I already bought a similar light that is slightly bigger and brighter, but it does not have a dimmer. It was enough to light my bedroom, so I think it’s too bright. I may keep it for other uses, but I’m considering buying the other one and testing its usefulness for food photography.

I’ve only seen a few sample photos online, and they were mostly taken with the older, non-VC version. The photos are nice and sharp, but I didn’t like the way it rendered the out-of-focus areas. It’s a little expensive too. Still, I know I’ll have to go to a store and test it out before I make a final decision.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDsx3-FWfwk

I need to do more testing/practicing, but initial results were very good. I simulated a typical restaurant food photography situation, sitting at my desk in dim light, shooting downward at something in front of me while arching back slightly. The lens was a 50mm f/1.4. Using a slightly modified version of the grip, I was able to obtain acceptably sharp images at shutter speeds as slow as 1/13s! (For the test, the aperture was set to f/2.8, if it matters, and ISO was adjusted as necessary.) I’ve never been able to get anywhere close to that before. I’m wondering if I can do even better after enough practice, but I’m already very impressed with the improvement afforded by that method just on my first few attempts.

The downside is that the grip all but requires you to shoot using your left eye. I use my right, but I’m willing to switch eyes when necessary – it’s a small sacrifice to make in order to obtain better photos in low light.

Since writing the first post for the tech discussion and inspired by JC’s comments, I’ve turned into a big fan of RAW. Forget everything about shooting JPEGs – RAW is the way to go. By bypassing the camera’s built in image processing, you gain so much more data, and the amount of detail and colour you can pull out from a RAW image is incredible.

The verygoodfood photo workflow is now like this:

Shoot in RAW with the 50mm 1.4, balancing ISO and shutter time to hit 1/60 or up.

Import with Photoshop’s RAW import, while

- adjusting white balance by using the grey-point-tool (pick an area that you know is supposed to be of neutral colour). This is the must important step to avoid the yellow, low light photos.

- adjusting exposure, contrast, vibrance and clarity. Nice tools to bring out crispness from a slightly dull photo, yellowed by low light. Exposure might typically need a huge boost. Be careful to balance brightness and exposure.

After the image is imported into Photoshop, I run an action that 1) resizes the image for use on the blog, 2) runs the Sharpen filter, but then 3) fades the filter to 30% to avoid too much crispness. Finally it 4) exports the image as JPEG 75% quality.

By bulk-importing images (the Photoshop RAW-import handles multiple images) a hundred images may be processed in an hour, still while adjusting each image individually.

As Trine mentioned, the trusty old EOS 350D committed suicide. The new 500D (with built in HD video) may be the way to go.

1) Cameras with lower pixel density will handle high ISO better. In other words, fewer megapixels is better, OR a full-frame camera is better than one with a crop factor if they have roughly the same megapixels. But of course a large generation gap is even worse; yesteryear’s 6MP cameras won’t perform as well as today’s 12MP cameras. For example, my Nikon D70s is over four years old, and despite having much lower pixel density, it is worse at ISO 1600 than the D300 is at ISO 3200. And the full-frame D700 and D3 are at least one stop better than the D300.

(On a side note, sorry to have to tell all you Canon shooters this, but Nikon is ahead in high ISO contest right now, with the D700 and D3 (and their other current-generation cameras are about equal to Canon’s, ever since they switched to CMOS sensors). Canon is way ahead in the affordable high resolution camera contest though, since Nikon has zero. I think Canon is still ahead in the clean long exposures contest as well.)

2) After a few thousand shots with the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G AF-S, I’ve found myself shying away from maximum aperture when shooting at the minimum focus distance, which is where I always am when shooting food. Oftentimes, it’s just too little depth of field, and I’m finding that I’d rather deal with some high ISO noise. ISO 800 isn’t always as bad as I thought it was. ISO 1600 on my camera is terrible though.

So, if you’re willing to sacrifice two stops of light, the best lens for food photography is a manual focus tilt-shift lens. On the Canon side, that would be the TS-E 45mm f/2.8, and on the Nikon side, the PC-E Micro-Nikkor 45mm f/2.8D ED. The Nikon is almost twice as expensive as the Canon, which is already very expensive, but it has the added bonus of being a 1:2 macro lens, with a minimum focus distance of 25cm vs. the Canon’s 39.6cm.

Why are these lenses the best? Besides being optically superior to the super-fast 50mm lenses, tilting the lens allows you to increase the depth of field significantly, without stopping down the aperture. So you have more artistic control over your photos, versus being forced always to shoot with very little depth of field. You give up two stops of light and autofocus, but that’s what a high ISO-capable camera and a lot of practice are for.

However, it’s understandable that a lot of people won’t want to spend that much money, and/or don’t want to give up autofocus. In that case, one last bit of advice:

3) In a dark restaurant, do whatever you can to put more light on your food. For example, use your mobile phone as a light source. And if you can, use a small, hand-held mirror to reflect whatever available light there is onto your food (a folding compact mirror would be easiest).

4) Oh, forgot to mention. A right-angle viewfinder is a neat little accessory that can help give you some different perspectives from which to photograph your food.

Yes, I am a huge nerd.

P.S.: Trine, re: your October 23 comment above, that just means you must dine only with other food photographers.

You’re too kind Thank you.
To provide som information about the king crab photo. Yes, it was shot at night but in May where it’s light until very late in the evening. I’ve checked and this photo was taken at 8:40pm which would be quite bright still in late may.

I do (try to remember to) take several photos of each dish and sometimes I move the plate or myself to ensure I have enough material to get lucky.(Which obviously is annoying to my friends or the people I dine with, as it makes them wait for me).

When I shoot at dark places the pics get a yellow tone that I cool with a tool in Picasa, for example, or Photoshop. Picasa also has a sharpen effect that sometime provide a delightful touch – but be careful not to sharpen to much

Good luck
Trine

Congratulations on your gear! Yes, with the 50 mm you’ll have to lean back from time to time. That’s part of the compromise between price and quality.

The DOF will get very shallow indeed at 1.4 or 1.8. Stepping up to 2.0 or higher you’ll have a better chance of getting a bigger portion of the dish in focus. So every time you can trade off some shutter time for a smaller aperture, do that by stepping up the f-number.

But of course, the higher f-number, the more light is needed. So to compensate for the smaller aperture, you can choose a higher ISO, as you mention. This will introduce noise, but luckily the 450D isn’t as prone to noise as most Nikons are. You can remove (some of) the noise with filters like Noise Ninja.

Also, a handy trick is to underexpose your shots. Step the exposure down one or two steps (thumb on the exposure button, turn the wheel left) and adjust the exposure or the levels later on in Photoshop. This can buy you a step down in ISO or some shutter time. With bright, white plates or tables cloths in sunlight or halogen lighting, it can be necessary to underexpose to avoid clipping (large areas of pure white).

JC mentions a way of steadying the camera: Hold it with your right hand only, put your right elbow firmly on the table, and support your right wrist with your left hand. Hold your breath and squeeze the trigger (sound like a snipers’ course ) You can get decent photos with a shutter time down to 1/40 this way. Snap a couple of shots – just in case.

Halogen spots are your friends, by the way. They provide a sun-like quality of light to your photos.

Best
Trine

best regards

ellemieke