbs.

I didn’t notice at first, but the little lamp on the right has a warm coloured rather than a daylight bulb, so on the following photos you see a golden light coming from the right. However I left it at that. Do be sure your bulbs are all of the same Kelvin temperature, as marked on the bulb package when you buy them. (Daylight is around 5000K to 6500K). The lower the number, the more golden is the light.

Recommended reading:

If you like to collect photography books as I do, then here are some that I recommend you read (after you’ve read your camera manual of course) :-)

1. Digital Food Photography by Lou Manna

2. Close-Up Photography by Michael Freeman

3. Light Science & Magic by Fil Hunter, Steven Biver, Paul Fuqua

4. Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson

Online:

There are many sources of information on digital photography on the web now, but I have always liked Darren Rowse’s Digital Photography School tips and tutorials for beginners and experienced photographers, with a search function so you can find information about a specific subject

This ends Part One of the beginners' tutorials, intended for those who have not yet learned how to use their point & shoot digital cameras, and especially for those wanting to take tabletop and food photographs.

The next sections will go into more details of learning and handling your camera functions to get the pictures you want. I hope you will continue to visit and will find some useful advice.

Until then, thanks for following!

Part 12 ~ Tutorials Resumé To Date

noreply@blogger.com (Canarybird) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:01:00 +0000

Hi again everyone. I'm back with another entry on how to use your digital camera for taking tabletop photos.

Just a reminder that this series has been written for owners of simple point & shoot (P & S) cameras using automatic settings, and for those who have not yet studied their camera manual in depth.

But if you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to try the semi-automatic settings such as Aperture Priority (A or AV aperture value) and Shutter Priority (S or Tv …time value) where you have more control over the depth of field in the first, and the freezing of movement in the second.

Here is a list of important points that will help you to improve your tabletop and food photos:

1. Don’t use the flash of your P & S camera for taking food photos. It makes food look terrible. Do use natural daylight when possible, ideally from a north facing window and when necessary, with a light sheer curtain or white tissue paper taped to the glass to diffuse strong light.

Photo taken with natural daylight

The same subject using flash

2. In low light conditions use a tripod when you can and an indoor camera setting for available light. Such a setting could be called ‘Indoor’, ‘Available Light’ or ‘Candlelight’.
Different brands of cameras use different names for low light settings.

If no tripod is available, brace yourself and the camera against a door jamb or wall, hold the camera firmly, bring your elbows in together tightly over your chest and breath out….hold it….and snap the shutter. For close tabletop work you can support the camera on a bean bag, stack of books or other solid object.

3. Rather than getting too close to your subject which may create distortion, try moving back a little, using your optical zoom to bring the subject closer until it fills your viewfinder or LCD screen.

4. Remember to adjust your White Balance (WB) setting for the type of illumination you are using: Sunlight (which is a normal daylight setting even when there’s no strong sun), Cloudy (good setting for indoor daylight), Incandescent light bulb (Tungsten), Fluorescent or CFL bulb. There is also the AUTO setting but you should definitely make an adjustment when using artificial light.

One setting I didn’t mention is the custom white balance, usually the last on the WB dial and not on all cameras. This allows you to hold a piece of white paper near the subject, take a photo of it and then use that to set the correct white balance for the photo you are about to take. If you would like to try that, then check your manual for instructions. It is a useful way to get the exact light balance for your photos.

5. If you see through the viewfinder that the photo will be too dark, raise the Exposure Compensation (EV) by one, two or more clicks.

See Part 3 for more about EV.

6. Use a paper sweep if you want to have a light uncluttered background, and a piece of white foam or paper to reflect light onto the dark side of a photo with one light source. You could also use a small mirror to reflect back some light onto your subject, but be careful if your light source is strong not to create reflected light that is harsh.

7. If you are going to photograph a hot dinner, have your photo corner, light and camera ready before you plate the food. That way you will capture it while it is still moist and fresh looking. But also have a small squeeze bottle of sauce, oil or gravy ready to drizzle over the food to create a bit of glistening highlight in case the food begins to look dry.

8. In your spare time, practise with your camera in your photo corner or table with the lighting conditions you would have at dinnertime or when you are most likely to take your food photos, using props such as fruit bowls or stacks of differently shaped vegetables on a plate. Try different lighting conditions, camera settings and shooting angles, with and without tripod if you have one. Take many photos. If you find one out of ten, twenty or thirty that you think is good, then you are doing fine, because it takes much trial and error to find what works, and many deleted photos to get one good one. Write down what you did and what settings you used that were successful.

9. If you have a tripod, use it for low light and evening photos of food and table settings. And try also using the self-timer to avoid the slight camera shake and resulting blur caused by pressing the shutter. Once you’ve worked using a tripod and the self-timer you’ll see how good it feels to take photos with your hands free.

10. ISO. I didn’t get around to covering so far this but you may find you are only able to alter that setting on semi automatic (Shutter Prioroty or Aperture Priority) or MANUAL modes.

ISO controls the sensitivity to light of the camera’s sensor. The sensor is where the image is recorded in a digital camera, in place of film. The higher the ISO number used, the more sensitive is the sensor and the lighter is the resulting photo.

It can be compared to the ASA number of film. If you have used a film camera you may remember that when purchasing film, you had a choice of film speeds eg. ASA 125, 200, 400 etc. The higher the number, the more sensitive to light (termed faster), was the film. In a similar way the ISO can be raised to make it possible to capture a photo using a faster shutter speed in low light. The only inconvenience is that the higher numbers produce more of a grainy photo, called noise in digital photography, which is not always a bad thing.

In dark interiors, such as churches or museums where flash is not allowed, you could raise the ISO setting of your camera and still capture a photo. For this reason the three variables, Aperture (lens opening), Shutter speed and ISO are closely linked and are interdependent for controlling the exposure in your photos.

A suggested setting for outdoors is ISO 100, whereas in interiors that could be 200, 400 or higher depending on the level of illumination. Some cameras now reach extremely high ISO levels such as 3200 in special high sensitivity modes.

Other Food Styling Tricks:

1. When using daylight through a sunlit window, tape leaves, strips of paper or other shapes onto the window glass to produce interesting shadows on a wall behind your subject.

2. To make a cup of coffee look freshly poured, add a spoonful of soapy water to the surface. Of course that’s only when you’re not planning on drinking it!

3. Use a pastry brush to baste vegetable oil onto cooked vegetables to add shine.

4. Make chocolate curls by using a vegetable peeler over a block of chocolate.

5. Use a can with the ends removed to stack small amounts of foods such as salad or rice inside to give height to your dish, when photographed from the side. I think we’ve all seen that done on TV cooking shows.

6. Brush a bit of Kitchen Bouquet over chickens or drumsticks that look too pale to give a better colour.

7. Keep uncooked greens and herbs in ice water until ready to use.
It keeps them looking fresh.

8. To have steam rising from your food, place it hot from the stove quickly in front of an open window on a cool day. This is one that I do, since my main photo corner is in front of a window . Get down low and snap from the side to get the steam. It helps if there is some darkness behind the dish so the steam can be seen. Some photographers use a steaming hot teabag or ball of wet cotton heated in the microwave and placed behind the subject out of sight.

Other tips for commercial food photography involve using materials which render the food inedible, such as photographing a bowl of cereal using white liquid glue instead of milk, so the cereal doesn’t look soggy. But I won’t go into those because after all, we are going to serve this food to our family aren’t we?

That's all for today. In the next tutorial I'll be showing how I made my Big White Light Box.
Until then, thanks for joining me. Sharon.

(All text and photos copyrighted)

Part 11 - Photographing Silverware

noreply@blogger.com (Canarybird) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:59:00 +0000

Although it doesn't quite fit in to the subject of food photography, a table setting is often included in a closeup food photo.

Flatware can be a difficult subject to photograph due to the reflective surfaces, especially when dealing with spoons, where the room surroundings are often reflected in the bowl. I'm going to show examples taken in daylight by a window using white and black backgrounds, with and without a tripod.

Here is my setup, using one and later two styrofoam reflectors on the dark side.

Here below are examples using a black velveteen background.
The first photo shows a bad example of how a handheld camera shot at this arrangement of three spoons reflects my hands and camera.

In the next two photos, the spoons have been arranged differently so they reflect more the surrounding room.

Here below on the left is another example of a bad reflection. Although the pattern of the silverware shows up nicely, the bowl again reflects the photographer.
The photo on the right shows a closeup using macro mode where the pattern is the prime object.

The picture below is not a photo at all, but was rather a scan done on a flatbed scanner.

For posting to auction sites a scanned image may serve your purpose.

Using the Tripod and Self-Timer

When you have your camera set up on a tripod you will surely be able to take clear, sharp images of something as fine as silverware, where you want to display the pattern clearly.
In order to keep yourself and your hands out of the picture, using the tripod and the self timer allows you to duck out of the way so you are not reflected in the silverware.

