Dear Readers,
I am so inspired by the absolutely stunning photos on other food blogs. For example, there's 101 Cookbooks. Sure, Heidi Swanson is a professional, but I can't help but drool at the photos on her site, thinking one day, maybe, just maybe, I can take photos that look that good.
She's not the only one: Chubby Hubby turned me on to Delicious Days, Kuidaore, Nordljus, and The Traveler's Lunchbox to name just a few. Some are professional; some are just good at taking pictures. But I also suspect they have the right gear.
The question is: what are the best digital cameras for shooting food? Often this means low-light situations, and also shooting very close to the subject. It seems most use digital SLRs and we've heard the Nikon D70, it's cousin, the Nikon D50, and the Cannon EOS Digital Rebel XT are favored among the food and photo blogger glitterati.
Can anyone speak to the point-and-shoot category? Or are we crazy not to spring for an SLR?
(photo: Heidi Swanson)
If you want to get really serious about digital studio photography, you'll want to get a medium format (e.g. 4x5) camera with a digital scanning back, such as the BetterLight models: http://www.betterlight.com/
I have to say you don't need an SLR or a Medium format for good pictures. I have been searching for the answer to this question myself and most of the great macro photos on Flickr are taken with the Nikon Coolpix.
I want a D50 (why get the D70 when the D50 is smaller and just as professional?) but the Coolpix's work is really convincing.
I like the Canon A85 (4mp) - takes really great pictures and has various manual capabilities in a fairly compact and easy to handle case.
you can get surprisingly good results from a little point and shoot digital camera. always shoot in natural, even light with no flash. also play with the settings (macro, etc). i'm not a photographer.
You don't need to spend a great deal of money to get great photographs. The so called consumer level cameras can produce a great file. What you need is great light. Sunlight can be best but if that isn't available to you try buying a dual softlight with umbrella - experiment.
look for something with image stabilization. This should make a huge difference for this sort of thing.
I am wating for the sony T9
I use my sony w3. I turn off the flash, use macro mode and if it is low light set up a tripod so I can use a longer exposure and not get blur.
You can take a good shot of food with any camera if you take a little time to experiment.
A point and shoot is good enough especially if the shots are just going on the web, yes(!) to the tripod and natural light, and try using different sizes of white/silver cards to bounce light into shadowy areas. One important thing that would help you get the right depth of field (the look of focusing in on one section of the plate/food and the rest goes out of focus) is the combination of features on some digital cameras of being able to choose your aperture (you'll want to use a wide open one of 2.8 or 2.) and being able to manually focus in macro mode.
I agree that food shots can be acheived with nearly any camera given enough time and practice. I work with a very simple canon PS230 and likethe results. But then I am focused on the food itself, and not the lighting tricks and background as much as to capture the real honest appearance of the food as it comes out of the oven ready for service. I prefer at least for "things I have cooked" to have a very real perspective and not be so artful that the food is inedible or cold by the time I have captured it on a chip. I don't generally manipulate it even after the fact before posting, it's a what I cook you see kinda deal for me at this point, I guess I think more like a chef than a photographer when it comes to this topic. My backdrop nearly always is my kitchen tile counter when the dish has been pulled out to "rest" prior to service, or even just simply plated for service. Anyone else feel this way?
I used a 3.2 megapixel something. It's so off-brand that I can't even remember, at the moment. I can get good pictures out of it, but it does take a lot of tweaking the lighting and definitely requires a tripod. Needless to say, I've been eating a lot of cold dinners.
I plan to get an EOS Digital Rebel, at some point. If I find myself the personal chef to a sugar daddy, I'll be getting a Mamiya with a digital scanning back.
Any medium format professional camera will give great results.
It's not so much the camera, but the lens. On a small P&S (or even on the large ones), you're limited to whatever you have on the camera; however, on the DSLRs that you have mentioned, you have the option of switching to whatever you need.
If you're just starting out, a decent P&S, or maybe a 'prosumer' with manual options will be sufficient for you to learn the ropes. Eventually though, you'll move on to a DSLR for their responsiveness, and versatility. Note though, that in the current market, the price difference between a Prosumer camera with all the bells and whistles, plus a decent lens is minimal when compared to a starting Nikon or Canon kit.
Nikon or Canon? D50 or D70? You'll have to do some research to decide exactly what your style or needs are. Nikon lenses (and it IS the lenses that you're buying into when you pick a particular brand) tend to work better for in-close, or regular shots, whlie Canon lenses are favoured for their telephoto models.
Dpreview is a good place to do your research, and ask your questions if you want to dig deeper.
PS.
After perusing some of the photographs from the websites you've mentioned, it looks like they've pretty much all used techniques regularly used in portraiture -- that is, lenses with large apertures and thusly, shallow depths of field. Frequently in portraits, the background is all fuzzy. This snaps the subject immediately into the attention of the viewer. Whether you go Nikon or Canon, make sure you get their extremely reasonalbe F1.8 50mm lens as part of your first purchase!
Yes. I am a geek.
Look at the food photos at:
http://www.othodge.com/menu.html
These are quality photos taken with a Sony DSC W1
As someone who is considering the leap into the world of DSLRs, I thank you for this post. The comments have been very useful!