Lars is you can get what you want with fully automatic settings then that's great and it's true you can usually make adjustments in Photoshop or other programs. I had some disappointing results the other day with my DSLR in the Botanical garden where there are extremes of dark shade and bright sunlight. I'm going back there again and will use only automatic to see what settings the same camera chooses and how the pics turn out. Then I can go back again and hopefully fine tune my settings for some better pictures. It's all trial and error sometimes in difficult lighting situations. Luckily the entrance fee is just a couple of Euros. :-) SharonCb

Thanks for the thoughts on the camera. We have decided to get our daughter the new Canon SD 630. With hubbies employee discounts we where able to purchase the camera on line at Crutchfield for $219.99, which includes free shipping, a free case and a free memory card. We agree that canon is a far better camera than the casio and the canon was not that much more than the casio. Cheapest on that one was $169. info specs on camera are as follows: Details: » 6-megapixel effective recording » 3" color LCD viewscreen » 3X optical/4X digital/12X total zoom » Touch Control Dial for convenient camera operation » DIGIC II image processor for true-to-life color reproduction and fast response » 35mm equivalent focal length: 35-105mm » top JPEG resolution: 2816 x 2112 » 16:9 widescreen photo mode (2816 x 1584) » Fast Frame Rate movie mode offers up to 60-frame-per-second video with sound » macro focus mode (minimum distance 1.2") » 9-point autofocus (with selectable 1-point autofocus mode) » My Colors in-camera custom color settings » 9 scene modes, including Fireworks, Kids & Pets, Snow, and Indoor » sensitivity (film speed equivalent) settings » extended ISO sensitivity range for low-light shooting without flash » built-in flash » PictBridge-compatible for direct photo printing » lighted Print/Share button » Exif 2.2-compliant » high-speed USB interface » NTSC/PAL mono audio/video output » 3-11/16"W x 2-5/16"H x 15/16"D » weight: 5.1 oz. without battery and media » warranty: 1 year » Want more peace of mind? Extended Service Plans Available Supplied Accessories: » 16MB SD memory card (holds about 4 photos at the highest picture quality setting) » rechargeable lithium ion battery (NB-4L) » AC battery charger » audio/video and USB cables » wrist strap » software CD-ROM (PC and Mac®)

Posted by canarybird (My Page) on Wed, Aug 5, 09 at 15:32 Food Photo Tips: Part 5 - Artificial Light 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 lucky to have perhaps focal lights over a counter, or a well illuminated baking centre, 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 handholding 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 light circumstances, 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. 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 FLUORESCENT 1 1 CFL bulb Here I changed the incandescent (tungsten) bulb for a new compact fluorescent bulb (CFL) at 11 watts in 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 dont 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 FLUORESCENT 1 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. Ive used the first of the three fluorescent settings my camera offers. Its 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: Heres the one in my desk lamp. It uses 15 watts and puts out the same light as a 75 watt tungsten bulb. Im 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 didnt 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 its a tungsten (incandescent) bulb or a CFL (fluorescent) but when its 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 (Im 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 didnt 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 dont know how it came out without blurring. The scene was set to CANDLELIGHT, White Balance (WB) AUTO and no EV+/-. More details: Shutter Speed 1/250, 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 Ill show you how to make a mini light box and later well make a full sized one. I have mine started but need some more materials from the craft shop. In the meantime heres 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. 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 5 - Artificial Lighting clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by happygram (My Page) on Wed, Aug 5, 09 at 23:53 You are completely awesome. I wish there were someone like you nearby who'd be teaching a photography course. Thanks so very much. Your time and effort are most appreciated. Mary o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 5 - Artificial Lighting clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by shaun (My Page) on Sun, Aug 9, 09 at 9:03 If you published this in book form, it could be a Best Seller. Thanks. o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 5 - Artificial Lighting clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by canarybird (My Page) on Sun, Aug 9, 09 at 19:34 Thank you Mary and Shaun. I hope you find some useful tips in these tutorials. :-) SharonCb

Posted by canarybird (My Page) on Tue, Aug 25, 09 at 18:11 Depth of Field 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, preferrably 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 unzoom 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 difference 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 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 8 - Depth of Field clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by publickman (My Page) on Mon, Nov 2, 09 at 2:34 I did a lot more with depth of field when I used a film camera than I did with digital, and I'm still learning how to use my new digital camera. It was much easier for me with film. Lars o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 8 - Depth of Field clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by canarybird (My Page) on Mon, Nov 2, 09 at 4:58 Lars depth of field is a cinch to handle with a DSLR, and lenses where you can adjust the aperture ...(f/1.4 to f/22). It's not so easy using a non-reflex digital camera. o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 8 - Depth of Field clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by publickman (My Page) on Wed, Nov 4, 09 at 2:40 Unfortunately, I don't have that range of aperture on my camera - the maximum aperture is 2.8, which is not bad, but not as good as 1.4. The ISO range will go to 1000, which I find helpful, since I photograph in ambient lighting, aka fluorescent, in my office most often. I have been lazy and set the camera to be completely automatic for most of the photos I take of my cardboard furniture models, since I have to fix them in Photoshop anyway. I often cut out the background altogether. I also Photoshop out the reflections made from the tape I use to make the models. Lars o RE: Food Photo Tips: Part 8 - Depth of Field clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by canarybird (My Page) on Fri, Nov 6, 09 at 11:27 Lars is you can get what you want with fully automatic settings then that's great and it's true you can usually make adjustments in Photoshop or other programs. I had some disappointing results the other day with my DSLR in the Botanical garden where there are extremes of dark shade and bright sunlight. I'm going back there again and will use only automatic to see what settings the same camera chooses and how the pics turn out. Then I can go back again and hopefully fine tune my settings for some better pictures. It's all trial and error sometimes in difficult lighting situations. Luckily the entrance fee is just a couple of Euros. :-) SharonCb