English muffins - feedback for the food blogger?

[surenj]

[ In any case I was thinking of the cheapest option in Kitchenwench's case. The budget seems to be an issue.

........ if budget is an issue...... use the best light of all, gods light, it is free and comes through most windows..... along with a cheap tripod so you can control the DOF and shutter speed you would get much better shots, lighting wise, than the ones at the start of this thread.......

the best thing, this light source works with all lens

Agreed! As Gary suggested take the light tent (either DIY or $50) outside = cheap light.

[Mr Darcy]

Interesting that Gruen touched on this last night.

How did your remakes go Ellie?
Ignore Chris. Or at least be aware of his viewpoint. He comes from an advertising perspective - Image (or perhaps perception) is everything. Reality does not matter.

In your case, you are trying to record the reality of what you have made. It is a very different perspective.
Personally, I think you do it well, and I have gone on to try a few of your dishes. I can't say I have ever been tempted to make KFC or a Big Mac

[aim54x]

with Greg, your photos look very, very good and enticing!!

[biggerry]

Interesting that Gruen touched on this last night.

yes. yes they did, and they mentioned the use of tampons with water in the microwave for the steam... scarred for life....

[Mr Darcy]

Interesting that Gruen touched on this last night.

yes. yes they did, and they mentioned the use of tampons with water in the microwave for the steam... scarred for life....

Don't sweat it. A tampon is basically just a very absorbent sponge. A block of peat moss would also do the trick nicely I expect.

[kitchenwench]

Guys, thanks for all the lighting suggestions - but as I pointed out, budget is an issue and that's why I pointed out from the beginning that I'm using natural light.

Muzz - I hope so, I'd hate this to end up on the trash heap of unposted recipes (and there are a few) just because I can't get any photos that I'm happy with! Thanks for the links and explanation, my internet is rooted at the moment (darn kid brothers and their obsession with watching fight videos...urgh!) but once I'm no longer at dialup speed, I'll definitely give them a proper look! I did look at the carrot cake lighting link, very inventive! Not sure I've got enough hands to pull the same, but it's a good idea to bear in mind for when I next go out to dinner

Big Pix - The flash works well for you, but IMHO the colours aren't quite natural and that's one of the reasons that I favour natural light, and why I think a light tent would work best for what I want to achieve.

Grev - I'm at three weeks so far...should I be concerned? I've not done much (well, any) purchasing from the US before...but their ebay page stated to allow up to 6 weeks delivery to Australia. And I do actually want to eventually be able to invest in a portable lighting kit (speedlites, stands, umbrellas etc) but it simply is not an option right now.

Surenj - I like reasonably shallow DoF for my food shots so shooting at f22 simply wouldn't be for me. If I want to get the entire plate into focus, about f10 on my kit lens is usually enough.

Greg - I plan on doing the former rather than the latter at this stage, I made the discover of a wonderful option in this forum that enables me not to see the posts of folks that I'm not interested in, and have made good use of that Mind me asking which dishes you've tried and what you thought? Though maybe that's better in a private message as it would be OT for this particular forum thread

Cam - Glad you think so reality is that I usually take 50-100 shots of a dish, and quite often I'll only be vaguely happy with about 10% of them. I think I am progressing in skill to take the sorts of images that I want to, but I just wish it wasn't taking so long to get there!

Bigerry - I'm with you, though to be honest, using anything to fake the steam seems a bit much for me. If you want steam, you could always just heat the food...?

[big pix]

Big Pix - The flash works well for you, but IMHO the colours aren't quite natural

you do show a lack of experience........the colours are fine and correct...... maybe you monitor needs calibrating...... one of the first things you should do.....

[kitchenwench]

Big Pix - Apologies, I didn't mean to offend. As for my monitor calibration, I used to be a publishing assistant and had to check digital proofs of articles and graphic ads for publication, so as a necessity (there was often lots of work to take home) my monitor has already been calibrated. All I meant by my comment is that I could tell that the images had been taken with a light source other than natural light.

[Grev]

Grev - I'm at three weeks so far...should I be concerned? I've not done much (well, any) purchasing from the US before...but their ebay page stated to allow up to 6 weeks delivery to Australia. And I do actually want to eventually be able to invest in a portable lighting kit (speedlites, stands, umbrellas etc) but it simply is not an option right now.

What did you order and where did you order it from?

[muzz]

Another thing I noticed with some of the more alluring shots in your blog was that some of the images have other items in the background that you would normally see on a table - the shallow depth of field leaves these other items soft enough so that they are not a distraction, but still offering balance, shape and colour as well as putting the food into context, i.e. someone is about to eat this beautiful meal rather than just having a photo taken of it. From what you've said so far it seems that what you're looking for is a good quality pleasing image that both tells the story of what the food is about as well as being a true editorially accurate representation of the food itself (I hope I haven't simplified that too much). I think some of those images on your blog do that perfectly, whether by luck or design but I bet you have some that you are really pleased with and it may be worth deconstructing what you like about those.