Its all about FOOD!!

So you go to a fancy restaurant or cafe and order something that you like. When the dish comes to your table presented in an awe aspiring way my hand automatically goes to my phone and out comes the food photographer in me. I snap the dish in various angles and try and focus on different elements on the plate. This obviously annoys the crap out of my friends and sometime might also mean cold food.

I have noticed that this is becoming more and more common in restaurants pretty much everywhere. You snap a photo and upload it to Facebook or Instagram it or Tweet it or you could be a photo blogger!

Last week I had an opportunity to meet a Food Blogger Ashley from I am so Hungree. This was again was a part of a meet up organized by Jeff (he has a knack of picking up interesting and varied topics).

This meetup took place in Cafe Blac (this deserves a blog post of its own, coming up soon).

Today's meet up was a bit like an informal chat where Ashley spoke about her experience as a food blogger. I have listed some of her tips in the post.

Ashley with the food blogging enthusiasts.

All the photos on this blog have been taken with Nikon D700 using Nikkor 50mm f1.8mm. All the shots have been shot in available light (which we had ample coming from the glass windows).

Shutter: 1/80 Seconds, F2.2, ISO 250

#Tip 1: If its possible sit closer to a window with natural light. This can be your source of light. In most pubs or fine dine restaurants the area near the bar or closer to the kitchen is more illuminated. So you can sit at those areas to get maximum light.

Shutter: 1/60 Seconds, F2.2, ISO 250

#Tip 2: Travel light when you go to a restaurant. Carry your fastest possible lens and keep the camera handy, so you dont have to wait once the food arrives.

Shutter: 1/60 Seconds, F2.2, ISO 250

#Tip 3: Make sure you have taken a few shots before the food arrives to get an idea about the light and adjust your camera settings.

Shutter: 1/80 Seconds, F2.2, ISO 250

#Tip 4: As a rule of thumb use f2.2 and shutter at 1/60 seconds. The shutter speed can be increased to get the desired effect. Its OK to increase the ISO but do not reduce the shutter below 1/60 to avoid getting camera shake or blurry images.

Shutter: 1/60 Seconds, F2.2, ISO 250

#Tip 5: Focus on the element on the dish that appeals you the most. It could be the green coriander on the egg or tomato on the salad. Make sure you control where you want your user to look and how the image should flow.

Shutter: 1/60 Seconds, F2.2, ISO 500

#Tip 6: Adding human element (hands) in the photo can enhance by the photo by providing a story to your photo.

Shutter: 1/80, F2.2, ISO 250

#Tip 7: Rotate the plate if required. Check which angle enhances the food on the plate. There is no need to capture the complete dish, you can concentrate on one element on the plate.

Shutter: 1/100, F2.2, ISO 500

#Tip 8: Avoid aligning the edges of the plate to the edge of the photo. (This tip, like most of the other tips in the blog are dependent on personal taste, use them according to your own taste) 

Shutter: 1/100 Seconds, F2.2, ISO 500

#Tip 9: If there is a texture that you would like to highlight, get up and close and try to show that through your photography.

Shutter: 1/125 Seconds, F2.2, ISO 500

#Tip 10: Make use of the table if it has a nice texture or an appealing colour (only if you are not going to eat the food or the table is very clean) (I would have like to have the knife and fork out of the tissue paper, but i didn't of it then hence the result.

Shutter: 1/80 Seconds, F2.2, ISO 250

#Tip 11: Last but not the least enjoy your meal and make sure you eat it when its still nice and warm.

So what are you waiting for? Get clicking!

My Light Painting experience

Light painting is what we all have been doing. Capturing light to make an image is a form of light painting. So to have hands on experience I attended a workshop.

This was sometime back in September 2012, the workshop was conducted by Jeff from the Melbourne Photography Workshops meetup which can be found here. It was aimed at taking long exposure shots while we used some form of light source.

The various available light sources were EL wires (which can be purchased on eBay), torches (they can be a bit too bright), LED's, steel wool (most used and my favourite), bike lights, sparklers (they do not last long, but make interesting patterns). Anything that produces light can be used for light painting. Experimenting with them is a lot of fun.

Light sources can be used by themselves to create interesting patterns or can be used along with a person to create some dramatic portraits.

A few things to remember when doing light painting. 

• Make sure that the ISO is as low as possible. 
• A tripod is a must. 
• A shutter release though not crucial its a good to have (without shutter release you have to make sure that you are comfortable to manually depress the shutter button for more than 2minutes). 
• A light source to help you focus (Manually focussing the camera is essential).
• An aperture at around 8.0 is good to get most of the elements in the image in focus.

Shutter: 90 Seconds, f8.0, ISO 200

This image was created as follows:

Light Source use: Green EL

We were a group of 3, one of us stood at a distance while the rest of us focused our cameras using a LED torch. The second person turned the EL wire ON. When the shutter was released, the EL wire was zigzagged around the person.

To get an even more dramatic photo, after the EL wire is zigzagged use a torch to trace the outline of the person. This will give a clear distinction between the green of the EL wire and the person standing.

Shutter: 25 Seconds, f10, ISO 250

This is a classic Steel wool shot. Jeff our workshop instructor was whirling the ignited steel wool and we were all happily snapping away. The trick what Jeff told us was to have a shutter speed that matched the length of the steel wool. So just a rough estimate of how long would the steel wool take to burn completely. If the shutter speed was more than the time taken by the steel wool to burn then we would be able to see the trail of the steel wool rather than an orb.

Shutter: 20 Seconds, f8.0, ISO 250

A few more examples of what we tried at the workshop.

 Shutter: 121 Seconds, f8, ISO 200

Shutter: 15 Seconds, f13, ISO250

Light-painting is a lot of fun. So start experimenting and let me know how you go!