Food Blog Forum Orlando Helene Dujardin

@sweettartelette

Camera Shmamera…

Point & Shoot

Digital Single Lens Reflex Cameras Cropped Sensor

Digital Single Lens Reflex Cameras Full Frame

Things To Consider

Upgrading your camera: - Consider budget

- Pre-existing experiences or equipment

- technology, megapixels, bells and whistles

- size, feel, weight.

- usage (blog, print, video,…)

- Consider budget even more…

- (bigger files = bigger storage needed)

Manual? Aperture Priority? Shutter Speed Priority?

MANUAL

- complete control of your camera.

- Once you have chosen your preferred ISO, you control adjusting aperture and shutter speed.

- They work like opposite sliders/ arrows on a sliding scale. When you increase one, you have to decrease the other to obtain appropriate exposure.

- For a shallow DoF: open up your f/stop (decrease the numbers) and increase your shutter speed.

- It works the opposite way to achieve deep depth of field.

- Not ideal when shooting situations change abruptly as it is harder to adjust setting on the fly.

Aperture Priority

- Decide preferred aperture and ISO, & the AP mode will automatically adjust the shutter speed.

- Different stages of DoF can have different results on the composition & styling

- the lower the f/stop, the wider the aperture, the blurrier the background is

- Drawback: the smaller the f/stop, the smaller the focus area .

- Not always ideal to show important elements of a dish.

- In AP mode, you can use the exposure compensation button to help set your exposure (see your manual)

Shutter Priority

- Once you decide of your preferred shutter speed and ISO, the SP mode will automatically adjust the aperture.

- Less widely used than Manual or AP for food blogs.

- Great to capture motions such a syrup, sauces, drip, splashes, etc…

- Slow shutter speeds are helpful in low light but often requires a tripod . The shutter is open for a relatively long period of time which increases chances of camera shake and blur.

Finding Your Light

Outdoor Light Sunny Day

Overcast Day

Window Light – Back Light

Back Light – Diffusing?

To Bounce Or Not To Bounce?

Window Light – Side Light Diffused & Bounced

Window Light – Side Light Non Bounced – Non Diffused

Who You Calling Artificial?

Studio light used as supplemental light source in late winter afternoon and placed on left of subject as you look at it with foam board placed to the right.

Pop Up Flash On Camera

Camera built in pop-up flash used as primary light source and covered with a white piece of paper to diffuse the harsh light.

Studio Light

Studio light used as primary light source, placed to the right (as you look at the subject) and bounced on the left side with white foam core.

Speedlight

Speedlight used as primary light source with head pivoted to the right. Light bounced on left with white foam board

Speedlight used as primary light source with head pivoted toward the ceiling. Light bounced on both sides with white foam board.

Styling & Composition

Bear in mind that these were just decisions I took on that specific occasion. I am in no way saying that these are the decisive steps to style salads or dips. Every time I style salads and spreads I find myself doing it in a myriad of other ways:

- The salad was to be composed of mixed greens, mixed bean salad, cucumber salad, grilled shrimp and grape tomatoes.

- I decided not to scatter the ingredients all over the salad because they would get lost and would make it hard for the viewer to tell what was what.

- Instead I created small clusters of each component and placed them on the outside so that the bulk of the greens would still be visible and indicate it was a salad indeed.

- I cut a couple of the tomatoes open to add visual interest with a different angle and cut.

- I did not have vinaigrette for the salad but if I'd had some, I would have waited until the last minute to use it on the salad to keep the greens as fresh as possible.

- there were only white plates or rustic yellow bowls available as props (I had brought linens and my styling kit).

- I picked the yellow bowl to play with the all the colors of the salad components and it complemented the linens and surface I was working on.

- kept a 3/4 camera point of view so that I could show the bowl in its entirety without any weird angle and without being too "in your face" which is not helpful when you are trying to see the bigger picture.

- I picked and a medium depth of field, not too shallow that you could not tell the ingredients apart and not too deep that they were all in focus. It helped hide the fact that the cucumber was a bit passed its prime too.

Styling & Composition

The spread came from a standard grocery store plastic container which I decided not to keep for aesthetics reason and instead decided to show what one can do with a "goopey mess". - Instead of plating a mound of spread, surrounded by bread slices and a few salad leaves for garnish, I decided to show a progression and use the spread in action so to speak. - it allows one to play with shapes and angles and not be restricted by just one direction and composition. - Spreads and dips are less difficult to style and more interesting to shoot if you make them do something. - I placed a large spoonful of the spread on the side as to show my starting point - I cut out some slices of bread and spread some of the dip on half the slices, leaving the remaining half without to show that there were still plenty to be used. - I left the knife on the plate to reinforce this idea of movement from the starting scoop of dip to using the bread to eat it with, etc... - I used a spring of thyme as it was part of the herbs listed in the ingredient list and it added a nice touch to the plate. I could have scattered more around but it was not really necessary with the view point I wanted to try for taking the shot. - I went with a closer/tighter camera angle and viewpoint than the salad because there was no reason to show more of the spread/dip than necessary. It was not pretty in its natural state so it was best to focus on the best toast with dip on it. - I chose a shallow depth of field to keep the background element of more spread and bread which were not that visually interested out of focus but still part of the plate