By trade I am a caterer looking to put together a web site. I am in need of a lot of food still shots for the site. Can someone recommend a camera and lens setup which would work. Willing to invest to make this thing top notch. Any camera folks out there who can make suggestions.
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Need a Camera & lens Suggestion for purchase
- Thread starter mhoytech
- Start date
Goosemaster
Lifer
budget? Invest could mean quitea bit😀
hire a photographer.
seriously.
an experienced photographer who knows what s/he is doing will get it done quickly and right the first time, and for less than you would spend buying a camera, lighting, time spent trying to figure out how to use the camera, post processing, etc.
unless of course you just want a camera anyway.
i know it's for a web page, and so this isn't directly applicable, but all of those food stills in magazines are done with medium format cameras that cost thousands of dollars.
seriously.
an experienced photographer who knows what s/he is doing will get it done quickly and right the first time, and for less than you would spend buying a camera, lighting, time spent trying to figure out how to use the camera, post processing, etc.
unless of course you just want a camera anyway.
i know it's for a web page, and so this isn't directly applicable, but all of those food stills in magazines are done with medium format cameras that cost thousands of dollars.
Another vote for hiring a photographer, unless you plan on hobbying in photography or something anyway. But even then judging by the fact that you seem really new to photography, I'd still hire a professional.
maybe I just haven't found the right photographer yet, but I tried hiring a pro and came out with a few hundred dollars worth of crap. Since updating the web site is an ongoing process, I thought it would be best if I had a nice camera to keep things crisp and fresh. So if I wasn't going to go to a medium format camera and I did want to own a nice camera...what should I buy
Your average Rebel XT should be more than enough to get crisp pictures for the web. Medium format would be absolutely overkill. Get something like a sharp Tamron 17-50mm, a good lighting setup (a light tent), learn how to properly expose the picture and post process in photoshop, and you should be ok.
You should be adept at creating nice, elegant looking surroundings for your food as well, but I think you do this anyway for your job.
DeviousTrap
Diamond Member
I'd probably suggest a prime such as the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 or the simple Canon 50mm f/1.8. If the camera is just going to be used for taking pictures of food he can just zoom with his feet. A low light prime will be very sharp and also give you a lot of flexibility about the lighting that you need.
Good point. I would personally go for the 30mm. When I shoot food the 50mm (80mm equivalent) is often too long. The key to food is to keep the image nice and clean. The whites are white. The colors are nice and saturated. The lighting is nice and bright, and uplifting. Overall, clean.
whatever you get, you'll probably want to shoot in raw and adjust the color saturation out of the camera. you'll probably want color that pops, so a little oversaturated.
if you don't want to pony up for a light tent, an overcast but still bright day is a perfect light source.
if you don't want to pony up for a light tent, an overcast but still bright day is a perfect light source.
I'd have to disagree. If you look at other food photography, none of them are really in-your-face.
People want to see the entire food item, complete with plate and sometimes utensils. The depth of field should be limiting, like a portrait, with nice bokeh surrounding the in-focus subject, the food.
On a side note, have you tried maybe searching for stock food images?
http://www.fabfoodpix.com/
You can make a light tent for cheap:
http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/light_box_light_tent
All it is is a tent with white cloth on it that diffuses the light that hits the subject.
so ...if what I am hearing is correct, everyone is agreeing with the Rebel xt as the camera to go with. Is anyone thinking of a different camera?
Fuzzybabybunny: I have never considered stock photos for the simple reason that we are a high end caterer with a very distinctive look. Astyle that I want to show through the food and the table settings.
Great suggestions from everyone thanks.
Fuzzybabybunny: I have never considered stock photos for the simple reason that we are a high end caterer with a very distinctive look. Astyle that I want to show through the food and the table settings.
Great suggestions from everyone thanks.
Well, basically you need a DSLR because of the control it can give you. A simple P&S won't cut it. As for the Rebel XT, you can go with Nikon, Pentax, whatever, but the Rebel XT has a nice price/performance ratio.
I kinda figured that you wouldn't be doing stock food photography for the fact that food is often extremely distinct. I was just throwing something out there.
Basically, you're going to have to learn a lot to do this if you have no photography experience. If it's something that you must have done now, hire another professional with a food photography portfolio that you can look through.
If you have time and a willingness to learn, I guess go for it. Check out books or websites with pictures of food and try to dissect the elements that make the pictures work, and duplicate them. You won't turn great overnight.
Oh, also, a circular polarizer would also be a good investment, as would a tripod.
GTaudiophile
Lifer
Just hire fuzzybabybunny 🙂
I'm a serious amateur at best, but I do have a passion for photography, definitely moreso than anything else. I've been seriously in photography for 4 years, but none of it is professional. Basically, I read and breathe photography like it's my job, only it's not.
If you look in my sig you'll notice that I'm primarily a landscape/nature/animal/macro photographer, and I have to admit I have very little experience with food photography, but from that little experience I can tell you a bit of what *doesn't* work 😛
And just perusing in some food photography books and stock image websites, and from general experience, I notice general things that make a photo pop out. Applying it is a different story. I'm not sure if I could successfully apply examples that I see to a field I'm unfamiliar with.
I'm too far away, and I have classes 😛
And more importantly, my experience is way too limited.
If I were to do something like this, it'd first be for free just in case I screw up, lol. And then as I got better, comparable to good stock images, only then would I start charging.
Actually do you have any examples of your food now?
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