Photography - Revision history

Gravity84: /* More Advanced Concepts */

2012-12-30T22:58:26Z

More Advanced Concepts

Gravity84 at 23:22, 16 August 2011

2011-08-16T23:22:50Z

You ate my cat: Undo revision 13320 by Epynevadyr (Talk) - Reverse Vandalism

2010-11-18T15:26:53Z

Undo revision 13320 by Epynevadyr (Talk) - Reverse Vandalism

Epynevadyr at 08:27, 18 November 2010

2010-11-18T08:27:49Z

Gravity84: /* White Balance */

2010-10-31T04:11:46Z

White Balance

Gravity84: /* More Advanced Concepts */

2010-10-30T18:42:26Z

More Advanced Concepts

Gravity84: /* Curves */

2010-10-30T18:40:21Z

Curves

Gravity84: /* Composition */

2010-10-30T18:39:48Z

Composition

Gravity84: /* Composition */

2010-10-30T18:39:15Z

Composition

Gravity84: /* Curves */

2010-10-30T18:25:53Z

Curves

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:58, 30 December 2012
Line 22:		Line 22:

	==More Advanced Concepts==		==More Advanced Concepts==
		+	by Gravity84

	=== Exposure ===		=== Exposure ===

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:22, 16 August 2011
Line 1:		Line 1:
		+	[[category:Other Guides]]
		+
		+
	== Technique ==		== Technique ==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
->== Technique ==
+== Technique ==
 === The basics ===
@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 * '''MOTION BLUR'''. This happens when the shutter speed is too low - the shutter is open too long and the camera records the movement and shaking of your hands holding the camera. There are two solutions:
 ## Use a '''tripod'''. this will eliminate motion blur, but is probably impractical in the typical goon kitchen.
-## Put your camera in '''AUTO ISO''' mode. The camera tries to use a fast shutter speed, but if the lens is &quot;slow&quot; and the ISO is set to a hard low value like 100 then it has no choice but to use a slower shutter to get correct exposure. With the ISO setting on AUTO the camera is free to raise the ISO when it needs to in order to maintain a nice fast shutter, eliminating motion blur.
+## Put your camera in '''AUTO ISO''' mode. The camera tries to use a fast shutter speed, but if the lens is "slow" and the ISO is set to a hard low value like 100 then it has no choice but to use a slower shutter to get correct exposure. With the ISO setting on AUTO the camera is free to raise the ISO when it needs to in order to maintain a nice fast shutter, eliminating motion blur.
-* If you're still getting motion blur (unlikely) or the images are just too &quot;dirty&quot; looking (''noisy'' - very common) then it's time for more '''LIGHT'''. Again, two options:
+* If you're still getting motion blur (unlikely) or the images are just too "dirty" looking (''noisy'' - very common) then it's time for more '''LIGHT'''. Again, two options:
 ## '''Constant lighting''': turn on all the lights in the room, or move the food next to a large window. Maybe get a desk '''lamp''' in there to brighten things up.
 ## '''Camera flash''': as a last resort the flash will give you a fast shutter and clean images though it also gives that nuclear flash effect we know so well.
@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 * Fancy cameras with fast lenses are fun, but don't get carried away. '''Don't shoot wide open''' unless you can get all of the ''interesting parts'' in focus. That means use Av mode and wind it up until you're getting good ''Depth Of Field''. Use the DoF Preview or review your shots and adjust as necessary. Razor thin DoF that only shows a fraction of the dish is a classic newbie bad habit and it's very frustrating for viewers who are actually interested in the food and not your lens.
 * Use different angles. Get above the dish. For the love of god don't shoot every frame '''side on'''.
 ==More Advanced Concepts==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-== Technique ==
+>== Technique ==
 === The basics ===
@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 * '''MOTION BLUR'''. This happens when the shutter speed is too low - the shutter is open too long and the camera records the movement and shaking of your hands holding the camera. There are two solutions:
 ## Use a '''tripod'''. this will eliminate motion blur, but is probably impractical in the typical goon kitchen.
-## Put your camera in '''AUTO ISO''' mode. The camera tries to use a fast shutter speed, but if the lens is "slow" and the ISO is set to a hard low value like 100 then it has no choice but to use a slower shutter to get correct exposure. With the ISO setting on AUTO the camera is free to raise the ISO when it needs to in order to maintain a nice fast shutter, eliminating motion blur.
+## Put your camera in '''AUTO ISO''' mode. The camera tries to use a fast shutter speed, but if the lens is &quot;slow&quot; and the ISO is set to a hard low value like 100 then it has no choice but to use a slower shutter to get correct exposure. With the ISO setting on AUTO the camera is free to raise the ISO when it needs to in order to maintain a nice fast shutter, eliminating motion blur.
-* If you're still getting motion blur (unlikely) or the images are just too "dirty" looking (''noisy'' - very common) then it's time for more '''LIGHT'''. Again, two options:
+* If you're still getting motion blur (unlikely) or the images are just too &quot;dirty&quot; looking (''noisy'' - very common) then it's time for more '''LIGHT'''. Again, two options:
 ## '''Constant lighting''': turn on all the lights in the room, or move the food next to a large window. Maybe get a desk '''lamp''' in there to brighten things up.
 ## '''Camera flash''': as a last resort the flash will give you a fast shutter and clean images though it also gives that nuclear flash effect we know so well.
@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 * Fancy cameras with fast lenses are fun, but don't get carried away. '''Don't shoot wide open''' unless you can get all of the ''interesting parts'' in focus. That means use Av mode and wind it up until you're getting good ''Depth Of Field''. Use the DoF Preview or review your shots and adjust as necessary. Razor thin DoF that only shows a fraction of the dish is a classic newbie bad habit and it's very frustrating for viewers who are actually interested in the food and not your lens.
 * Use different angles. Get above the dish. For the love of god don't shoot every frame '''side on'''.
 ==More Advanced Concepts==

