Food photos

[mauigal]

I have a Nikon D3000....pretty new to the whole DSLR thing...
can someone please tell me how to take good food photos?!
On the point and shoot I used the ISO setting....but can not figure it out on my new camera! I know it has something to do with the 'white balance'.
I just want good, non flash, food photos and an easy setting.
Thanks so much!

 

[SrisonS]

If you shoot in RAW, you won't have to worry about white balance much. You can change it later on. And since most of your food pics are probably indoors, you'll definitely need a higher ISO. That would be a very important setting to learn on your dslr. A lot of food pics also seem to have a shallow dof (blurry backgrounds), so go with the biggest aperture you can (smallest 'f' number). It might seem a bit much at first, but with some practice, all this will become second nature.

Here's a link to a gallery to many 'savory delights'. I'm sure she'd be happy to answer some of your food photography questions. You could even just check her camera settings for each individual picture.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeetzjones/

Good Luck!!!!!

 

[Frantasmic]

Popular Photography has a small article on food in this month's edition covering lighting.

You can get some awesome photos using their technique and some practice. However, I doubt you were intending to go to that much trouble.

Your white balance should be set for the type of lighting you are encountering (tungston, sunlight, shade, etc.) and you should have a WB menu somewhere to select these. There won't be a "magic" setting that is going to guarantee a good photo each time. It will change with your setting and what you are photographing.

Probably not what you wanted to hear, but you've got a cool new dslr and you might as well learn how to use it. Read the owner's manual. Pick some general photography technique manuals. You could also google "short course"+nikon d3000 and use their material, which is a good starting point. Additionally, several camera stores offer a dvd overview for just about any camera.

 

[mauigal]

Thanks you guys!!