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

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 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 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