Antiquesilver...I imagine that ISO is not changeable when in any semi automatic mode. The camera wants to do that for you so it will most likely be automatic. However you should be able to raise the EV just one notch up to +0.3, or get a stronger light bulb. Also try substituting the thin cloth with white tissue paper or tracing paper. The cloth might be cutting out too much light. I know what you mean about too strong a light blowing out the detail on the silver pieces. But keep experimenting to get the right combination of camera setting, light and diffusor. If you are interested in reading photography books, I can highly recommend this one "Light - Science & Magic. An Introduction to Photographic Lighting."" by Fil Hunter, Steven Biver, Paul Fuqua. There are detailed explanations of setting up tabletop lighting with a whole chapter dealing with how to photograph metal objects. You might want to have a look in your library or bookstores. The ISBN (I have the 3rd edition) is: ISBN-13:978-0-240-80819-2 , published by Focal Press. Tutorial number nine will be a few days late this week. Probably have it ready for the weekend since we had a lot to do this week, including rescuing our new cat from a neighbour's locked backyard LOL. (All turned out well there.) SharonCb

Posted by canarybird (My Page) on Wed, Jul 22, 09 at 14:41 FOOD PHOTO TIPS : Part 3 - Lighten or Darken Your Photos with EV 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 get some very lovely effects with 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. And my daughter was very pleased when I told her about that when she was getting used to a new camera. Her garden photos turned out so much better with the EV set to -0.3 on bright days. And some closeup flower photos can look quite dramatic at this setting. 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 we go with 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. Click on photos to enlarge. Sorry I see that the Fig. numbers are only visible when you click on the below photos to enlarge them. The first and the fifth are without an EV adjustment. You can read the EV value in the clicked enlargements. (I do love those dark ones!) 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 in 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 give some of these options a tryout. 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 instalment soon. And please feel free to save the pages on your computer. Sharon (Canarybird) (All text and photos copyrighted) Free for personal, non-commercial use Follow-Up Postings: o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 3 - Lighten or Darken Photos with EV clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by loves2cook4six (My Page) on Wed, Jul 22, 09 at 17:13 Sharon THANK YOU for these great tutorials. We are on vacation but I hope to do some experimenting with my camera's settings. I've been to scared to move off AUTO but you are inspiring me to take some "risks" lol o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 3 - Lighten or Darken Photos with EV clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by canarybird (My Page) on Thu, Jul 23, 09 at 5:34 You're welcome loves2cook and I hope you will also try new settings while taking some vacation photos as well. Have a good rest of your holiday! SharonCb o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 3 - Lighten or Darken Photos with EV clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by shaun (My Page) on Fri, Jul 24, 09 at 22:20 Thank you!!!!! o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 3 - Lighten or Darken Photos with EV clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by momto4kids (My Page) on Wed, Jul 29, 09 at 10:21 Sharon, Just when I thought I'd have time to be a regular at CF again...my time gets zapped up so quickly. I wanted you to know I am thoroughly enjoying these posts! I am having a great time figuring out what you're saying with my own camera. My pictures have already improved remarkably. I've been begging (okay, whining) to take some classes and they just aren't to be found around here. Your tutorials are just what I need! Thank you for all your time! Deb

Posted by canarybird (My Page) on Wed, Jul 29, 09 at 19:02 Food Photo Tips: Part 4 - Seamless Backgrounds 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. ( I see Garden Web has problems today and all posting is being stopped for a few hours, so this may come as a Thursday post, rather than on a Wednesday.) 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 youre 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 in a small object, 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. We'll go over that again and how to put it all together as Step 1, Step 2....follow me ...and see if we can even get some questions going. Thanks for your responses too. I appreciate knowing if this is of help to you. Until then, 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) Free for personal, non-commercial use Follow-Up Postings: o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 4 - Seamless Backgrounds clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by loves2cook4six (My Page) on Wed, Jul 29, 09 at 19:21 Sharon, You are AMAZING. You should collate all these posts and publish a book: All you ever wanted to know about taking outstanding photographs of food I'm sure others will have an even better idea for a title but I wanted to be the first to put it out there :) These threads are invaluable. Thank you for all your time and effort. o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 