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« The Pâtisseries of Paris: A Paris Pastry Guide April 27, 2008
On my recent trip to Texas, due to a missed connection back to Paris, I found myself with a few hours to kill (17 hours, if you want to know exactly...). Hence I thought I'd use that valuable time to write and respond to the queries I've gotten about my photography gear and the photos on my site....
Set-up for Carrot Cake, French-Style post
So I learned a great deal from them about how to shoot things, what angles look best, and most importantly, when to leave things alone.
Pistachio Gelato, shot outdoors in natural light, on my roof.
Unlike cookbooks, here I have the freedom to show step-by-step photos, which is helpful for more challenging recipes, such as my Kouign Amann recipe. (Food photography for a book can be incredibly expensive. Each photo can cost $1000 with food and prop styling fees, which is why a book with 250+ recipes doesn't often include a photo of each and every recipe. A heavily-photographed book can bump up the price of the book considerably.)
 
The same photo, revamped using the Levels adjustment in Photoshop.
Yogurt with homemade elderberry syrup
One helpful tip that I read from Heidi was that sometimes the process is more interesting than the actual finished dessert. That's easier for her to do, being a pro, but it's hard for me to make squishy cookie dough or eggy batter look appetizing. But sometimes I like to break up the photos with something oozing or messy: that's how most people bake, including me. So why not show it?
Vanilla Soufflé snapped in a Paris restaurant with no flash, at ISO 800.
 
Just changing the white balance can make a dramatic difference.
Camera I use a Canon Rebel. I have the 8 megapixel model, which is currently for sale at a great price. I suspect it's being phased out for the Rebel XTi with the larger screen and more megapixels. Although it's priced more than the previous model, if I was to buy now, I'd spring for the model with the larger screen. But unless you're going to blow up the photos and make them mural-sized, you probably don't need all those megapixels. If you can do one thing to improve your photography, it's switch to a digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera, like the Rebel. The ability to increase the ISO (the "film" speed, so you can shoot in low light without a flash) and adjust the white balance, I find helped my shots immensely. When I bought the camera, I was advised to get the camera without the lens. Since the 'kit' lens is less than $90, I bought it. But since I bought additional lenses, I took the 'kit' lens off and have only used it once in two years. So I agree: skip the lens and buy one of the two I list below. (The 50mm is a perfect place to start.) If you do get a Canon digital camera, or already own one, there a great online tutorial to help you figure out what all those dials and buttons mean.
Because I tend to favor sharper images, and the lighting here means I have to shoot at lower shutter speeds, I use a tripod 80% of the time. I prefer to shoot freehand, but invariably things come out a bit fuzzy if I don't. I have two. One is a vintage Bilora, made in Germany, which is incredibly sturdy and built like a Mercedes-Benz, which I found at a flea market in Paris for 20€. The downside is since it's older, it's a bit more awkward to use, so I mostly use my Velbon tabletop tripod. The Velbon is sturdy, and a good value with a quick-release feature so you take easily take the camera off without unscrewing the whole thing. The downside it to tighten the camera after making an adjustment, you have to remove the quick-released platform and re-adjust the tightness. If you don't have a tripod, prop your camera against something or rest it on a book to steady it. I do this sometimes in restaurants, since I don't use the flash and use a slow shutter speed.
Although I'm fastidious about keeping the lens cap on, it's imperative to use a lens filter. This will prevent scratches on your lens.
I have two lenses that I use exclusively. The Canon Macro 60mm is my baby. It isn't cheap, but it's an amazing lens which I use for almost all of the photos on the site. It allows me to get as close as I want to something; some cake crumbs, a drip of chocolate, or a smudge of ice cream. I labored long and hard whether to invest in a lens like this, and now, I can't imagine life without it. The Canon 50m was recommended to me by Keiko, and I figured if it's good enough for her, it's good enough for me. This lens is the bargain of the century and the lens I snap on my camera when I leave the house. It's small, lightweight, and inexpensive. If you own a Canon DSLR, you should have this lens.
For lens cleaning, I use a microfiber cleaning cloth. Using fluids on a lens can damage it if you're not careful, and every once in a while, I give my lens a swipe to clean off any bits of butter or caramel that may have landed on it. I just invested in a Canon 430EX Flash which was recommended by Deb. Despite my aversion to flashes, sometimes I'm in a place like a chocolate shop or bakery kitchen, where there's a lot of movement and not a lot of light. This flash automatically compensates and adds just enough light to illuminate and shoot at a faster shutter speed, but doesn't give people that "deer in the headlights" look. I'll be playing around with it for the photos in the next few months and will update this once I take it through its paces. UPDATE: I've been using this flash and love it. It provides subtle, natural, fill-in light, and is especially good if you shoot indoors in the evening, or in places where the lighting isn't optimal. I took a Canon G9 out for a whirl to see if I'd like it. I wanted a camera that was slimmer and more portable than my Rebel. While this camera has all the same great features of a DSLR, I felt a bit limited by it since I'm used to my camera. But perhaps I should've given it more of a chance. If you want something portable that you can slip in your pocket, but with the features of a bigger camera, this might be a better bet for you. (Lara did an excellent side-by-side demo with the G7, the previous generation of the camera.)