Here below is the sequence for doing this:

1) Photo left - set up the flatware on black velveteen, black or white paper or cloth and with camera on the tripod, adjust the level of the view and zoom a little until you are happy with the image in the viewfinder or LCD screen.

2) Photo right - Set your timer for the delay in seconds, enough for you to move away from the camera. Press the OKAY button to confirm your choice.

3) Press the shutter halfway and when the green focus light gives a small beep and a steady green light... press the shutter the rest of the way down.

You haven't yet taken the picture but the camera is now counting down the number of seconds you have set, so move yourself out of the way. The shutter will open and the camera will take the photo without your touching it.

Remember that if in step 3 the green focus light blinks rather than stays steady, the camera can't focus at the distance you have set.
Change your zoom level (more zoom or less zoom) or if necessary, move the tripod further away.

Here's the photo just taken in the example above using tripod and timer where the reflection in the spoons is that of the window.

I hope you understand all and if you have questions please ask here or PM me.
Thanks for joining me.

(All text and photos copyrighted.)

Photographing The Moon

noreply@blogger.com (Canarybird) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 12:49:00 +0000

For a change I'm taking a little break today and the topic will not be about photographing food. That is, not unless you still believe the moon is made of green cheese! But it may be of use if you want to take photos of the moon and have not yet tried to do so with a point and shoot camera.

Last night, January 29, 2010 was the brightest the full moon will be this year, due to the fact that the moon was in perigee, the part of its orbit closest to earth. The coincidence of the perigee and full moon is something which occurs only once or twice a year.

Manual (M)...f/4.5...1/160...ISO 50

When I heard that the night was to be special, I went outside around eight-thirty in the evening to have a look and saw the full moon shining brightly in a clear, cloudless sky. So I knew this was to be a rare opportunity to take a good moon shot, even though I don't have a telephoto lens. I used my Olympus SP-560UZ point and shoot camera with an 18x optical zoom, set it up on a tripod and took several shots at different exposures before being quite happy with the one above.

So I would like to pass on the little bit of my experience I gained last night.

The moon is much brighter than you may think, so don't set your camera for a night shot or a long exposure or you will get a white blob surrounded by a white haze rather than a sharp image with visible moon surface features.

Here's what I learned from last night's trials and errors:

Use a tripod.
This will ensure a steady camera and a clear photo.

If you have a point and shoot which has an option for MANUAL (M on the mode dial), use that setting so you can set both the aperture and shutter speed. Otherwise try a daylight semi-automatic setting. Open your OPTICAL zoom to full, but don't use digital zoom.

Here are examples of what you may get using MANUAL at different shutter speeds with apertures f/4.6 and f/4.5:

f/4.6... 1/25 sec... ISO 100

This above taken with a slow shutter of 1/25 second. You see the brightness of the moon as a white blob with surrounding haze.

f/4.5... 1/80 sec... ISO 100

The next one above, was taken with a faster shutter speed of 1/80 of a second. You see the focus is getting better and the haze has nearly disappeared, but it is still too bright.

f/4.5...1/125 sec...ISO 50

The third one above is almost right, with an aperture of f/4.5 and a shutter speed of 1/125, ISO 50. If you are able to adjust the ISO on your point and shoot, take it down to the lowest setting as you are photographing a bright object that doesn't need a boost in brightness. A lower ISO also insures less noise or digital static in the picture.

Finally I set the shutter speed a little faster, to 1/160 and am happy with the result in the photo at the top of the page, as moon features are quite visible.

I did a little post editing with CodedColor, an inexpensive editing program, using a minimum of Levels and Unsharp Mask, and adding the borders and watermark.

I hope you will find it as easy to do with your camera.

Good Luck!

Part 10 - Self-Timer and Flash

noreply@blogger.com (Canarybird) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:08:00 +0000

Hi again everyone. I'm back with another entry on how to use your digital camera for taking tabletop photos.

The Self-Timer Function

This function incorporates a pause after you have pressed the shutter button. The shutter doesn't open right away, but rather waits according to the length of time you choose before taking the picture.

Perhaps you are accustomed to using the self timer so this will be nothing new for you, but if you have hesitated to try this very useful function on your P & S (point and shoot) camera you will be pleased to see how easy it is to not only to put yourself into a picture but also to sharpen some of your tabletop photos by avoiding camera shake when you press the shutter.

Here is the icon for the self-timer and where it may appear on the back of your camera body:

And here are the settings on my camera, which may be different on yours:

And as seen displayed in the camera menu after entering the self-timer option you could have: Off, a pause of 12 seconds or a pause of 2 seconds before the shutter opens and the photo is taken.

The procedure to use the self timer couldn't be simpler.

Assuming the camera is either firmly attached to a tripod or resting on a stable surface, find the self-timer menu and decide how long you want the camera to wait before it takes the picture.

If you are going to jump into a group photo, then give yourself the longest time in order to settle yourself comfortably in the photo, eg 12 seconds.

On the other hand, if you are going to use the timer to avoid possible camera shake during a tabletop photo shoot while you stand behind the camera, then set the shortest time lag. Then press the OK button.

Press the camera shutter button half way down and look to see that the green focus light doesn't blink. (If it blinks then you have to move the camera further or closer to your subject since blinking means the camera can't focus at the distance you have chosen.) When the green light is steady, press the shutter button all the rest of the way down. Take your finger off the camera and either run to join your group or wait without touching while it beeps a countdown and takes the photo. You've just used the self timer!

By doing this you have avoided any possible movement of the camera that could occur as your finger presses the shutter button.
While the camera is in countdown, you can do other things, such as holding a white reflector near your subject to improve the lighting.
That's another advantage to using a tripod. Your hands are free while the camera takes the photo.

The Flash Menu

The flash menu is usually accessed by pressing the lightening bolt flash icon on the back of the camera touchpad.
See again the top photo of the back of the camera with red arrows. Pressing the touchpad at that point brings you into the flash menu, where the icons are quite easy to understand.

You may need to press the flash pop-up button (3rd photo) to begin using the flash.

The flash will fire automatically when there is insufficient light. The camera decides if you need flash or not.

Red-eye reduce mode. The camera emits pre-flashes before firing the regular flash in order to avoid red-eye.

Fill-in flash. The flash will always fire regardless of light conditions. Useful for eliminating deep shadow on the subject's face when subject has back to sunlight, or in similar circumstances where you want to eliminate shadow.

Always emits pre-flashes for red-eye reduction.

Flash off. When the lightening bolt is surrounded by a circle or square, it means the flash will not fire even in low light conditions. Remember that a P & S camera flash will make your food look very flat and unappetizing, so don't ever use it for food photos.

I think that's enough for today, so I'll save the tutorial on photographing silverware until next time.

If you have questions please ask here or PM me.
So thanks for joining me.

Sharon (Canarybird) :-)

Part 9 - Setting up a Tripod

noreply@blogger.com (Canarybird) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:42:00 +0000

Hi again everyone. I'm back with another entry on how to use your digital camera for taking tabletop photos.

I hope everyone has had a good holiday season and New Year's Eve celebrations. Sorry my tutorial is a few days late.
It's been a busy time for everyone I think.

I wanted to give several camera tips today but once started on how to set up a tripod, I was carried away when creating the photos and diagrams, so it took longer than expected.

Setting up a tripod can be a little more confusing than one might first imagine. If you have tried it for the first time by turning all the knobs and flipping the locks, you may have ended up with legs that won't sit still and a top piece that hangs over and won't stay upright. Whatever you do, try these suggestions without a camera attached until you feel confident that you have it under control.

Here below is a typical entry level lightweight tripod, shown in its folded position. Total length is 14 inches, weight just under 2 pounds. Price around $75.00. Note that in this position the long handle, called the 'pan-handle' is bent downwards and the small crank handle is also folded down. First thing to do is lift up both to get them away from the legs (right).

The next step is to flip up a leg locking lever (below left), and extend one leg fully, being sure all lower sections have snapped open:

Close the leg lock lever and then do the same with the other two legs, being sure all sections are fully extended and the levers are locked:

Only then should you open the three legs. Press the leg braces down and tighten the leg brace nut. Now the tripod is open, turn it so one leg is the leading leg in front of the camera and the other two legs are on either side of you, so you are standing in the space between them.

Attaching the camera to the tripod:

Two ways to attach the camera to the tripod are :
1. by a screw on the tripod head which screws up into the base of the camera or
2. the quick-release plate, which comes in different forms, but is a fast way to put on and take off your camera from the tripod.

The tripod I show here has a quick-release plate, which once screwed to the bottom of the camera, will enable the camera to be snapped into place on the quick-release platform of the tripod head by opening the lever.

Here below is a camera, the quick-release plate with its screw and a small coin. The coin is used to turn the screw, attaching the plate to the camera.