4 - Seamless Backgrounds clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by canarybird (My Page) on Wed, Jul 29, 09 at 19:37 Oh thank you loves2cook. It's good to hear that these little postings can be of help. There are some wonderful books and blogs on food photography, some more technical than others, and certainly better than what I write here. I'm trying to keep it simple for now, and haven't mentioned words like aperture, shutter speed, ISO, so as not to frighten anyone LOL....at least not yet! SharonCb o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 4 - Seamless Backgrounds clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by foodonastump (My Page) on Fri, Jul 31, 09 at 12:01 Hi Sharon - I just want to add my thanks for these practical tutorials. You've definitely explained/resolved a few frustrations I've had in my feeble attempts at this type of photography. Thank you! o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 4 - Seamless Backgrounds clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by canarybird (My Page) on Fri, Jul 31, 09 at 14:12 You're welcome foodonastump, I hope you will continue to find useful hints in the coming postings! And thanks for the feedback. SharonCb o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 4 - Seamless Backgrounds clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by antiquesilver (My Page) on Sat, Aug 1, 09 at 5:12 I anxiously await each of your posts - your tips are priceless! o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 4 - Seamless Backgrounds clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by happygram (My Page) on Sun, Aug 2, 09 at 3:07 You are absolutely amazing. I was away for a couple of weeks w/o a computer, and coming back to find these hints of yours was a real gift Thanks you so very much. You're not only a superb cook and great photographer and teacher but are so very kind to take your time to help like this. Mary o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 4 - Seamless Backgrounds clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by canarybird (My Page) on Sun, Aug 2, 09 at 6:19 Thanks to you both antique silver and happygram for your comments. I'm sure not a superb cook though, but if anything tastes good at my house, I probably got the recipe from the Cooking Forum and the good cooks we have here! SharonCb o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 4 - Seamless Backgrounds clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by kcsunshine_2006 (My Page) on Mon, Aug 3, 09 at 17:27 Sharon, thank you, from a lurker! This is really a spectacular gift. KC

Posted by canarybird (My Page) on Wed, Aug 19, 09 at 16:21 Food Photo Tips Part 7: Macro, Closeups & Camera Icons 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 SUPERMACRO The term macro when used with photography refers to making small objects look larger through the lens of your camera. Point and Shoot cameras have a normal focal range within which objects are in focus, that is, the camera is able to see your subject clearly and record a sharp image. However if you get too close to something the camera is no longer able to focus. By using the MACRO function on your camera you are able to get a closer shot . 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 forum members 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 member's 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 cameras 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 its 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: Steves 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. Dont 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. Heres 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. Heres 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 & PORTRAIT the camera sets the optimal shooting conditions for a background scene with a subject in the foreground. LANDSCAPE the camera will use a small aperture (lens opening) to be sure the whole of the photo will be in focus, from foreground to background. This is the opposite setting to PORTRAIT where the background is deliberately blurred. 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 arms 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 youve 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 dont 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 this has been very long today so although we havent got much more to cover in the next two or three tutorials (I thought wed finish with ten all together), I think next time Ill go over the FLASH icon and FLASH menu as well as the SELF-TIMER option which lets you jump into your photos. Subjects Id 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 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. And please feel free to save the pages on your computer. Sharon (Canarybird) :-) (All text and photos copyrighted) Free for personal, non-commercial use Follow-Up Postings: o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 7 - Macro & Camera Icons clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by coconut-nj (My Page) on Mon, Aug 24, 09 at 8:38 Sharon, while I haven't been posting directly to your photo tip threads, I've been following them avidly. I so appreciate all the effort you've gone to to explain in such an easy way so many aspects of taking good [better for some of us] pictures. The last week or so I've been very busy organizing and then hosting our family reunion at a local fancy diner and have not had a real chance to digest the latest installments. The macro stuff interests me very much. I've tried