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mikeschmidt

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I have been following this forum for awhile and have really enjoyed the photos and comments. I have a lot to learn but I am certain this thread has helped me improve my own photography.















 
Nice color and contrast, but I think the depth of field is too shallow, especially in the last two pictures. While it's nice to blur the background, the fact that only a third of the plate and only a small sliver of the rack (and in the middle to boot!) are sharp make it look like a mistake.

I understand the temptation of making DOF as small as possible to blur the background into oblivion, but just because you can does not mean that you should... Just my opinion.

Vlad
mikeschmidt said:




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You are correct. I have never had a lens like the 20mm f1.7. It is a lot of fun but shouldn't be used like a hammer.

Would you recommend the whole plate of jalapeno peppers (filled with cream cheese) to be in focus?

For the rib photo I thought having a shallow DOF would work well since the details of the ribs didn't change over the length of the slab. I agree having the DOF within the length of the ribs doesn't work. Next time my brother invites me over for a cook-out I will try to get the first 1/2 in focus.
 
mikeschmidt said:
Would you recommend the whole plate of jalapeno peppers (filled with cream cheese) to be in focus?
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I think I would have as much of a plate in focus as possible, but place the plate in such a way that the background would be far enough to stay blurry and unobtrusive. May be the grill at a larger distance would fit in better, and could be guessed in the outlines. That would provide a context without being to distracting.
 
Lol, my wife is addicted to them ;) (albeit red ones)
Got to admit, they are yummy assuming my tummy can handle them.
Tim in upstate NY said:
Ann Chaikin said:
Yum! My favorite is the third one. Whatever those are I want one. ;-)
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. . . Those are stuffed jalapeno peppers and I want them too!
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--
Hubert

My cameras: GF1, TZ3, recently fixed (I think) Minolta Hi-Matic 7s, broken Konica Auto S2(couldn't fix, who the heck GLUES screws in??), K1000 and my wife's old K110D



http://www.flickr.com/photos/peppermonkey/
 
Hmm...a lot of my food pics do turn out that way also (shallow depth and all) but most of the time I take them at restaurants which = dark and limited in how I can place/compose the food, all the while without a tripod of course. Generally don't have a choice but to use the 20mm at f1.7 with ISO hovering around 800. Oh well. you do what you can with what you are given.
mikeschmidt said:
You are correct. I have never had a lens like the 20mm f1.7. It is a lot of fun but shouldn't be used like a hammer.

Would you recommend the whole plate of jalapeno peppers (filled with cream cheese) to be in focus?

For the rib photo I thought having a shallow DOF would work well since the details of the ribs didn't change over the length of the slab. I agree having the DOF within the length of the ribs doesn't work. Next time my brother invites me over for a cook-out I will try to get the first 1/2 in focus.
Click to expand...
--
Hubert

My cameras: GF1, TZ3, recently fixed (I think) Minolta Hi-Matic 7s, broken Konica Auto S2(couldn't fix, who the heck GLUES screws in??), K1000 and my wife's old K110D



http://www.flickr.com/photos/peppermonkey/
 
for food shots, i typically try to get almost all of the food in focus, and start blurring at the edges of the food. i dont worry about the plate being in focus and try to make the outer edges of the food the transition from in to out of focus. as an earlier poster mentioned, the peppers looked good in this aspect. i think they are mostly sharp, but you see the blur effect enough. it might be a bit too pronounced in the others, to the point that it distracts me from the subject.

and is that BACON on those stuffed peppers? wow....sounds like a great idea to make one of my favorite foods better :)
 
Mike
Two rules of food photography:
1. Camera angle should not exceed 45* from horizontal.
2. Front 1/3 (third) of food mass (not plate) should be in focus.

The first is good if your intention is to show who was cooking.

The cookie shot is good, the front 1/3rd of the cookie is in focus, but I would have transferred the cookies to a clean pan or a sheet of parchment paper large enough to fill the frame.

The Buffalo Turds photo is perfectly done. Even the racket in the background (the grill) is in context. You should never have the whole plate in focus.

The last photo (ribs), refer to rule #2.

Jimboy

Try to photograph food before you start eating it:). Utensils are always a distraction on the plate, specially when soiled and lay the way they are.
 
Yeah, you cook the bacon at the same time as the peppers. We also fill mushrooms with pepper cheese and wrap in bacon before grilling but it doesn't have the color of the pepper so not as good a subject for photography.
 
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