Here is the plate affixed to the bottom of the camera, and showing how to open the quick release lever:

By holding open the quick-release lever with one hand, you can slip the camera with the attached plate into the platform, and then press the lever closed:

By loosening the side tilt locking nut, you can then lift up the platform and your camera is ready to operate in a vertical position:

When you were first setting up your tripod, after extending the legs, you may have found the head is pointing in the wrong direction.

If the tripod head is pointing in the wrong direction, you need to loosen the panning lock nut and swivel the head until it is pointing forward and the pan-handle is at your left hand.

The following examples are with the legs withdrawn so the tripod is shorter and can be used on a table:

Panning or turning around the tripod head

Here you see that with the panning lock nut loosened, you are able to swivel the tripod head around.

You can also tilt the head down by turning the pan-handle a little as though it were a screwdriver which will release the tilt up/down of the head. When you have the right angle for your photo, turn the pan-handle in the opposite direction to tighten the head at the chosen position:

Here are the names of the parts of this tripod, and the parts of the tripod head.

Tabletop Tripod

Here is a small but sturdy tabletop tripod which I sometimes use.
The legs will extend another 1 1/2 inches by twisting the black locks, and the central column may be raised by loosening the center twist lock. This tripod has both pan and tilt functions and uses a screw head to fasten it to the bottom of the camera.

Well I hope this will be a useful guide if you are using a tripod for the first time.

It is always advisable to practise setting up the tripod a few times without your camera attached just in case you are unlucky enough to have it fall over.

Set it up on a firm, level ground or floor and check that all levers are locked. If indoors be careful that small children or animals won't be tripping over the legs.

I hope this has been easy to understand. If you have questions please ask here or PM me and I'll be happy to offer any help I can.

So thanks for joining me. I'll be uploading the next installment soon.

Next time I'll show a little about photographing silverware, the flash menu and self-timer.

Sharon (Canarybird) :-)
(All text and photos copyrighted)

Part 8 - Depth of Field (DOF)

noreply@blogger.com (Canarybird) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 14:08:00 +0000

Hi again everyone. I'm back with another entry on how to use your digital camera for taking tabletop photos.

Today I want to talk about Depth of Field.

Depth of field is the area of your picture, from foreground to background, that is IN FOCUS.
Here, in the first picture (left) you see the two pieces of fruit clearly because they are in focus.
The background is out of focus, or blurred. This is a technique used to emphasize a subject and make it stand out from the background.
Here again is another example in this sports photo (right), where the player in the foreground is in sharp focus against a blurred background.

Sport photo credit at right to Allen Eyestone/The Palm Beach Post)

You will also see depth of field referred to as DOF in photography texts.

In these next examples, the first mug (left pic) is the only one in focus and the rest are progressively more blurred. We can say that in this photo there is a SHALLOW DEPTH OF FIELD because the area that is sharp extends only to the first mug, in the immediate foreground.

In the photo above right, there is a DEEPER DEPTH OF FIELD where most of the mugs are in focus. Sometimes you will want to have the whole of your photo sharply in focus (eg. landscapes, holiday pics or full dining table), and other times, such as in some food photos, you may want to have your subject stand sharply against what is only a suggested background, misty or shadowed to give an impression of what's there without detracting from your subject.

Although creating a very shallow depth of field can be done beautifully with DSLR (digital single lens reflex) cameras, due to the lenses available for them, (you change the lens according to the type of photography you want to do), it's possible to get an attractive blurred effect with a simple point and shoot, such as the left picture of the mugs above. (I think in future I will call them P & S cameras, as it sounds better and is easier to write).

Just to digress and show you what I mean about the possibilities of the DSLR, here below is the same subject taken by a DSLR at left and with a P & S right. You will have seen such extreme shallow depth of field on many food blogs on the web. In this case you see both the foreground and background out of focus, while the second row of the left egg and the right ceramic chicken are relatively in focus. To the right, the P & S version shows nearly all in focus except the chicken in the rear. I deliberately used a very shallow depth of field on the DSLR to demonstrate that a middle plane can be also chosen as the in-focus area. (50 mm Canon lens at f/1.4).

So how do you get your foreground sharply in focus and the background out of focus? Here is one way to do it. Let's make a test run during daylight. Find your best window light with a table or shelf underneath and get some fruit, eggs, muffins on a plate or whatever you want to use as a subject, preferably an object with a little height.
Even a couple of coffee mugs will do.

Take some other larger objects which could be pots and pans, a plate of fruit, a vase of bushy greenery or even a stack of books. Set your table so the pots, books or whatever are about 20 inches (50 cms) away from your subject (fruit, muffins etc.). Here's my setup for the first photo on this page...the prickly pear and kiwi pic at top left.

I sat on the low stool and rested my forearms on the edge of the table, holding the camera. See if you can somehow duplicate this setup and sit low down enough to be able to have the camera just above table level and close to the subject.

Set your SCENE or MODE dial to PORTRAIT. Why do I use portrait mode so much on these examples? The reason is that portrait mode is a medium closeup setting, meant for taking photos of someone about 6 feet away in front of you, rather than of a distant landscape. Therefore the aperture (lens opening) is wider than it is for distant shots. (Explanation about aperture later.) When the camera lens is wide open, the depth of field is shallow, which will make foreground objects sharp and background objects unsharp. So that a person in a portrait will stand out more against an out of focus background.

(Are you still with me ? :-)) So this is probably the best setting for closeups of food. Many digital cameras have a "cuisine" setting which also adds extra red to give warmth to the picture. Do try it out if you have that option, because it will be designed for a tabletop setting. You may or may not like it but don't ignore it before giving it several tryouts on different foods.

So back to the test. You have your SCENE set to PORTRAIT. Add MACRO (the tulip icon) as well to your portrait setting.
Point to the subject and add some optical zoom until the subject fills the viewfinder and you are happy with the composition. Press the shutter halfway and check that your focus light doesn't blink.

If it blinks, then zoom out a little or move the camera a bit further away from the subject. Press the shutter halfway again.....does the focus light still blink? If so, move back a little again. Press the shutter halfway again and once the focus light stays steady, press the shutter the rest of the way. Now take another 10 pictures in the same manner. Go and check them on your computer. Not happy? Do it all over again :-). The key to good photos is practice, practice, and practice again. You will find that you do get better as you learn and it's a great feeling!

The way to get blurred backgrounds in tabletop closeups with a P & S is to get close to your subject and have your background items at least 20 inches away as explained above.

The closer you are to the subject and using MACRO, the more out of focus your background will appear.

To get a nice background blur outdoors is to have a subject ...such as this dish of fruit below (photo left)....resting on a table about 10 feet in front of a tree and hanging basket. I sat in a chair next to the table where the dish was resting and using PORTRAIT, MACRO and optical zoom on the bowl, took this closeup showing a background that was nicely out of focus. You can have some good effects when you get close to and zoom in on a subject which is a good distance from a dappled shrubbery background where you see pinpoints of light (photo right).
You need to experiment constantly.

Bokeh

You may hear this word used by photography buffs at one time or another. Bokeh is the Japanese term for "blur" and refers to the beautiful creamy out of focus backgrounds behind a sharply in focus foreground subject. I haven't found out why we use a Japanese word but it does sound a little more exotic than just saying "blur". And here again I have to say that the best bokeh comes from the SLR (single lens reflex) cameras, both film and digital, just because one can use lenses with very wide apertures, wider than are seen on a P & S.

There are other differences between the two types of cameras but I won't go further here. Point and shoot cameras are designed to take faultless, sharp travel and holiday photos of beaches, landscapes and family events with the least possible intervention of the photographer. They're made to be easy to use although they do have some creative possibilities if one so desires, in both the manual and semi automatic settings.

Here are a couple of pics I took with my Canon EOS 30D DSLR where you see examples of background shrubbery totally out of focus so the subject stands alone.

And here are a couple taken with the P & S, outdoors with a brass vase on a table about 20 feet away from bright shrubbery . I sat at the table, about 2 feet from the vase, used PORTRAIT, MACRO, and optical zoom to bring the vase closer. I moved my position slightly to the right to get two different shrub backgrounds. Do try to see what you can get using a similar setup in daylight. Best results are when the background has a dappled sunlight with light and dark areas and it fills the screen behind your subject. Use your MACRO and optical zoom or get close to your subject, aiming so both the subject and background are within the viewfinder (or LCD screen.)

I think this is enough for one day. I did want to go into some visual diagrams to better explain how depth of field is altered by the aperture or opening of the lens. A wide lens opening gives a shallow depth of field and a small lens opening gives a deeper depth of field (all is in focus from near to far). Well there's always next week isn't there. Coming up will again be more about aperture shutter speed, and the meaning of f/ stops, but I'll go softly and keep explanations simple. It may also be handy to have a quick guide on how to open and set up your tripod. It's sometimes a very frustrating experience the first times you do it.

I hope you understand it all and if you have questions please ask here or PM me.

So thanks for joining me. I'll be uploading the next installment soon. And please feel free to save the pages on your computer.