Heidi's tips are at 101Cookbooks.com Elise shows how she does it at Simply Recipes. One of my favorite photographers, Matt Armandariz, doles out his expertise. Deb shows her approach to food photos over at Smitten Kitchen. Lara at Still Life With is one of the most comprehensive sites on food photography. Nika teaches Food Photography 101 If you want to see how Béa does it, visit her luscious site, La Tartine Gourmand. Jaden shows off digital lighting at Steamy Kitchen. My Amazon list of favorite photo gear. Comments Thanks SO much for this David - it's really great to see that you can achieve so much (because your photos are consistently good) in a relatively straightforward way. Great links, too
Posted by Joanna at April 27, 2008 9:05 AM Great post. I have the same camera and am still trying to figure out all the dials and buttons! Posted by Kalyn at April 27, 2008 9:22 AM David - cannot thank you *enough* for this post since I always appreciate it when people post their photo tips. It's always so fascinating - and I learn something from every one of them. Love the tip about a simple piece of styro for backfilling the light - perfect. Just curious - instead of aperture priority, how come you don't just use manual? What I find w/ aperture priority is that my shutter speed just doesn't always do what I'd like it to do. GREAT post, thank you. Best, Ann Langlois Posted by Ann at April 27, 2008 9:35 AM Off to the basement to check for styrofoam, thank you! Just FYI even point and shoot cameras often allow measuring white balance -- since learning that from Lara/Bea last summer at the BlogHer conference, I can shoot inside with just kitchen lights with reasonable results -- not as good as natural light but really helpful when the days are short or the weather especially dark/gray. Posted by Alanna at April 27, 2008 10:18 AM Your food photo set-up looks a lot like mine. ;) Posted by Carrie at April 27, 2008 10:34 AM Thank you, I really appreciate you taking the time to share your expertise on photography in addition to food. I love the photo part of this process, am signed up for some local classes and will be sure to go over your information again and again. Posted by Kim at April 27, 2008 10:40 AM Excellent stuff. I was wondering a little about your use of natural light. Most of all, the white balance tip is essential. It's amazing how dead the same photo can look with an off balance image. (Luckily it can usually be rescued in Photoshop.) Posted by cybele at April 27, 2008 10:44 AM These tips are great. I bought my first digital camera last year (a Canon) and I am still learning how to use it. Posted by nyc/caribbean ragazza at April 27, 2008 10:47 AM It's SUCH a treat to hear about your photography and equipment, David. Since your shots are so impressive and your input is so direct, I've saved it with my 'really good stuff about food photography'. As one who always has a camera nearby, I applaud your information and advice! Posted by judy gal at April 27, 2008 11:18 AM Thank you for this excellent post, David! How timely, in that I just asked you about this on one of your Flickr photos last night. :-) Posted by Jessica at April 27, 2008 11:35 AM Jessica: Yes, I've been tweaking this post all week, so thanks for the kick in-the-pants to go ahead and put it up! Kalyn & nyc: Do take that free online tutorial; it's a pretty painless way to figure out some of those dials and numbers. Carrie: That's funny, since my set-up (in the photo) is on top of my "dryer" too! Posted by David at April 27, 2008 11:42 AM David, I think you mean the 50mm not 55mm, as you have written. Since you (and others) are using a Digital Rebel, I think you should probably make note that this lens is pretty telephoto and the field of view may be too narrow for some. Also, for the 50mm, the the minimum focusing distance is on the longer side. If you are coming from a point and shoot camera, this can be an awkward realization. For example, if you are doing food photography at your seat in a restaurant, you may have to push the dish further away or get out of your chair. If you are doing food photography at home, you may find that you can't do a good close-up, and need to back up, or else the lens won't auto-focus. Ann, do you shoot with a tripod? David can "get away" with using Aperture Priority, since his tripod allows a MUCH slower shutter speed. If you're shooting handheld, you usually don't have that luxury, unless you can hold absolutely still as a rock!