to use my macro recently and found when I did the camera refused to take the picture?? Odd. LOL.. I'll figure it out but I suspect I'll have to dig through the manual to see what the problem is. Your post makes me suspect it has something to do with the camera not being able to focus on what I'm trying to do or the distance, or something..heh.. and it won't fire as self preservation. Smiles. I'll figure it out and then be back to digest more of your post. Btw, I got a tripod for my birthday! Yay.. I relative I had staying with me for a while apparently absconded with my last tripod. Grrrr... Needless to say I'm looking forward to using the tripod to work on some of your 'lessons'. Thanks for all your great work on our behalf. o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 7 - Macro & Camera Icons clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by canarybird (My Page) on Mon, Aug 24, 09 at 10:58 Thank you coconut, and good that you have a tripod now. I'm wondering what mode or scene you are using on your camera when you add in the macro factor. Are you in AUTO or PORTRAIT (closeup) mode? If you are in a scene mode such as landscape for example, you can't use macro as well because you would sending two different messages to the camera...a landscape or far away mode such as sport or sunset and macro, a very closeup mode. The other thing, if you are in PORTRAIT mode and adding in macro, the camera should take the picture unless you are too near your subject or it is too dark. Does you focus lamp blink (the dot in the corner of your screen) before the camera refuses to take the photo? If so, that tells you that the camera can't focus at the distance you are from your subject. Move back a little and keep pressing the shutter button half way several times until the blinking stops. Then take the picture. Let me know if that works and if not I'll think of something else. Luck....:-) SharonCb o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 7 - Macro & Camera Icons clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by coconut-nj (My Page) on Wed, Aug 26, 09 at 1:13 Good points Sharon, I'll check it out. I thought I had been in food mode, but maybe not. Also the lack of light is quite possible, I'll check that out too. Thanks. Smiles. o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 7 - Macro & Camera Icons clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by antiquesilver (My Page) on Sun, Aug 30, 09 at 1:42 I don't remember if it's this lesson or another that you suggested using the Self Portrait Timer setting with a tripod to avoid camera shake. So simple & yet so effective. The tripod part is standard but I don't remember being advised about using a timer before but it certainly makes a difference on inside shots. o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 7 - Macro & Camera Icons clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by canarybird (My Page) on Sun, Aug 30, 09 at 5:57 Right on track antique silver. I'm going over the self-timer in the next entry, hope to have it ready for Wednesday for those who have never tried out using that feature on their camera, along with setting up the tripod and some tips on that. The self timer avoids any shake you might cause to the camera when you press the shutter button. A shutter cable release is another inexpensive addition which permits you to press the shutter without disturbing the camera body. Both systems will help you to eliminate blur caused by camera shake. SharonCb o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 7 - Macro & Camera Icons clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by dirtgirl07 (My Page) on Sun, Nov 1, 09 at 13:54 Hi Sharon, I feel a little guilty not posting about food!! I have a question that you might be able to answer. I'm trying to take photos of miniature paintings (2.5x3.5in) and the varnish creates a major shine on them. Do you think your mini light box and macro would work on these? The shine is similar to that you get off of jewelry and silver. We've even tried scanning them in which does reduce that glare, but not completely. Thanks for any help! Beth o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 7 - Macro & Camera Icons clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by canarybird (My Page) on Sun, Nov 1, 09 at 17:28 Hi Beth.... If you're taking closeup shots of miniatures you should be in macro mode. Reflection is always a problem with shiny objects. The light box would be fine as long as you can diffuse the light source by using white tissue or drafting paper and can change the camera angle as well as moving the objects around until the reflected light is not bouncing up into the camera. It will take quite a bit of juggling around to get the angle where you don't see the reflection, but diffusion is just as important. Good luck! SharonCb o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 7 - Macro & Camera Icons clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by dirtgirl07 (My Page) on Sun, Nov 1, 09 at 18:44 Thanks Sharon! I guess it's going to be an experiment. After posting the question I realized that these were not 3 dimensional either - but flat surface.. That was going to be a challenge on the surface glare. They have to be photographed straight on. The scanned version may have to do, but it doesn't pick up the detail well. Thank you for your posts on the photography - those were great. Your photos are all wonderful looking and after seeing them and a lot of gorgeous blogs, you must have trained a LOT of people. Makes looking at all that food delicious!! Beth