Coming up next: How to Set up a Tripod.

Sharon (Canarybird) :-)
(All text and photos copyrighted)

Part 7 - Macro and Camera Icons

noreply@blogger.com (Canarybird) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:08:00 +0000

Hi again everyone. I'm back with another entry on how to use your digital camera for taking tabletop photos.

Today I want to again go over shooting closeups or macro photos, as well as explaining the use of some of those icons on your camera.

Icons for MACRO and SUPER MACRO:

The term macro when used with photography refers to making small objects look larger through the lens of your camera.

You may have found that when you try to get a closeup picture of something on a table or even a closeup of a flower, the result is blurred, even though you braced the camera on the table or used a tripod and had enough light. Depending on your camera you were perhaps too close to the object for the camera to be able to successfully focus. Many digital cameras have a flashing focus light which you can see in a corner of the viewfinder or on the LCD screen to warn you that the camera could not focus properly while you attempted to take a closeup photo. You have to then move backward a little or switch on your MACRO mode.

Remember that you should always press the shutter button half way to let the camera focus on your subject before pressing it fully. If the light begins to flash as you do that halfway press, then you know the photo will be out of focus unless you change something. Either move further away or turn on your MACRO setting, press halfway again and your focus lamp (that light in the screen corner that flashes) should stop flashing. It should stay fixed and give a little beep to tell you that it now has the subject in focus and you can finish pressing the shutter.

Note: don't confuse the FOCUS light with the FLASH symbol because they can both blink. The flash symbol is a red thunderbolt, which if blinking, indicates there is not enough light to take an optimum photo.

Examples of using PORTRAIT mode without MACRO when camera was too close to be within focal range, and then the same setup using PORTRAIT and MACRO mode.

Some cameras have SUPER MACRO which allows you to get very close to your subject, where in some cases the camera can be placed less than an inch away from the subject.
I'll show some examples: Coins in PORTRAIT mode without macro, then with MACRO, then with SUPER MACRO.

Here are a couple of cameras owned by friends with their focal ranges (distances at which things will be in focus.)

The Kodak Easy Share DX 6490 - this camera will focus normally from infinity down to 2 feet away from the subject. If you want to get closer than 2 feet to that piece of blueberry shortcake, you will have to turn on your MACRO mode (it may also be termed CLOSEUP mode). The macro mode on this camera will focus from 2.3 feet down to 4.8 inches.
So you should get a sharp picture within that range.

Canon Powershot SD880 IS - another camera. This one can get as close as 1.6 ft in a normal mode setting. Closer than that and you have to turn on your MACRO mode which has a focal range of 1.6 feet down to 0.8". That means you could put the camera a little less than one inch away from your subject. That would be too close for food photography but you can try it at a distance of 1.6 feet and see how it turns out.

On my Olympus SP560 UZ the macro and normal settings have the same focal ranges, which is 3.9" to infinity (10 cm to infinity.)
So when I want to get really close I use the SUPER MACRO setting which gets as close as 0.4" (less than a 1/2 inch). Good for insects, flowers or miniature items.

On the little pocket-size Olympus Stylus 800, the normal focal range is from infinity down to 19.7 inches. If I want to get closer than 19.7 inches to my subject, I have to turn on MACRO mode, which is good down to about 8 inches away.
Closer than than I would switch on SUPER MACRO if it were appropriate for the photo. Examples with this pocket camera are the photos of eggs,above.

You should be able to use macro in several of your camera’s SCENE settings appropriate for a closeup photo , such as PORTRAIT, INDOOR, CANDLE, DOCUMENTS, AVAILABLE LIGHT, CUISINE, but not in pictures where distance is a necessary factor in the photo. (Landscape, landscape and portrait, fireworks, sunsets etc.)

Try setting your camera to PORTRAIT mode and prepare a plate of fruit or other food. Set the WHITE BALANCE (WB) and if not during daylight, to the type of lighting you have. If the picture through the viewfinder (or LCD screen) looks dark, then use the EXPOSURE COMPENSATION (EV) button to get a plus factor until the picture through the viewfinder looks good. Take a picture. Then holding the camera in the same position (or with your tripod) switch on the same options plus the MACRO (or closeup) mode. Take the photo again and compare the two. Or better still, take several because it’s a fact that the more you practise and the more photos you take, the better they will become.

If you continually experience blurry photos it might be a good idea to check out your normal focal range in your (shudder) manual under ‘specifications’, ‘Macro Mode Shooting", or go online to *one of the websites that does reviews* and look at the specs for your camera model. There you will see the normal focal range (it may be called ‘shooting range’ or ‘macro/close-up mode’) as well as the MACRO range.

*A couple of good websites for checking out details of your camera are: Steve’s Digicams as well as DP Review. But the easy way to check it out is to get close to your subject, half press the shutter and if the focus light blinks, move back and repeat pressing the shutter until you find a distance where the light no longer blinks.
That will be the focal limit of your normal range. Closer than that you will need to switch on MACRO.

Other reasons for blurry photos are:

1. Not enough light. The camera needs more time to focus in low light and during that time you or the subject have moved. Use a tripod. This is true especially for indoor or evening photos, and when using night scene options on your mode dial.

2. Camera shake. Even though you have strong light your photos are still blurry. You are moving the camera or your subject is moving. Don’t move the camera when you press the shutter button. Hold arms tightly to your sides, brace yourself against a wall, rest the camera on a solid object or use a tripod. If necessary, breath out and hold it while you press the shutter! (Remember to breath in again please.)

Leaving MACRO for now, I wanted to go over the BUTTON OPERATIONS and THE MODE DIAL to briefly go over what some of those icons mean and what will they do when you click them into action.

Here’s a typical MODE DIAL, found on the top right of a digital camera.

When you turn this dial and select a mode, you are telling the camera to change the settings for a certain situation. Some cameras will have some of these icons together on a separate mode entitled SCENE …or SCN on the mode dial.
Typical mode choices found on the top of a modern camera dial are for :MOVIE, AUTO, CHECK PICTURES (Review), GUIDE, MY MODE, and M, S, A, P for choosing MANUAL, SHUTTER PRIORITY, APERTURE PRIORITY and PROGRAM.

The photo shows icons for an older digital camera where some of the scene options were included there rather than in an in-camera menu. Here’s what they mean:

AUTO – The simplest of all shooting modes, the settings are fully automatic. The camera selects what it deems to be the optimum focus and exposure for your still picture.

PORTRAIT - suitable for taking a portrait style photo; the camera sets a wider aperture (lens opening) to blur the background a little, so the subject stands out clearly from the background.
SPORTS - suitable for fast action shots, in this mode, the camera sets a faster shutter speed to catch moving objects such as people in sports events.

LANDSCAPE and PORTRAIT – the camera sets the optimal shooting conditions for a background scene with a subject in the foreground.

LANDSCAPE - This is the opposite setting to PORTRAIT where the background is deliberately blurred. In this mode the picture is sharp from foreground to background. Blues and greens are enhanced in this setting.

NIGHT – this is where you will need a tripod because the camera will use a slow shutter speed, meaning that any movement while the shutter is open will create a blurry photo.
You can have some interesting results with coloured lights and portraits in night scenes. Do play around with this mode and see what comes out from your inventiveness.

SELF PORTRAIT – hold the camera at arm’s length and turn it toward you to take a photo of yourself. A fun mode.

MOVIES – the camera sets aperture and shutter speed for optimum results for taking movies. You may have to click on the microphone icon in one of your menus to include sound.

MY MODE – perhaps not seen on all cameras, this mode allows you to save a group of settings of your choice which can be recalled together with one click.

PLAYBACK MODE – allows you to go back and see the photos you’ve just taken.

APERTURE PRIORITY – also seen as AV on a mode dial. This setting lets you set the aperture setting manually while the camera chooses the appropriate shutter speed for that aperture (lens opening).

SHUTTER PRIORITY – also seen as TV on a mode dial. This setting lets you choose the shutter speed manually while the camera chooses the appropriate aperture for that shutter speed.

These two above settings are semi-automatic in that you have control over one or the other function. For example if you want to photograph sports and you know you need a fast shutter speed and don’t want to rely on the automatic sports mode, then you would use the SHUTTER PRIORITY setting and let the camera choose the appropriate aperture.

If you want to set a certain aperture setting but let the camera figure out the shutter speed then you would choose APERTURE PRIORITY. You can control the DEPTH OF FIELD, or the blurriness of the background where you want the background to recede and a subject in the foreground to stand out sharply by using a wide aperture setting.

We could perhaps go in the next tutorial or so a little into DEPTH OF FIELD because I think many folks would like to learn how to get that beautiful effect of a single flower or piece of cake (!) standing sharply against a dreamy blurred background.

PROGRAM MODE – With just a little more freedom to be creative than the AUTO mode, here the camera sets both the shutter speed and the aperture, allowing you to adjust other functions such as white balance, ISO.

