[thechat] Photography help

javier velasco lists at mantruc.com
Fri Aug 23 11:31:01 CDT 2002


Madhu Menon wrote:
>
> OK, I have a digicam - a Canon Powershot A20 (2.1 megapixel)

It's quite a good camera
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canona20/

> I suck at photography. I really do.
>
> What I want to know is how to make my digital pics look this good:
> http://www.simonhoegsberg.com/
>
> Is this a function of the camera, the editing software, or both?

The most important thing to photography is using the appropriate
lightsource

"My personal definition of photography is "the recording of light rays."
It is therefore difficult to take a decent picture if you have not
chosen the lighting carefully." - Phil Greenspun
http://www.photo.net/making-photographs/light



> If it's in the software, could you point me to resources on making photos
> look so snappy?

the original shot is fundamental, photoshop jobs can hardly make a bad
pic look good, the image quality is given by the lens (you have a good
lens there madhu)
http://photo.net/learn
http://www.dpreview.com


> See, I want to snap photos of food I make. And I want them to look like the
> ones on Martha Stewart's site ( http://tinyurl.com/14sf ). Instead, they
> turn out like this: http://madman.weblogs.com/2002/04/11 (scroll past the
> recipe). Now, I'm sure her photos were done in a professional studio, but
> any tips on improving my pathetic photos would be welcome. Is it a
> Photoshop thang?

Oh Man! shooting food is actually one of the *toughest* jobs for a
photorahper!

I bet those Martha Stewart pics are using preofessional Illumination,
the beans must have been boiled with some special additive to make them
look so green (bicarbonate does this trick)... and those water drops
have probalby been carefully placed, and the shot was taken with a macro
lens and a wide aperture to achieve a shallow depth of field - lots of
production!

My recommendation would be to use your camera in Black and White mode
for a couple of months untill you lear now to master the measurement of
light, and focus.

Good luck!



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