Persimmons and pasta - learning manual camera settings

It has been a few weeks since I have posted any food photos - but I have been taking photos! 

I have been doing a photography course for the last eight weeks and learnt the joys of using completely "manual" settings on my camera. Somewhere along the line I have missed out on the "technical" side of photography - and now is the time to learn!Until now for my food photography I have been using Aperture Priority, including setting white balance and ISO. Now I am also setting the "shutter speed". 

Manual settings are a whole new ball game - so much more to think about and consider and juggle to get a correct exposure. Lots to learn! Someone said once you learn to photograph with "manual" settings you will never go back to "automatic" again. I think they are right. (although you can't beat automatic for a quick snap!)

Below are some of my first attempts at food photography with all manual settings.
 
I am sure the ladies in my dance class thought I had gone quite mad when I exclaimed over this clutch of duck eggs and I said I wanted to take them home to photograph them!

How about some pasta photographed from above...........  

and some Quesadillas. Such a simple recipe - Melt some butter in a pan. Put a tortilla in the pan, throw on some grated cheese and chopped spinach leaves and chives. (you can also put chopped onion and chilli if you like) Top with another tortilla. Fry each side 30 seconds or so until lightly browned.  Lift out onto paper towell. Service with guacamole and sweet chilli sauce or salsa.  Easy and yummy!
I was chasing the dappled morning light on my patio for this one. 

And who can resist this persimmons  - here you can see early morning back lighting (top) and side lighting (bottom). Don't you wish you could bottle that gorgeous light!
  

And I have rediscovered my old attachable flash unit which I can use to "bounce" light. It hasn't been out of it's box since my film camera days....I took out the corroded batteries, and my husband cleaned up the bits inside, and hey-presto it worked! 

See here used on Persimmons photographed on my kitchen bench top, and then on a black tile.  Light from the flash bounced onto the ceiling.

and finally - rice bowl - minimalistic. This year I have joined the Photography Group of Bunbury. Every month there is a theme, and members present images for critique and judging. I won "gold" with this image. Photographed in my light box.

 How about you? Do you use manual camera settings?
If you search for "Digital Photography School" on the net there are lots of great tutorials, including a 4 part series on manual settings - click here to go to part 1 - aperture-priority-and-shutter-priority-exposure-lesson-1

I hope you have enjoyed stopping by. I love hearing from you and look forward to reading your comments. Thank you.
I am linking into Mosaic Monday at Little Red House and Our World Tuesday. Please click on the links to see wonderful images from contributors around the world. 

Have a wonderful, joyous and blessed week, wherever you are and whatever you do.

You might also like - 

 My food photography on Flickr    
Photographing Food on Black 
 Summer is here

 

Texture Tuesday

I never intended to photography eggs today, but I saw this beautiful morning light coming in through my dining room window - serendipity really.

 This version is textured with 2 layers of Kim's "felicity" texture, which I have done for Kim's Texture Tuesday.
www.kimklassencafe.com/thecafe

Also seen on my Flickr site -  Jill on Flickr

 and here is the original unprocessed image below - just cropped off a bit of the bottom of the image. The light to me says "good morning".  I just wish I had some straw and a hen feather to make it look like I had just collected them from the laying boxes.

So how many eggs would you like for breakfast?

Exploring food photography

I have decided this year to make my project exploring food photography and food photography.
So last Monday, on my day off my paid job.....I spent a lovely day cooking and taking photos of the results.
Most of these are in natural light in my garden, as they say the best food photographers use natural light, although I do still favour my light box for some subjects.

Digital Photography magazine's Macro edition , Volume 12, says that "Food ultimately looks its best right after it has just been served. Often food will start losing its full appeal no more than a couple of minutes after leaving the kitchen. At its best, you should still be able to capture the steam rising from its surface and savour the fresh succulent juices still oozing from the dish that has just been served"

So with this in mind, here is what I learnt.

Here are the eggs ready for the souffle. Take time with the arrangement. This photo was taken in window light, and then sharpened and brightened in Photoshop Elements. 














Cheese and chive soufflé. The soufflé may look fantastic in the oven, but it starts to fall as soon as you take it out, so have everything set up to take the photo as soon as the soufflé comes out of the oven. I had everything set ready to go, but just taking it from the oven to my garden was enough time for the soufflé to start to flop.

I think this one (on the left) is my favourite from the soufflé series.



If you are going to take an overhead picture, then make sure you are totally overhead so everything is in focus. However, I still like this arrangement and photo.






Pizza for lunch?

This is a tomato, salami, mozzarella and pumpkin pizza decorated with a few basil leaves, and made on homemade pizza base. Photographed in natural light under the shade of my pergola in my garden.

What I learnt - use more Mouzarella so the cheese is dripping when you lift the piece of pizza. It is difficult to focus, use a shutter remote and pick up the piece of pizza all at the same time!  It would have added a nice touch to have had some wine in the wine glasses in the background.

Would you like some Olive Bread with that Pizza?
I bought the Olive Bread from a local bakery. I think the basket and the outdoor setting adds to a rustic natural homely effect.



Biscotti - almond bread - for desert?
This one was taken in my light box, as I wanted clean sharp lines with no distracting background.
What I learnt - when you buy a packed of biscotti, half of them will be broken when you open the packet!
I think this shot would make a good magazine shot as there is room for writing at the top. Placing the biscotti to one side of the shot, would also have left room for writing if it were to go into a magazine.

Thank for joining me on my food journey. I hope you have enjoyed this post. The results were certainly yummy to eat!

Thankyou to "Tiddlewinks and More" for giving me the inspiration to start a food project, the Flickr Food Styling group and its members for continued inspiration (their work is amazing), and to Kate, Martha and Linda on Flickr for their continued encouragement.

And to you for looking! I look forward to hearing from you.