I think next time I’ll go over the FLASH icon and FLASH menu as well as the SELF-TIMER option which lets you jump into your photos. Subjects I’d like to mention: Depth of Field and how to make those beautiful Blurry Backgrounds, the important triangle of variables that you need to know: APERTURE, SHUTTER SPEED and ISO, how they work together and how to adjust them…..or at least understand what is happening.

And oh yes….I have to finish that full sized LIGHT BOX so we can see what results we can get from that!

I hope you understand all and if you have questions please ask here or PM me.

Coming up in Part 8 is: Depth of Field
and in Part 9: How to Set up a Tripod.

So thanks for joining me. I'll be uploading the next installment soon. And please feel free to save the pages on your computer.

Sharon (Canarybird) :-)
(All text and photos copyrighted)

Part 6 - Making a Mini Light Box

noreply@blogger.com (Canarybird) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:29:00 +0000

Hi again everyone. I'm back with another entry on how to use your digital camera for taking tabletop photos.

This time I'm going to show how to make a miniature version of a light box, which can be useful for photographing small objects.

I'm also working on making a full sized box out of a cardboard printer box which will be used for photographing larger objects, including plates and dishes of food.

Mini box (left)
Full size box under construction (right)

But it might be easier to practise with a mini box to test your results and your skills with a box cutter or sharp scissors. It takes less than an hour to make, requires no special skills and doesn't have to be good looking.

The idea of a light box is to create a partially enclosed 'white room', with white walls, a white sweep (that paper background we made previously in Part 4 - Seamless Backgrounds), with cutout windows and ceiling covered with white paper, into which we project a strong overhead light and usually a light on either side aimed at the white paper windows so that any object introduced into the box will be bathed in total white light with no shadows. You will have often seen pictures on the web of an object which seems to float on a pure white background. This effect can be achieved in a light box.And it's quite entertaining to see what you can produce from this setup.

These last two pictures were taken with my 15 watt CFL desk lamp overhead and one 7 watt CFL spot lamp (that green one) at the left window. Even better would be a 2nd spot pointing at the right window. (I should go out and buy that 2nd spot lamp...they cost about $12 here so not an expensive item and good for the mini box.)

Construction of the Mini Box:

Materials needed: small box of sturdy cardboard, box cutter or small sharp scissors, ruler or metal straight edge, pen, glue stick, white paper (I always seem to use printer paper.)

I used a small box measuring 5.25 x 7 inches (13.5 x 18 cm) that contained a little desk lamp. You can use a larger box as well of course, but your lights will have to be accordingly more powerful. And I think it's better that you keep it as a vertical box, higher than wider, so that the lid opening will be your ceiling. We can still make the bigger box later once we have caught the idea of how best to create the whitest environment.

On my little box I took off the top flaps of the lid and using a box cutter, cut out windows on the sides, leaving a frame of cardboard about 1 inch (2.5 cm) all around, except for the bottom edge of the front 'door' which I cut off.

Then I took white printer paper and after cutting it to the size of one side (5.25 x 7 inches/ 13.5 x 18 cm) glued it with a glue stick into the INSIDE of a window side, then repeated that on the inside of the window facing it.
Glue carefully and smooth out any wrinkles, which would show up in your photos. To further cover the edges, cut out strips of white paper to size and overlap the newly installed white paper to the back wall and the floor, smoothing carefully so the edges are well stuck down and wrinkle free. Do this on both window sides.

Cut a paper sweep to go inside your box, but DON"T GLUE it in, just slide it in so it is removable when it becomes spotted . The measurements should be....width a little smaller than the width of your box.
In my example, with a 5.25 inch (13.5 cm) box width, my paper sweep was perfect at 1/4 inch less than the box width...that is at 5 inches wide (11.5 cm).

Length of the sweep:....start with a piece of paper a little shorter than the box height plus the box depth (from back wall to front door) and slip it into place until it reaches the edges of the door, as in the photo below.
Check that you have a nice curve in the sweep, that it reaches the 'front door' and trim off any excess that sticks up over the top at the back. The finished box should look something like this.

Many light boxes also use a thin sheet of paper...often white tissue paper or white tracing paper over the 'roof' of the box and this will give you a soft diffused light. If you are going to photograph any reflective item of metal, ceramic or glass you won't want a reflection of the light bulb in the top lamp showing on your object, so you should then use a thin white material or paper to soften the white glare. If you have a good strong light on both top and sides you will be okay with the diffusor on top as the light will be sufficient. If the light is too strong, then move the lamps away a little from the box.

Some examples with fruit: First a sideview of the setup and one example of creating a very soft photo using Exposure Compensation (EV +1.3)... that's 4 clicks up from 0.0... to give deliberate over exposure. Here I was able to get photos using just the overhead desk lamp. If you don't have extra lamps (they must all have the same type of bulb...tungsten or CFL, not mixed) see how you can do with the overhead lamp close to the top opening of your box and raising the EV value to make the picture lighter. This you can do while looking through the viewfinder before taking the photo.

A little less raising of the Exposure Compensation, that is.... pushing it up 3 clicks (instead of 4) to EV +1.0, makes the image a little less over exposed and more defined (left photo).
With no EV changes to the picture, you would have a normal exposure, as in the second photo, below on the right.

Now you know how to make misty white photos if you wish to have that effect. When you raise the EV value using the plus+, you are actually decreasing the shutter speed of your camera, so it stays open longer, lets in more light and gives you a more exposed (lighter) image. Conversely, when you lower the EV value using the minus -, you are in fact increasing the shutter speed, the shutter closes sooner, letting in less light and your image is darker.
If you manage to make this mini light box, try using a PORTRAIT setting, and maybe add a click on the MACRO option as mentioned below. Remember to set the White Balance WB for the type of bulb you are using...hopefully you have a CFL fluorescent in there, and practice using the EV button to lighten or darken your image while looking through the viewfinder.

I think this is enough for one day but I did want to introduce MACRO, or closeup photography.
If you look at the back your camera you will have noticed a little tulip icon somewhere on or near the round touchpad.
That is your option to tell the camera that you want to make closeup photos. You should be able to click on it from any of the other options that you have, such as AUTO, PORTRAIT, INDOOR. By clicking on the tulip icon you will probably bring up three options: OFF, the tulip icon representing MACRO, or another tulip icon with a small 's' beside it. Some point and shoot cameras may not have this second tulip but it refers to SUPER MACRO where you can get even closer to your subject. Try it out....remember you can still be in another mode and add the macro option. I'll explain more next time with examples of how you can capture very close, sharp pictures of food, insects and plants.

I hope you are understanding it all and if you have questions please ask here or PM me.

So thanks for joining me. I'll be uploading the next installment soon.

Sharon (Canarybird) :-)
(All text and photos copyrighted)

Part 5 - Artificial Lighting

noreply@blogger.com (Canarybird) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:56:00 +0000

Hi again everyone. I'm back with another entry on how to use your digital camera for taking tabletop photos.

Finding the right illumination for taking food photos after dark can be even more challenging than finding the right window for daylight photos and much has been written about it.

It would be an ideal situation if we all had a room off the kitchen with studio softbox lights set up over a table where we could just whip down the plated food, snap the shutter and then breeze back into the kitchen to serve the family dinner before it got cold. Those with large, well lit kitchens are perhaps lucky to have focal lights over a counter, or a well-illuminated baking center, ideal for photos.

It is known that the larger the light source, the softer will be the shadows and conversely, the smaller and closer the light source, the sharper will be the shadows. So an ideal studio situation would be to have an illumination diffused enough so that it cast a flattering light without creating heavy shadows, used perhaps together with secondary lights and reflectors. Flash should never be used for food photos as it flattens the images so the result is most unattractive.

But most of us have to cope with less than perfect conditions with over the counter strip lighting, lights in the stove exhaust hood, a lamp over the dining table or a small desk spot in a corner of the kitchen.

This is an extensive subject which has turned into a large entry for today, so I'm going to separate it into paragraphs of different situations, showing how to cope with a certain type of lighting and equipment so you are able to digest it a bite at a time.

1. Worst Case Scenario - The Small Kitchen -
One under-cupboard tube FLUORESCENT LIGHT:

In this case, my tiny kitchen ...which has one old fashioned 8 watt fluorescent tube to illuminate the counter.

Above you see the improvised studio: a white cutting board placed behind, a white paper towel as reflector hanging over the paper roll, a piece of white foam as reflector left, and the subject placed on a white paper napkin draped over two cereal boxes. Took just a minute to set up, and it worked fine, considering the less than ideal setting. Here's the result:

Since indoor lighting is much weaker than daylight, the shutter speed of your camera will be slower, and the Scene settings such as Indoor, Candle and Available Light on your point & shoot will make that adjustment when you choose that scene. When the shutter stays open longer, any slight movement of the camera will cause a blurry photo.

To put it simply, you really need a tripod when taking photos indoors after dark unless you can brace yourself and the camera so there isn't the slightest movement.

