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Saturday, January 11, 2014

Food Photos Made Easy

Sometimes, we would like to blog or Facebook a dish we're proud of having made. How do we do that with a Point & Shoot camera? Or maybe we use a smart phone, many have some very good cameras built into them.


This is what the result usually is:

Well, it shows the food. But, the camera was too close for the focus limit, the light was not enough for a good handheld shot, and the color is just a little blah. Too much to fix in PhotoShop, so let's try again.

Second try:
Backed up some, can crop in later. Problems: focus is fine, but still some camera shake. And now I can see my own reflection.

Hmmm... getting better. But, I want that steam from the hot food to show! To do that, we need light. Strong front light and a dark background. 

My table is already a pretty good dark background. For this shot with my P&S compact camera, the front light will be the built in auto flash. I could have got out my pro camera and the studio strobes, but that would be overkill for what is supposed to be a simple pic for online use. Many of the better smart phone cameras have a flash app. If not, get a floor or table lamp and put it right next to you on one side.

Third try:

Nice! Better color, in focus, no camera shake, and I can see the steam. (Yes, that's real, not a PhotoShop retouch.)

Let's reposition for a little better framing, do everything like I did for pic 3 ...

Final photo:

There we go! A good food photo (with no PhotoShop work needed) to highlight the recipe we will post to show (Okay: brag) to our friends.

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