Posted by kathryn at April 27, 2008 12:07 PM This is so incredibly helpful, particularly for a photography moron like myself. When I started my blog I thought, "This is going to be about words, not photos," but one tends to get a bit embarrassed by crummy pictures and resolves to improve. (When a friend e-mails you: "Darling, send me your flickr password and I'll try to improve that recent photo," you know it's time to plunge in and learn the rudiments. Posted by Casey at April 27, 2008 2:19 PM We must be blog-bonding as I also use Rebel XT, 60mm macro, 50mm 1.8 and just bought the 430EX flash (still in box, haven't used) Thought lately I've been eating a lot of goji berries and it must be clouding my judgement as I want a BIGGER, MORE EXPENSIVE camera that honestly, I don't really need. For the website, I use my 60mm macro quite a bit. For the cookbook, I've been using the 50mm 1.8 almost exclusively because of the cookbook page dimensions (I need to leave room for cropping to 9x10) With the 60mm macro, I kept pulling back so far to get more into the photo that I ended up halfway across the room - so the 50mm works better. $1,000 per photo!?!? DAMN. I'm in the wrong business. Maybe I need to really hone my food photography skills and be a professional food pornographer. Posted by jaden at April 27, 2008 2:32 PM Glad many of you are finding some useful information in this post. I guess those 17 hours in a crummy hotel in an industrial park near Chicago O'Hare weren't a total waste of time : ) Jaden: Yes, I haven't unwrapped my flash either. I'm kind of scared of it. The $1k per photo is based on a photographer that has a studio and kitchen, with assistants (unless you're paying those kids, they won't count if you want to start charging.) Plus there's studio staff, food and prop stylists, and the all-important Waiter's On Wheels delivered lunch—when you're shooting a dessert book, you don't really feel like having chocolate cake for lunch. Well, most of the time you don't. We always saved them for the end of the day! Posted by David at April 27, 2008 2:41 PM thanks for the article, david! i'm not a food photographer per se, but i do work as a food stylist and this helps a lot when i talk to the photographers. the ones i usually get to work with normally shoots weddings and fashion... so this helps. any other food styling tips? Posted by kayenne at April 27, 2008 3:38 PM I struggle with knowing how to resize my photos. Do you resize before putting on flickr, or on your blog?
There is a basic editing tool in Flickr that allows you to re-size pics (and apparently a better one you can upgrade to), as well as Flickrs pre-set sizes, but they don't correspond to the width of my blog.~dl Posted by pam at April 27, 2008 4:02 PM unfortunately i do all my cooking and baking at like 10pm ... natural light comes in the form of a Lowel ego light (which i'm still trying to get used to). thanks for the great tips, and links. I have just started using Rebel XT and the 60 macro. if my photos aren't up to snuff it certainly can't, um, can't be the camera's fault! ;) Posted by mimi at April 27, 2008 6:40 PM All of your photos are amazing, the ones you do yourself for your blog, and the ones in your books done by others (I have every book). You make it very tempting to try all your recipes.
Posted by Marni at April 27, 2008 6:57 PM Second person who has a Canon Rebel for food photos, heheh. Ok, I'll buy it... but only next year, so sad. =( Thanks, Monsieur Lebovitz for the tips! :) Posted by Vitor Hugo at April 27, 2008 8:24 PM This is great info. I also have a Canon rebel and I find i a bit heavy so I use a tripod a lot as well. But, since I'm lazy that means I don't use my Rebel that often and use my Canon Elph most of the time. You are inspiring me to be more fastidious since now that I know we use similar equipment I have to admit that if I actually 1. used that equipment, and 2. took a bit of time to study your tips, that I could do a lot better with my photos. Thanks David! Posted by Dana Mccauley at April 27, 2008 9:30 PM Wow! This is really helpful David! As well as the photography links that you have. I don't have a swanky camera like yours, but now I'm thinking about investing as well. :3 I read in a magazine not to use levels because it destroys the color composition at some point. To get crisper pictures, use curves instead. It's trickier but it's nice when you want to draw the colors out. :) Posted by Khursten at April 27, 2008 10:53 PM Hi, David. Very interesting--your photos are always wonderful. I have a question for you, too. We are invited for a weekend in Brittany at the home of an acquaintance of my husband. We have brought a gift for him from the States, but I know I should take a hostess gift as well. What do you suggest from Paris? Everytime I walk through the Marais I look for you! Posted by Jeannie Crockett at April 28, 2008 4:09 AM Hey David, I totally agree with you about the Rebel kit lens, I shot with the one that came with my Rebel for years and didn't update it until recently, and there's a really big difference. Thanks for sharing your ideas and tips! Posted by Lucy V at April 28, 2008 4:57 AM I'm always glad to see a post about food photog. tips. Natural light is my best friend. There's a little corner of my kitchen table that I use, and when it's the right time of day I can get some really perfect shots. I have the light setup that Jaden mentions in her post, but I don't use it often. Natural light just works best. My camera is a Fuji SLR and I'm really happy with it. I went to look at the Rebel the other day and the sales guy told me that my camera was as good or better than the Rebel. So now I need to invest is a super macro lens as you mentioned! Posted by RecipeGirl at April 28, 2008 9:47 AM RecipeGirl: One thing to know about buying specialized (and pricey) lenses and that they don't often fit other brands, so you're kind of stuck. I know the Canon line, the EOS lenses only fit their digital cameras. Happy snapping!