To take this photo above in the weak light from the little 8 watt bulb I made several tries hand holding the camera but without success, so I set up the tripod and was able to get a fairly decent photo.

If you are trying to photograph your food in these lighting conditions, you will need a tripod. In most cases there just isn't enough light to do it otherwise when avoiding flash.

The camera was set to Scene: INDOOR, White Balance (WB) set to FLUORESCENT 1 (that's the first of those centipedes on your WB menu), and the Exposure Value (EV) was raised to 0+.3....that's one notch up from 0.0.

More details on settings for anyone who likes to know: Shutter speed 1/25s Aperture.f/4.2 .ISO 800.

How are you doing so far?
I hope you find it still easy to understand.

2. Overhead Lamp - TUNGSTEN - single 60 watt bulb

These are the incandescent light bulbs which are being phased out to be replaced by the new CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) bulbs which are much brighter at lower wattage and cooler temperatures.

But many of us still have these in our homes and so I used this as an example of how to get by with just one such desk or floor lamp shining down on your subject.
You may have to raise it up nearer to the lamp by using some books and a cloth covered tray.

In this case I just put the plate on a small side desk under the light, and set up reflectors on either side.....the right side with the old photo frame and a piece of white printer paper clipped to it and on the left side another piece of white paper taped to the bookend. I'm quite pleased with the result, although it could have been a little brighter if I had used the EV (Exposure Value) button to lighten the photo with a setting of +0.3.

Such a brightness can be adjusted in a post editing program. See what happens in the second picture when the AUTO white balance misread the light. The photo has a strong yellow cast. This often happens when you forget to change it to TUNGSTEN.

The camera in the left photo was set to Scene: PORTRAIT, White Balance (WB): TUNGSTEN, with no EV +/-.
More details: Shutter speed 1/40 Aperture f/3.9 ISO 100

3. Overhead Lamp – 1 CFL bulb

Here I changed the incandescent (tungsten) bulb for a new compact fluorescent 11 watt bulb (CFL) in a cool daylight colour.

Here is the picture that came from using that lamp, with the same setup as above in number 2, with reflectors either side.

These bulbs are wonderful because they don’t heat up, they use lower wattage for the same light intensity as a tungsten bulb and they last for ages.

The camera was set to Scene: PORTRAIT, White Balance (WB): FLUORESCENT 1, with no EV +/-.
More details: Shutter speed 1/40 Aperture f/3.5 ISO 100

4. Overhead Lamp and Small Spot – 2 CFL bulbs

Here is another setup on my desk, with a white paper sweep as backdrop , an overhead swivel desk lamp with a 15 watt CFL bulb and a mini spot light on one side with a 7 watt CFL bulb, the photo frame on the right as reflector with a piece of white printer paper clipped to it.

If you were doing this in a photo studio, the lights used would be of a higher wattage and the whole setup would be more professional and perhaps the reflector on the right would be replaced by a third spotlight. The photo resulting from this homemade arrangement is on the right above.

I’ve used the first of the three fluorescent settings my camera offers. It’s a little warmer than the other two.

This is what happens when you mistakenly use a TUNGSTEN setting for your White Balance (WB) instead of a FLUORESCENT setting (Remember the centipedes).

More about those CFL lamps:
Here’s the one in my desk lamp. It uses 15 watts and puts out the same light as a 75 watt tungsten bulb. I’m also showing the card it came on as well as a closeup of the tiny 7 watt spot.

You can see that the 15 watt bulb is rated as cool and it has a Kelvin value of 6400k.

The Kelvin scale is one used to determine the temperature colour of light. The higher the number, the bluer or colder is the light. The lower numbers are for warmer light.

The Kelvin rating of 5000k and 5500k are considered to be the same as pure white and noon sunlight and are therefore best for taking photos that resemble daylight.
The store where I bought mine didn’t have any at that rating but the 6400k , which you see marked on the card from the package, is also considered a daylight fluorescent lamp.

If you need a warm fluorescent CFL for your house, look for a Kelvin rating around 3000k. Candlelight is rated at 1500k.

The camera was set to Scene PORTRAIT, White Balance FLUORESCENT 1, with no EV +/-
More details: Shutter Speed 1/25, Aperture f/4.0, ISO 100

5. Restaurants – Overhead Tungsten Lamp(s) + Candles

You may have to look underneath the lamp to see if it’s a tungsten (incandescent) bulb or a CFL (fluorescent) but when it’s combined with candlelight for a cosy romantic setting you could wonder what setting to use on your camera without resorting to flash.

I would go for the INDOOR Scene setting and then try looking through the viewfinder with the White Balance (WB) set at TUNGSTEN and if everything looks blue, then you know you have to switch the White Balance to a fluorescent setting.

The camera was set to INDOOR Scene, WB TUNGSTEN, with no EV +/-.
You could also try out the Scene setting of AVAILABLE LIGHT if you have that on your camera. It has a slower shutter speed so you will have to brace the camera and hold tightly and avoid any movement when you press the shutter. This is true of all photos you take in low light without a tripod.

If there is more candlelight than electric light, try the CANDLELIGHT setting as well. A look through the viewfinder before snapping the shutter will tell you if the setting is right for that scene. You can ask your table partner to hold up a white napkin on the dark side of the subject to reflect some light onto it while you take the photo.

I have done that. Of course it might attract some attention, but where we live there are many tourists and they often take photos of the food on their tables while on holiday, so here it's not unusual to do so.

More details of 2 photos above: Shutter Speed 1/60, Aperture f/2.8, ISO 2500
Shutter Speed 1/20, Aperture f/2.8, ISO 2500

Another Restaurant Example: Overhead Tungsten Lamp :

Here there must have been more than one bulb in this quaint array of bottles but you can see the atmosphere, bright on the table and indirect light on the diners.

I believe I set the scene to PORTRAIT, but it could also have been INDOOR, The White Balance (WB) was set to TUNGSTEN with no EV+/- change.
More details of first photo: Shutter speed 1/20 (I’m amazed it turned out without blur), Aperture f/2.8, ISO 2500
Second photo of chips: Shutter Speed 1/125, Aperture f/2.8, ISO 2500.

6. Candlelight

I didn’t have a tripod for this but I braced myself and stopped breathing for a moment (not a good thing to do on your birthday) while pressing the shutter. Normally you would need a tripod for such a low light photo. I still don’t know how it came out without blurring.

The scene was set to CANDLELIGHT, White Balance (WB) AUTO and no EV+/-.
More details: Shutter Speed 1/25, Aperture f/2.8, ISO 2500

Well I hope you have enjoyed reading today's entry and have found it useful.
If you have questions please post them here or send me a PM. :-)

Next week I’ll show you how to make a mini light box and later we’ll make a full sized one.
I have mine started but need some more materials from the craft shop.
In the meantime here’s a preview of the mini light box and what you can do with it:

So thanks for joining me. I'll be uploading the next installment soon.

Sharon (Canarybird) :-)
(All text and photos copyrighted)

Part 4 - Seamless Backgrounds

noreply@blogger.com (Canarybird) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:13:00 +0000

Hi again everyone. I'm back with another entry on how to use your digital camera for taking tabletop photos.

Today's tutorial is a short and easy one about setting up a paper sweep for a seamless background behind your subject.

You may have wondered how to eliminate the horizon line between the tabletop and the background. Although you won't want to do this for all your photos, it's useful to know a simple and inexpensive way to give your picture a smooth, even background when you want your dish or other object to stand out on its own.

The answer is called a SWEEP and you've probably seen large backdrops in photo studios where a roll of paper is pulled down from the ceiling and stretched out on the floor towards the camera so the model can stand on the paper and there is no line where floor meets wall.

You can buy white plastic or synthetic material sweeps in small tabletop and larger sizes in photo supply shops and online but as we're trying to keep our experiments down to something you can make at home as economically as possible we're going to make one out of a sheet of white poster paper measuring approx. 20 x 26 inches (50 x 66 cm) bought in a craft or office supply shop. You just have to be careful not to spill gravy too often on the paper!

It helps to wipe carefully the bottom of the dish and put a folded tissue or napkin under before placing it on the paper. I just happen to have a plexiglass recipe book holder..Fig. 31....bought years ago, which not only keeps the pages of a recipe book from being spotted with sauces, but also makes a good support for our poster paper, using two clothes pegs to clip the paper to the holder. Fig. 32. (I hope you still have a few clothes pegs around.)

Another useful item you could use as a support for your sweep is the back part of an old picture frame, Fig. 33 & 33a ...the kind that's made to stand on a table, either vertically or horizontally by its back leg. I removed the glass and frame from an old photo and taped the cardboard backing closed so it holds together. It will also do a good job to support your paper and has the advantage of folding flat and being lightweight.

It can also serve as a holder for a piece of white printer paper ....clipped again with a clothespeg....to be used as a reflector to bounce back the main light onto the dark side of your subject...(when not using it as a support for the sweep paper.)

