Yeah, I should look into a card for white balance. My photographic training (such as it is) is all in 35mm & 16mm film, and is mostly in B&W, so I’m not nearly as savvy dealing with video & digital. I don’t know if I can find any more gear around these parts, but perhaps I’ll take a trip to Camera World next time I’m in Portland.

A working tripod would be a good thing too. Mine’s been non-functional for years, and, well, my hands aren’t that steady!

Meantime though… All hail sunny days and the mighty daylight savings time! Outdoor food photos till 9pm. That works for me.

Dang, I think you got me beat by only a few feet. Not enough room for 2 people to do any real cooking. Although I do have two prep stations set up, it could work.

Any chance of setting your own white balance in your camera using an 18% grey card with those fancy theatre lighting rigs? It might help.
15th/sec? Yeah, that’s getting down there. I can hand hold my film rig with the motor drive down to that. Even a bit slower. But I don’t bother, the tripod makes it so much easier to get things done.
I only do a few things in Photoshop, resizing being the main one. Jack the contrast, maybe a little levels, then a touch of red. I used to do a lot more, but spent many hours with my flippen manual, online forums and playing with the settings. Still, the toughest part is White Balance. Getting those white plates white can be a battle.

Biggles

> Lighting:

Thanks.

> This means the color balance sucks, and I need to do a ton of futzing in Photoshop.

Me too.

>I use the macro almost all the time for food shots

That really does make a huge difference. I need to check into that white setting thing next.

Kevin

Lighting: Three par sixteens, and a coli can (which takes a standard flood light lamp). All of these are leftovers from my theater lighting days, so they aren’t really meant for photo shoots. This means the color balance sucks, and I need to do a ton of futzing in Photoshop. I’m hoping to track down some better lights sometime soon. I don’t have reflectors or anything at the moment. Our indoor set-up involves me putting the food on the table and Dave holding the lights in the air until they get too hot to hold.

Generally though, I much prefer sunlight for my lighting source and I move the food outside whenever I get the chance.

Camera: Minolta Dimage S404. (With a busted lens cap — grumble!) I use the macro almost all the time for food shots, and generally set it to multiple exposures so I can press down the shutter, click a whole bunch, and hope that one of them (at one 15th of a second) isn’t blurry. ::g:: At least that’s what I do when I’m not using the stage lights, because lemme tell you this camera sucks in low light situations!

Biggles: Ooo, I feel a challenge coming on! Though the kitchen here is in a house, it’s more like the sort of kitchen one would find in a studio apartment. It’s an alcove, only separated from the dining area by the counter that includes food storage and the stove. The actual amount of floor space within this alcove? About 4 feet by 5 feet. Put two people in there working, then bring in a third to open the fridge door and all hell breaks loose! :-)

Waitaminit, I was sure I had the world’s smallest kitchen ?!? How many square feet you gots?

Since someone asked the author here about lighting, I can’t keep my trap shut. I use a geezer 250 watt uv balanced clamp-on flood light, a 500 watt smith/victor (old as well) spot and a handle-mount flash unit, a metz 45 CL-4. Plus a handful of reflectors to bounce light off this and that. No diffusers, yet. NO ROOM.

Biggles

I ran across Cuban oregano at a nursery today, but it didn’t look like oregano and wasn’t with the herbs so I pretty much ignored it as something misnamed. Back to the nursery.

What kind of lighting do you use when Chopper gives you time to use it? What camera are you using? What are your typical settings (if any) for food photography? Why is the sky blue? Wait, scratch that last question.