Camera for Food Pictures

[pacanis]

That's a real good tip. Now you tell me
I always take a couple with the flash and a couple without, then choose whichever one looks better. I don't have good lighting in my kitchen, so sometimes it's better to tone down the pic taken with the flash rather than brighten the non-flash pic up. Although sour cream and a bright flash definitely leave something to be desired..... so even if I salt and peppered my baked potato after putting the butter on, I will usually hit it with the pepper again after putting the sour cream on, just to break up the white

 

[GotGarlic]

Jeez, I'm so HUNGRY now after looking at all these yummy-looking dishes!

Pacanis, try sprinkling with some parsley, too - makes it look more appetizing, although your pix always look delish anyway I sometimes put a kitchen towel over my stove, put the plate on the towel, and take a pic with the light under the range hood shining down on the food.

 

[pacanis]

Ya know..... I needed to find another use for the parsley I have.
I bought a bunch for the mussels I made last Friday, used very little of it, and have no idea what to do with the rest. I'm thinking my hens are going to be eating parsley in the next couple of days
I'm not into presentation type photography, though I do like looking at the pictures I see on this site. I just want my food to look edible. Some day I'm going to surprise y'all and buy a tablecloth

 

[QSis]

pacanis, you are a big fan of steak, and if you have not yet been introduced to chimichurri sauce to spoon over your hot steak, you don't know what you've been missing! Delicious!

Lots of chimichurri recipes out there - many with cilantro, which I hate. So I use mostly parsley (the point of this post) and lesser amounts of other fresh herbs I have (I like a little oregano, marjoram and thyme in mine).

Here's an online recipe that's like the one I make. Recipes : Chimichurri Sauce : Food Network

Let me know how much you love this stuff!

Lee

 

[pacanis]

Steak? What, me? LOL

Thanks for the link, Lee! Aside from steak Oscar back when I used to eat out, I never had any kind of sauce on steak.

Pics to follow....

 

[middie]

I have a kodak easy share and i love it

 

[AllenOK]

Maybe we could drag Ironchef in on this thread? He was always posting pics of his dishes.

I have a Nikon D40 and love using it. That said, I am "into" photography, and love to take challenging pictures. I am one of two people that take pics of food and buffet presentations at work, although I haven't done this in awhile, as my D40 is a little big to fit in my drawer. The smaller, point-and-shoot type cameras are great for this. One of the managers at work has an iPhone, and I wouldn't be surprised if he takes pics of some of the things at work to document them.

Lighting IS everything. If you are working with a point-and-shoot, you may or may not be able to control exposure, apeture, etc. That's when knowing about the darkness/lightness of the image is critical. The pics of the ribs are a good example. I've noticed that when I'm taking pics at work, I get better results if the plate is on clean stainless steel. A white cutting board, or a poorly-lit area (like my line) is not really the best place to take pictures.

 

[Jeekinz]

IC's got a camera phone! rotf

 

[Barbara L]

One thing I like about my Olympus is that it flashes when it needs it and doesn't flash when it doesn't need it. I do love how the cuisine setting works, but some of the settings don't work so well. The night scene and night scene+portrait settings don't work very well (the lights look blurred). The available light setting comes out a little grainy. I use the sport setting when we are driving, and it works great, and the indoor setting works great as well. The landscape and landscape+portrait settings work really well. It even has a self-portrait setting, which works well too. Oh yeah, the behind glass, document, beach & snow, and sunset settings are pretty good. I haven't tried some of the other settings, including underwater. It also has an auto setting and video, both of which work well. It is basically a point & shoot camera, but I love that it gives me a little control.

Barbara

 

[GB]

The night scene and night scene+portrait settings don't work very well (the lights look blurred).

This is because it is using a slow shutter speed. You would need to use a tripod in order for it to not blur. Even at that you should really have a shutter release cord so that the action of pushing the shutter button does not cause the camera to move which will also add to the blur.

 

[Jeekinz]

Even at that you should really have a shutter release cord so that the action of pushing the shutter button does not cause the camera to move which will also add to the blur.

Some cameras allow you to partially depress the shutter button to temporarily "hold" the image in focus which somewhat eliminates that.

 

[GB]

Nope that is something completely different Jeekinz. You are talking about focus. Most, if not all cameras work that way. You push the shutter button down halfway that that holds the focus point. That has nothing to do with the shutter speed. It is the long shutter speed without the camera being rock steady that is causing the blur, not the focus.

 

[Jeekinz]

You push the shutter button down halfway that that holds the focus point.

Right. But using that feature will produce clearer images when you're taking shots that require long shutter speed. Some people just fully depress the button, which causes a blur, and you don't really need to.

 

[GB]

No that will not really give you clearer pictures unless the camera is already rock steady. You need to make sure it is perfectly steady (tripod and shutter release cord) otherwise pushing the shutter down half way wont matter at all. You could have perfect focus, but any movement of the camera, no matter how small, will give you blur.

 

[Barbara L]

I always press it down a little to focus, but I do also plan to get a tripod. I figured it was because of that--no way to hold it completely still. Sometimes though, I love to just get goofy and try for strange light shots. I have some on my home computer that I like better than these, but here are a couple. (Sorry to go so off-topic!).

Barbara

 

[Andy M.]

I always press it down a little to focus, but I do also plan to get a tripod. I figured it was because of that--no way to hold it completely still. Sometimes though, I love to just get goofy and try for strange light shots. I have some on my home computer that I like better than these, but here are a couple. (Sorry to go so off-topic!).

Barbara

Barbara, perhaps a little less caffeine is in order...

 

[Barbara L]

Never!

Barbara

 

[pacanis]

I always press it down a little to focus, but I do also plan to get a tripod. I figured it was because of that--no way to hold it completely still. Sometimes though, I love to just get goofy and try for strange light shots. I have some on my home computer that I like better than these, but here are a couple. (Sorry to go so off-topic!).

Barbara

Yeah..... those pics are "OK" I suppose.....
But my favorite so far is still that plate of nachos with the hand sneaking into the pic

 

[Barbara L]

Yeah..... those pics are "OK" I suppose.....
But my favorite so far is still that plate of nachos with the hand sneaking into the pic

I wondered where all the nachos were going!

Barbara

 

[justplainbill]

Some cameras allow you to partially depress the shutter button to temporarily "hold" the image in focus which somewhat eliminates that.

When using my camera in auto mode, pressing the shutter button halfway initiates the automatic setting of focus, aperature, shutter speed and 'film grain'?. After pressing halfway the instructions say you should press the rest of the way when the green light (indicating auto settings have been implemented) appears.
For example, indoors at 18:30 yesterday (with minimal room lighting), the auto settings resulted in photos being taken with the equivalent of a 1/6 second shutter speed, F2.8, and ISO sensitivity of 400. The composition of the picture consisted of a foreground distance of 4', subject at 14' and background at 24'. Focus was good to about 19'. The camera is an Olympus SP-570UZ.
Based on my experiences with target shooting it seems, the closer the subject is, the less critical camera shake becomes; besides some cameras have shake compensation logic.