If you’re really stuck for something to put behind to support your paper sweep, a 5-lb bag of dry cat (or dog) food and two large clothes pegs also does a wonderful job!

Fig. 34 shows how the sweep looks in place behind the teapot, and the following three illustrate the setup with the camera on a tripod.
For this teapot photo I set the SCENE to PORTRAIT, the White Balance (WB) to cloudy, did not raise the Exposure Value (EV), and used the optical zoom on the camera to bring the scene closer.

Fig. 38 shows a piece of white foam packing cut for use as a reflector on the dark side of the teapot. Try to find pieces of fine foam, which come as packing in just about every large item nowadays. The one I show here is the wrong kind, as it leaves bits like popcorn strewn all over the carpet. But I did find some better pieces after I took these photos.
Fig. 39 shows the reflector in place, held by a metal bookend.

Here is the simple metal bookend that can be purchased very reasonably in an office supply shop.

And finally, here you see the difference made by that piece of foam used as a reflector in these two photos. Fig. 41 is without reflector, and Fig. 42 is with.

Of course all shadows aren't bad, because we need shadow to define shapes and show texture and form. But if you are aiming for an all round brightness, the reflector bounces back some of the main light.
In some cases you would also use a softly diffused light from a lamp over on the dark side to give some added highlights.

Here are a few more sample photos which I took using a white or cream coloured paper sweep:

In all cases above the photos were taken in daylight. Next time we'll have a look at artificial lighting and how to take food photos after dark, without flash.

I also want to show you how to make a DIY light box, so you can take closeup photos of food surrounded by pure white light.

Following that, we should get into MACRO mode...it's really easy and it's made for taking closeups just as we're doing here.

I hope you've been experimenting with the White Balance WB and the Exposure Compensation EV buttons.

Until then, thanks for joining me. I'll be uploading the next installment soon,

Sharon (Canarybird)
(All text and photos copyrighted)

Part 3 - Exposure Compensation (EV)

noreply@blogger.com (Canarybird) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:59:00 +0000

Hi everyone! I'm back again with another chapter of hints on how to use your digital camera for taking tabletop photos.
I hope everything so far has been easy to understand. But I'll be going over and repeating some things as well so they're not forgotten or misunderstood.

For those who are unfamiliar with this very useful item, I want to introduce the EV function on your camera. EV stand for Exposure Value and the button or menu option is called the Exposure Compensation, or Exposure Bias. Here's the icon, which is a square with plus and minus signs inside.
You may find this icon stamped on the arrow pad on the back of your camera as in Fig, 17.

When that upper arrow is pressed, it produces a new icon in the top right corner of the LCD screen as in Fig. 18, where a black rectangle shows 0.0 and two blue right/left arrows. That tells you that you are now able to use the EV function, and by pressing the right and left sides of the arrow pad you will either increase or decrease the value which will appear in that top right corner of the screen. The increments go up to plus or minus 2 in steps of 1/3 or 1/2. Example: +0.3, +0.7, +1.0 etc. up to +2 (or minus when using that arrow pad.)

So for what is that used? In short, you can manually lighten or darken the picture you see in the viewfinder before shooting by using this setting. Sometimes when your subject is dark against a bright background, the light meter adjusts the overall setting for the brightness, leaving your subject too dark. In that case you would (on my camera here) press the right side of the arrow pad as in Fig. 18a. Now you see the number in the top right screen corner has changed to +0.3 to brighten the picture. If I were happy with that, I would then press the OK button in the centre of the arrow pad and then press the shutter to take the picture. If I wanted the picture to be lighter still, I would press the arrow pad twice instead of once, which would give me +0.7.

In the case where the overall picture was too bright and the subject was going to look lighter than I would like, then I'd press the left arrow and that would give me a minus value, darkening the photo Fig. 18b.
You can often counter an over exposure by using a -0.3 setting, especially outdoors where it is often so bright that your photos can look a little overexposed. I keep my cameras set at -0.3 for nearly all my outdoor photos.

Here is where I find the EV option on my little pocket Stylus. By pressing the main menu in the centre of the back arrow pad I get these four options in Fig. 19. On this camera one presses the top and bottom arrows to lighten or darken the picture. Fig. 20. In Fig. 21 you see the EC has been set to +0.7. I show the example of this second camera only to illustrate that you may have to look in more than one place to find the EV function on your camera.

I was setting up to illustrate the differences in EV settings and found another good use for a small bag of dry catfood! Fig. 22.
Together with a clothespeg and a sheet of white paper it makes an idea reflector for the small object on the table.
I changed my mind and used some orange poster paper as a backdrop for the following photos.

So here are some examples of how a picture looks when taken at different EV values, ranging from 0.0 in Fig. 23 up to +0.1 in Fig. 26. Fig. 27 is back at 0.0 and Fig. 28 to 30 are minus steps increasingly dark. The first and the fifth are without an EV adjustment.

I just went outside and took some examples with our clerodendrom which was still in partial sunlight. I started with the first example without using any Exposure Compensation and took samples at different minus values of EV. I didn't include them all here but with these five you can see the difference between no adjustment in the first and six steps into the minus scale to -2.0, which is a little too dark. However I do like the effect at -1.0 and -1.3.

All photos on this page were taken using the PORTRAIT setting in the SCENE option. Remember that the icon for portrait is a girl's head.
The indoor photos had a WHITE BALANCE setting of "cloudy".

I hope you will be able to try out some of these options. You can do a lot to correct lighting when using automatic settings by making an adjustment with the EV function.

I have the next chapter ready but I think this is enough for one day. It is a fun one....how to use a paper sweep for seamless backgrounds. Really easy!

Please ask if anything isn't clear. If I know the answer I'll be back with a reply.

Until then, thanks for joining me. I'll be uploading the next installment soon.

Sharon (Canarybird)
(All text and photos copyrighted)

Part 2 - Lighting and White Balance

noreply@blogger.com (Canarybird) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:25:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

For those who are still learning to use their cameras, I hope you are still interested in my little tutorials.

As I mentioned previously, I'm recounting only what I've learned or read in the past years while working with my cameras. But I hope I can help those who haven't had the chance to experiment as much as I have and who are still struggling with the manual.

So let's go once more to look at setting up by a window in daylight. I'm continuing with the numbering of photo examples in case I need to refer back to any one of them by number.

Side Lighting - Daylight

To continue with indoor daylight exposures, let's move the tripod around to the side and see how the subject looks with a light from the window, coming from the left side...(tomatoes and peach haven't shrivelled yet thank heavens). That's also a very beautiful lighting and it has been seen in many paintings of old masters, such as the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (remember Girl with the Pearl Earring) where he creates mood magic with light falling from a left window onto household objects and people. We may need a little practice to get the same effect but here you see the highlight on the left side of the tomatoes in the LCD screen Fig. 9.

At this moment the camera is in PORTRAIT mode which is found on the SCENE menu with the icon of a girl's head. Portrait mode is meant for capturing subjects that are fairly close to the camera ....imagine someone sitting on a chair in front of you and you are going to take their portrait. In some, if not most digital cameras, portrait mode has a slight warming effect which is meant to enhance skin tones. So it can also be good for taking food shots. If you are without a tripod, hold the camera firmly and brace your elbows against your sides, remembering to press the shutter button halfway to let the camera focus, then smoothly press the rest of the way down.

Fig. 10 shows a short tripod good for tabletop photos. At this short distance, there will be some slight distortion of the subject. If my table were a little longer I would probably move the camera back a little and zoom in. Fig. 11 shows the same with a piece of white paper at the right to reflect light onto the dark side.

You can see the difference it makes in Fig. 12 where the paper was removed. Look especially at the plate underneath the bowl. Where it is bright in the first photo, it is shadowy in the second. I would need a taller piece of white board or foam to be sure and get the bright reflection on the contents of the bowl as well, although you do see some light reflected on the tomato. Since the camera is so near to the subject I would stay in PORTRAIT mode and add an option to the camera setting by clicking on my TULIP ICON which activates MACRO. Macro can come later, but if you have seen that little tulip on the back of your camera, you should know that it's for taking closeup photos. It can usually be added in to most other camera settings.Fig. 13 shows the photo the camera took at that position on the tabletop tripod.

WHITE BALANCE or WB

You may have seen WB or AWB somewhere on your camera menu as you were searching for something else. It's a pretty important part of setting up your camera for taking photos in all light conditions. Nowadays however digital cameras are pretty smart and with SCENE modes, the manufacturers have tried to think of every possible photo situation you may have, from night shots and fireworks to cuisine and have programmed those settings into the camera. However nothing can equal the human eye and cameras sometimes misjudge the type of light in a scene. That's why as well as the always present AUTO, you have adjustable options for telling the camera what type of light you have.

Fig. 14 shows the window setup using a normal tripod and the camera in Portrait mode. I'm going to take some photos to demonstrate WHITE BALANCE.