Posted by David at April 28, 2008 10:31 AM What a useful post! thank you. Posted by Anna at April 28, 2008 11:10 AM Hi David, Great post. I'm always curious about how other folks do their photography and looks like you have a good roundup of other bloggers, too. I originally got a 50mm lens (still have it) but I do so many 'action' cooking shots I found that I could not look through the viewfinder and stir a the same time. In fact, for some shots, I would have had to hold/position the camera above and behind me to get everything I wanted in the photo. I've since adopted a wide angle zoom to let me stay in the kitchen while I cook, and save the 50mm for pure posed shots. I swear by a tripod and my family is used to being careful not to trip over it when it is in the kitchen! Posted by brian at April 28, 2008 11:50 AM David, such a good use of your layover time. I appreciate your including us. Now I need to practice. Posted by Janet at April 28, 2008 12:06 PM Thanks for this great information! I'm about to blow my "economic stimulus" check...and you gave me some great ideas! Posted by Food Librarian at April 28, 2008 1:31 PM Food Librarian: Well, I'm going to blow mine in France. I'm sure President Bush would be happy to know he's stimulating the French economy, too. Um...right? Posted by David at April 28, 2008 2:04 PM Are you concerned at all about people stealing your photos off your blog or flickr? They're such great photos that I thought for sure you'd have a watermark of some kind. Posted by Christine at April 28, 2008 4:03 PM Christine: Yes, that is a problem. I saw a picture of mine on another person's blog, and his partner is a professional photographer! You'd think people would know better. I'd like to think it was an oversight...but it's pretty sad if people can't take their own pics. Why blog if you're not going to do it yourself? There's a lot of great blogs out there with modest photos; that's part of their charm. I don't like watermarks and assume that 99.9% of the people are honest. The other .01% will have to answer to a higher power someday...someone higher, and scarier, than me. That'll teach 'em... (There's an Invisible watermarking thing I just read about, via Alanna, for anyone interested.) Posted by David at April 28, 2008 4:11 PM Hi David, Posted by Patrick at April 28, 2008 10:45 PM I have the 60 macro lens too, and I totally agree with you: Ii couldn't live without it anymore : ) Posted by krysalia (france) at April 29, 2008 4:55 AM What a useful post. I love to hear what other bloggers/photographers are doing and I am currently thinking about buying my own DSLR (I actually don't own a digital camera at the moment, I just use my boyfriend's for my blog). Thanks for the roundup of tips as well! Posted by Lyra at April 29, 2008 12:44 PM Thanks (again) for sharing all the tips, this is good stuff. Going to drool over the Rebel XTi now ... Posted by K at April 30, 2008 11:53 AM Thanks Dave. Do you do any color balancing ? Your meter must be right on if you don't do any color adjusting. Most people that use natural light have photos that are too blue; yours look good. Posted by Craig at April 30, 2008 2:45 PM Hi Craig: No, I only do Levels or Auto Color. Yes, I wish I understood 99% more of Photoshop. Oh, the things I could accomplish... Posted by David at April 30, 2008 3:00 PM Thanks for this excellent post! It ought to make my French Letters photos take a great leap forward. Posted by Abra at April 30, 2008 4:44 PM Christine wrote: "Are you concerned at all about people stealing your photos off your blog or flickr?" They can't "steal" the photos. People can copy them, but that's not the same as stealing...stealing would mean that I don't have my photos anymore. I'm happy to have other people use my photos (as long as they're not making money off of it without giving me a cut!). David, your food photos are excellent, even compared to photos from professional photographers. Keep up the great photography (and writing). Posted by Andrew S at May 2, 2008 6:37 AM hi Andrew: Good points, but if someone takes your idea for, say...a self-unloading dishwasher, and builds it, some consider that theft of some sort. I was/am embroiled in a situation where someone used a specific recipe almost exactly from a book of mine, with a very minor change—and won $100,000 with it. (Unfortunately I wasn't offered a cut, nor did the magazine wish to credit the book!) I let people use my Flickr images, as long as they ask first, if it's for non-commercial use or for a product or service I support. Asking is always the best solution. Glad you like the photos~just wish I had more time to learn Photoshop tricks : ) Posted by David at May 2, 2008 7:06 AM Post a comment
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