@@ Line 99: / Line 99: @@
 ====White Balance====
-Modern cameras try their hardest, but under many circumstances, pictures just look weird.  Why?  Often it is because the camera incorrectly set the white balance.  Various light sources may appear white but they aren't.  Incandescents can appear intensely orange, florescents can appear greenish, shade can be a very cold blue, etc.  Each of these can alter how delicious your food shot's will look.  White balance sets the intensity of the primary colors with respect to each other such that if you were to take a picture of something gray, it would actually be rendered as gray, not amber, not greenish or bluish, but gray.  The easiest way to correct the white balance is to get a gray card and take a RAW picture of it in the same lighting conditions as the picture you want to fix, then in Adobe Camera Raw, use the white balance tool on the gray card to set the white balance.  Then save this as a preset and apply it to the other picture (you shot that in RAW, too, right? oh you didn't...)  You can also fix it with the a curves adjustment layer.  On the left hand side there are three little dropper tools.  Use the middle one to set the white balance, if you have exposure problems, you can use the black one to set shadow levels and the white one to set highlight levels.  Or you can do it the hard way, adjusting the curves.
+Modern cameras try their hardest, but under many circumstances, pictures just look weird.  Why?  Often it is because the camera incorrectly set the white balance.  Various light sources may appear white to the naked eye but once on film or captured by a sensor, have weird shifts in color.  Incandescents can appear intensely orange, florescents can appear greenish, shade can be a very cold blue, etc.  Each of these can alter how delicious your food shot's will look.  White balance sets the intensity of the primary colors with respect to each other such that if you were to take a picture of something gray, it would actually be rendered as gray, not amber, not greenish or bluish, but gray.  The easiest way to correct the white balance is to get a gray card and take a RAW picture of it in the same lighting conditions as the picture you want to fix, then in Adobe Camera Raw, use the white balance tool on the gray card to set the white balance.  Then save this as a preset and apply it to the other picture (you shot that in RAW, too, right? oh you didn't...)  You can also fix it with the a curves adjustment layer.  On the left hand side there are three little dropper tools.  Use the middle one to set the white balance, if you have exposure problems, you can use the black one to set shadow levels and the white one to set highlight levels.  Or you can do it the hard way, adjusting the curves.
 ====Curves====

@@ Line 30: / Line 30: @@
 *Shutter speed: Faster (smaller numbers) speeds "freeze" motion, including hand shake, at the expense of lower caught light (you need to compensate by increasing either ISO or aperture, or both). Slower blurs movement for surreal water effects, and implied motion at the expense of increased hand holding movement, requiring a tripod, and in some cases, the inability to take a shot because the exposure value is too high and you need a neutral density filter to cut the EV down (this is highly unlikely with food photography), this is most used for crazy beach shots that make the water look like fog, or busy touristy shots that make the tourists disappear.  Shutter speed is your best tool for action shots:
 [[Image:Roasted_chickpeas_and_pistachios.jpg]]
@@ Line 37: / Line 38: @@
 *Aperture: Measured in fractions of the focal length, this tells you how "wide open" your lens is. Common values of "f-stop" are f/4, f.5.6, f/8. Opening up your lens catches more light at the expense of "depth of field". Conversely, "Stopping down" your lens gives you more "depth of field" at the expense of less caught light. Depth of field is the amount of an image that is in focus. When your lens is in focus, there is a plane of perfect focus that lies parallel to the surface of your lens. Focus falls off from that plane at a rate proportional to the f-stop. There is something called the "hyperfocal" distance, but that's mostly for landscape photography, and is the distance to focus your lens so that "everything" is more or less in focus from 0ft to infinity.  Aperture is your best tool to use for keeping the viewers attention on one particular item, feature, or component and letting the rest of the picture blur away into dreamy buttery "bokeh." The pleasantness of out of focus areas is called the lens' "bokeh." Bokeh smoothness is a function of number of aperture blades (more is better) and whether or not they are curved (curved is better), straight blades will render point highlights as "sunstars."
 [[Image:Russanddaughtersbagelwlox.jpg]]
@@ Line 52: / Line 54: @@
 *The "Rule of Thirds"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds] is a basic tenant of composition.
 The gist is that you want to mentally divide the picture into 9 segments, by dividing horizontally and vertically into thirds by placing things like horizons and subjects on lines of thirds or on their intersections.  This "creates more tension, energy and interest" and yada yada, whatever, it just looks good that way.
 [[Image:beetnapoleon.jpg]]
@@ Line 58: / Line 61: @@
 Though sometimes you want to:
 *Break the rule of thirds by centering the subject.  This is best used in cases of high symmetry or for "empowering" the subject, which basically means you're giving the subject the majority of the attention in the picture.
 [[Image:Black bean chili.jpg]]
 I chose a top view because there wasn't any particular texture that would lead itself well to a side-on view.  The top view has a bit of symmetry in the circular shape of the bowl, it also highlights the asymmetry in the toppings and condiments.  Another nice thing about a top view, most of the interesting things lie in the plane of perfect focus.
 *Leading lines are basically lines in the picture that "lead the eye" through the picture.  You can do all kinds of things with them.  You can place a line of sushi rolls in the center of the frame and use them as a leading line into a smooth bokeh background, you can use the edge of a plate and place it in a corner to lead the eye with a swooping leading line.
 [[Image:Marinated strawberries.jpg]]                [[Image:Chilledsoba.jpg]]
@@ Line 67: / Line 72: @@
 *Fill the frame:  If there's nothing else to look at, fill the frame with the subject.
 [[Image:4547351596 84259e9c1a.jpg]]
 I didn't feel that shooting this served in a bowl would add anything to it, so I just shot it in the pan, seeing as how everyone has seen a pan before, I filled the frame with the cioppino.
 *Balance.  This rule just means that if you put something on one side of the frame you should have something on the other side to balance the interest.
 [[Image:Palak paneer and naan.jpg]]