In Fig. 15 you see what comes up after I press the MENU option on my little Olympus Stylus 800.

You see the letters WB as the bottom option. Pressing the bottom button would bring up the White Balance menu.

Fig. 16 shows that WB menu open on my other camera, and there you see there are seven options to choose from.
(Excuse my untidy desk.)

AUTO - not hard to figure that out. You let the camera decide what the light temperature is... (warm to cool).

SUNNY - with a sun icon, this is one outdoor setting to choose when you have sun or bright daylight and want to be sure the camera knows that.

CLOUDY - with a cloud icon, this option is also for overcast skies but is nice to use indoors by a window such as this one when the light is not too strong.
I nearly always take my food photos indoors by a window with CLOUDY as the white balance setting.

BULB - with a light bulb icon, this is the setting to use under an incandescent, standard light bulb.
Failure to use this setting in evening photos under lamplight will result in the photo having an orange hue.
Using it in daylight will give a strong blue cast to your picture.

FLUORESCENT 1, 2 & 3 - If you've seen and wondered what these centipede icons are on your camera, now you know. Someone had the bright (no pun intended) idea that a fluorescent bulb icon should look like this. Well whatever, we have to accept that it represents fluorescent bulbs. There are three on my cameras, denoting different temperatures of fluorescent bulbs. I find that the first is warm and adds a nice cosy glow to a photo, despite that it may be daylight with no light bulb in sight. The second appears more neutral and the third adds a mauve cast to a photo. I'm speaking now of a comparison of the effects that setting has in a daylight situation. If you are in an office or shop where there is fluorescent lighting, you could perhaps find your white balance menu and try out those three options. The nice thing is that you can see the difference in your viewfinder while you scroll through them before taking a photo.

AWB...stand for auto white balance, which you may see on a screen or in a menu.

I've taken some photos to demonstrate these differences in white balance. I will leave the first seven as thumbnails. But you see as they are a little darker, the differences in the colour temperatures of the WB settings are quite pronounced. They follow the order of my list above, starting with AUTO and ending with FLUORESCENT 3.

You see the heavy blue of photo 4 in both series. That's the result of using the incandescent bulb setting when you are actually photographing with daylight.
It's the correct setting however for under a light bulb when no daylight is present.

1. Auto
2. Sunny
3. Cloudy
4. Incandescent lightbulb
5. Fluorescent 1 (warm)
6. Fluorescent 2 (neutral)
7. Fluorescent 3 (mauve cast)

The next series of seven photos are full size, with the camera setup just as in Fig. 14, using a white paper SWEEP (that comes later) as a seamless background.
I've also increased the EV ...( exposure value or exposure compensation) a little to brighten the pictures and give the 'heavenly' effect to the back light. (EV comes later too.) Since I've raised the exposure value (opened up the lens a bit more) the following photos are quite bright and the differences in the white balance is not so noticeable:

Well I hope this hasn't been too much at once. If so, please just ask me to slow down or explain anything that's not clear.
Next time we'll get into lighting by artificial light, how to use a sweep (other than a broom) and correcting the exposure to lighten or darken your photos with a push of your finger on the EV button.

Until then, thanks for joining me. I'll have the next installment ready soon.

Coming Next: Exposure Compensation (EV)

Sharon (Canarybird)
(All text and photos copyrighted)

Part 1 - Lighting

noreply@blogger.com (Canarybird) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:43:00 +0000

Hi everyone. Here I hope to be able pass on useful hints in a series of tutorials for beginners on how to take food and tabletop closeup photos. I’m just another self-taught hobby photographer but after taking food photos almost every day over a period of several years while participating in a cooking forum I've established some norms for myself on how to take these pictures.

The tutorials are directed to those who are using entry level point and shoot cameras and who may not have yet been able to digest and fully understand their camera's instruction book. I won't be discussing DSLR (digital single lens reflex) cameras, but will keep within the limits of what you can do to improve photos taken with your point and shoot . The basics about lighting and positioning will apply to both types of cameras.

LIGHTING

Light is what defines the shape of an object and is the one factor which can make the difference between a beautiful photograph, an ordinary one, or a downright bad one.
Finding or creating the right lighting for your photos should be your number one concern, especially with food, which can look really unappetizing when photographed in the wrong light, such as flash, or delicious when seen in a good light.

The ideal lighting for tabletop photography, especially food, is natural daylight. But there's a problem when people are wanting to take pictures of their dinner, which is usually an evening meal and in winter especially, a time of day when it is dark.

DAYLIGHT

For the moment though, let's look at one good daylight setup. Perhaps you're baking bread or cakes during the day, or canning and want to show off your work.

Finding the right window in your house is important. Try to find one which is not in full sunshine at picture taking time. There should be indirect light and you should be able to put a table near or under that window, which could be curtained with a thin net if the light is too strong. Most of the time the quality of your photo will depend on finding that window where the light is right. If the window is too high so light doesn’t fall on the subject, get a few books, take out a kitchen drawer and top it with a tray and a cloth to raise up your food plate.

Position your camera facing towards the window and pointing down at the subject. FIG 1. (I'll call the plate of food the subject...okay?) If you can mount the camera on a tripod you will have less chance of camera shake although nowadays most cameras have IS (image stabilization) incorporated. Still you are in better control with your hands free, and even more so if you invest in a cable release. That’s a little cord that plugs into the camera with a plunger on the end. Pressing that instead of the camera shutter release button lessens the possibility that you jerk the camera when you shoot. Cable releases are not an expensive extra item and are nice to use.

The light should come down through the window and skim across the food, bringing out the texture. FIG. 2

Using your optical zoom (not digital zoom) close in a little on the plate until you have it filling your LCD screen or viewfinder. Fig. 3 & 4 show the unzoomed image in the camera and Fig. 5 shows the zoomed image. You are better off moving the tripod back and away from the table a little and then using the zoom to get closer than if you were to place the camera close to the subject. Getting too close will make a distorted picture. You may get that potato in the front line filling up half your picture, while the rest of the plate seems to be falling away at an angle. Move back and zoom in to avoid distortion.

The height of the camera is up to you. If you want to show the plate from the same angle as someone who is sitting down to dine, then have the camera at that level, so you can show what’s on the plate. If you are looking more for an art photo at a low angle then get down and take it from a low side angle. It’s up to you how much of the food you want to display. You can always crop out a lot of the plate with post editing if you only want to give a closeup impression of a dinner without showing every carrot or pea on the plate. But we can talk about that later. For now you’re still setting up the camera.

Be careful of too much hard reflection bouncing off any liquid on the plate.You may have to adjust the tripod or move the plate. You may have to turn the plate to avoid too much bright reflection off gravy or sauce. A little is okay but you want to see down into that sauce too, and not have it look like a bright sheet of white ice.

If the side of the subject facing you is too dark, then you can easily set up a piece of white paper or styrofoam to reflect the window light back onto the dark side of the subject. FIG. 6

In this example I just taped some white paper onto the nearest objects at hand (a vase and a lantern) to reflect light onto the dark side. You can set up something a little more sophisticated with just some folded cardboard lined with tin foil or white paper. FIG. 7 shows the paper reflecting on the dark side.

I love being able to invent things like that out of objects that are already in my house without having to go out and buy professional photo reflectors. But of course they would be nice too!

When you press the shutter, remember to press it half way down and pause a moment while the camera reads the light meter and focuses, Then continue to press all the way down. Some cameras will give an affirmative beep after that half press to let you know that it has your subject in focus. By pressing quickly all the way down without that halfway pause you may have out of focus pictures and wondered why.

Try and practice with some fruit on a plate or dish during some free time during daylight. Take a few pictures on the following settings.

If your camera is like many others, you will have a fully automatic option.Try taking a couple photo on that. Then go to your "scene" modes and try taking a couple on Portrait mode if you can find it, (icon is a girl’s head), and on Indoor, if your camera has that. When you find you’ve taken something you like, make a note of which mode or scene you used.

I know I haven’t yet explained how to take a picture, but next instalment will be about another daylight shoot, taking photos under artificial light and how to set some of the options such as white balance WB and exposure evaluation EV. I hope this has been an easy read and that next time you will learn more.

Before finishing, I'll show here a couple of my best photos taken with my smallest pocket point & shoot, the Olympus Stylus 800 with 8 megapixels. I went to a charity lunch where we were squeezed onto long tables in a crowded room. By extreme luck I was seated across from the only window in the room. It was a tall one with a light white curtain and the light reflected down onto my fish in cream sauce and the luscious creamy dulce de leche in a way that I thought was a perfect example of what I have shown above in FIG. 1. The light is skimming across the food into the camera, leaving lovely reflections. Here are the pictures. Just shows you don't always need the most expensive camera when you have the right light and correct exposure.

Thanks for joining me.
I'll have the next installment ready soon.

Coming next: Lighting and White Balance

Sharon (Canarybird)
(All text and photos copyrighted)