bigabyte
somebody shut me the fark up.
Someone recently suggested posting some tips and pointers to help people improve their photography skills. I am by no means a skilled photographer, and really I don't know much of anything about taking good photographs. I am willing to share what I have learned however, those things that have made my photos better than before.
Since the entries posted and voted upon in the Throwdowns are photographs, it can be very helpful to try and get the best picture you can in order to best display your dish to the voters. Granted, the best picture does not always win, but they say a picture speaks a thousand words. So when you describe your dish and people see it in the picture, the quality of your picture could very well be the difference between almost winning and victory.
The first and most important tip I can give you is to use a real camera, and not a camera phone. By "real" camera, I do not mean a pricey digital SLR camera, although if you have one or can get one then that is of course the best camera option out there.:thumb: What I mean by a real camera is one that can be mounted on a tripod and has the ability to adjust settings such as the light source, focal points, sharpness, or other such settings.
The second most important tip I can give you is to get a tripod. There is a very dramatic difference between the sharpness of a picture taken in hand vs one with a tripod. No matter how still you think you are keeping your hand, there are still very tiny vibrations happening, and these will affect your photo clarity, even if the difference seems rather small. For close ups of food where you want each crispy little flake, or small color variations and flecks of spice to "pop", you need as much clarity in your picture as you can get, so get a tripod.
The third most important tip I can give you is to play with your camera settings. For example, on my relatively inexpensive camera (which just died) there are various main settings like Portrait, Auto, etc, but the one I use for the Throwdowns is one called PASM which stands for Program, Aperture priority, Shutter priority, and Manual. When on this setting I can adjust camera settings. On my camera in this setting I can specify the light source which greatly affected my photo quality. After that, I played around with settings and took pictures to find to what worked best for me inside and outside. Since I learned by playing around with it, this is the advice I have to give to you, play around with it and learn what works.
Finally, the last bit of advice I can give at this time is to experiment taking pictures from various angles. Try setting up your camera on your tripod up high and shooting down at your food from above, or down low looking at the food as if it were more at eye level. Don't forget about zoom, and do not be afraid to move your camera back a ways from you dish and zoom in to get the best angle and lighting. Some of my favorite shots so far were taken with my camera set up 10 or more feet away from the food and zoomed in. It is all based on where you have you food sitting and what height your tripod is that dictates this. As you experiment, you will see what I mean.
Hopefully some other people with far better photography skills and knowledge than I have will add some tips of their own. Some of the photos I see posted on this site literally take my breath away. I am also looking forward to any advice and tips others are willing to share.
Please do not post in this thread unless you have advice to give, or have questions about any of the advice given. Any posts that do not in some way help to either offer advice or seek clarity on taking better pictures will be deleted. I would like this thread to be a knowledge base for taking good food pictures, and not a collection of "thank you" posts, or the normal fooling around and chatting (which I myself enjoy very much). Please keep this one strictly on topic.
Thanks to any and all who contribute!
Since the entries posted and voted upon in the Throwdowns are photographs, it can be very helpful to try and get the best picture you can in order to best display your dish to the voters. Granted, the best picture does not always win, but they say a picture speaks a thousand words. So when you describe your dish and people see it in the picture, the quality of your picture could very well be the difference between almost winning and victory.
The first and most important tip I can give you is to use a real camera, and not a camera phone. By "real" camera, I do not mean a pricey digital SLR camera, although if you have one or can get one then that is of course the best camera option out there.:thumb: What I mean by a real camera is one that can be mounted on a tripod and has the ability to adjust settings such as the light source, focal points, sharpness, or other such settings.
The second most important tip I can give you is to get a tripod. There is a very dramatic difference between the sharpness of a picture taken in hand vs one with a tripod. No matter how still you think you are keeping your hand, there are still very tiny vibrations happening, and these will affect your photo clarity, even if the difference seems rather small. For close ups of food where you want each crispy little flake, or small color variations and flecks of spice to "pop", you need as much clarity in your picture as you can get, so get a tripod.
The third most important tip I can give you is to play with your camera settings. For example, on my relatively inexpensive camera (which just died) there are various main settings like Portrait, Auto, etc, but the one I use for the Throwdowns is one called PASM which stands for Program, Aperture priority, Shutter priority, and Manual. When on this setting I can adjust camera settings. On my camera in this setting I can specify the light source which greatly affected my photo quality. After that, I played around with settings and took pictures to find to what worked best for me inside and outside. Since I learned by playing around with it, this is the advice I have to give to you, play around with it and learn what works.
Finally, the last bit of advice I can give at this time is to experiment taking pictures from various angles. Try setting up your camera on your tripod up high and shooting down at your food from above, or down low looking at the food as if it were more at eye level. Don't forget about zoom, and do not be afraid to move your camera back a ways from you dish and zoom in to get the best angle and lighting. Some of my favorite shots so far were taken with my camera set up 10 or more feet away from the food and zoomed in. It is all based on where you have you food sitting and what height your tripod is that dictates this. As you experiment, you will see what I mean.
Hopefully some other people with far better photography skills and knowledge than I have will add some tips of their own. Some of the photos I see posted on this site literally take my breath away. I am also looking forward to any advice and tips others are willing to share.
Please do not post in this thread unless you have advice to give, or have questions about any of the advice given. Any posts that do not in some way help to either offer advice or seek clarity on taking better pictures will be deleted. I would like this thread to be a knowledge base for taking good food pictures, and not a collection of "thank you" posts, or the normal fooling around and chatting (which I myself enjoy very much). Please keep this one strictly on topic.
Thanks to any and all who contribute!
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