@@ Line 77: / Line 77: @@
 *Selective focus.  In a multiple component dish, what should be in focus?  What shouldn't or doesn't need to be?  I tend to think that things of interesting texture should be in focus, things that are commonplace or those that are of boring texture can be placed out of focus.  In the above image, I felt that most everyone has seen rice and naan and the subject of interest was the curry so I chose an aperture that still made the naan and rice recognizable as being on the plate and focused on the curry.
-=====Plating====
+====Plating====
 One nice thing about food photography as opposed to wildlife or landscapes is that you, as cook, have control over how the food looks not only in the frame but on the plate as well.  If you plate with the picture in mind, there will be less to think about when it comes to picture composition.

@@ Line 75: / Line 75: @@
 The curry fills the bottom half of the frame where as the rice and naan gives the eye something else to look at, balancing the image.
-*Selective focus.  In a multiple component dish, what should be in focus?  What shouldn't or doesn't need to be?  I tend to think that things of interesting texture should be in focus, things that are commonplace or those that are of boring texture can be placed out of focus.
+*Selective focus.  In a multiple component dish, what should be in focus?  What shouldn't or doesn't need to be?  I tend to think that things of interesting texture should be in focus, things that are commonplace or those that are of boring texture can be placed out of focus.  In the above image, I felt that most everyone has seen rice and naan and the subject of interest was the curry so I chose an aperture that still made the naan and rice recognizable as being on the plate and focused on the curry.
 ===Lighting===

@@ Line 93: / Line 93: @@
 ===Curves===
 Curves may look daunting, but once you get used to them, they're not so bad.  Lets start with the RGB curve.  This sets the intensity of the highlights and the darkness of the shadows.  Overlaid, you should see a histogram.  That histogram tells you about your current image, how intense certain light levels in your image are.  More stuff on the left hand side means that there is a lot of shadow, more stuff in the middle means that there are a lot of midtones, more on the right means there are a lot of highlights.  Through the middle from corner to corner there is a line.  You can add points and increase or decrease the amount of shadow, midtone, and highlight you want in your picture.  In order to increase contrast, you want to darken the shadows and increase the highlights creating an S-curve.  Vice versa if you want to decrease contrast.  You can also adjust the curves of each of the primary colors, Red, Green, and Blue.  The power of the curves adjustment layer is that you can adjust the white balance in the highlights, midtones, and shadows separately and use layer masks to fix multiple light source color balancing issues.  Here are a few tips:
-*Removing red makes things cyan, so if you try and remove a blue cast from something, and it's just making things yellow and not removing all of the blue, try adding a bit of red.
+*Subtracting red makes things cyan, so if you try and remove a light blue cast from something, and it's just making things yellow and not removing all of the blue, try adding a bit of red.
-*Removing green makes things magenta.  Likewise with red casts, try adding a bit of green.
+*Subtracting green makes things magenta.  Likewise with light red casts, try adding a bit of green.
-*Removing blue makes things yellow.  And with green casts, try adding a bit of blue.
+*Subtracting blue makes things yellow.  And with warm green casts, try adding a bit of blue.
 == Proper dorkroom stuff ==
 [http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3322220 Thread: Food Photgraphy and You]