So What's My Story?

My story is actually fairly simple: I want to be able to take the best pictures of food possible with the photographic equipment that I have.

So what's the catch?

The catch is that I am a also a self-professed restaurant critic. Generally speaking, the pictures I take of food are part of a restaurant review that will make it up to my companion site, Exploring Food My Way. While one would think taking pictures of food in restaurants wouldn't be too difficult, when you factor in that often times the lighting inside of restaurants is more conducive to romance and intimacy rather than showing the food off in the best light, it can be quite difficult to get a usable picture with a proper exposure. Additionally, since at the very least the first review of a restaurant's food is usually anonymous, I try to keep it that way by taking quick, discreet photos. No flash photography and no food re-styling. I want to stay true to the food as it arrives at my table, but at the same time, I want to make sure I am taking the best picture I can.

While pictures have been part of my other blog since its inception, only recently have I decided to get serious about the photography as well. I started out taking pictures with the camera on my G1 Android phone. The only post-production work I did was to crop the images down to 800x600 for display on the web using the open-source tool, GIMP. In mid 2009, I discovered the Google Picasa tool. This allowed me to not only storyboard my photographs, but I also began playing around with simple adjustments to the photos, such as color correction and brightness.

In May 2010, I upgraded to the HTC Incredible phone, which not only gave me more megapixels to work with, but also a flash on the phone plus pre-set white balance and ISO selection. While this definitely made an improvement, my biggest problem was that neither the G1 nor the Incredible could automatically focus if the lighting was too dark ... even WITH the flash on the Incredible. That sowed the seed in my brain to start actually considering getting a real camera instead of relying on my cellphone to do the brunt of the work. While the cellphone was great because it was always with me, the failure to capture images in moderately dark restaurant spaces proved to be its severe limitation.

Over the course of the summer of 2010, I bought a few camera magazines hoping to find some appropriate contenders for consideration. What I found was a confusing array of choices without really knowing what criteria I should be using for making a selection. I thought that going with a DSLR was the way to go, but the high prices and the fact that pretty much every DSLR would be hard to use in a restaurant setting if anonymity was my main goal kept them from serious consideration. I focused my efforts on the "point and shoot" models, but never really found anything that really seemed worthwhile.

Finally about six months ago, I came across a listing for the new Nikon D3100 DSLR selling at Best Buy for $700. This included not only the body, but also a basic lens. Despite the size, I was fairly convinced that this was my next step forward. It was during a conversation with a college friend, Rob, that I discovered an alternative. Apparently, one of Rob's friends had been using a Canon PowerShot G11 and taking some very impressive pictures. Rob mentioned that he thought Canon had come out with a new model, the G12. Figuring it couldn't hurt to check it out, I pulled up a review on the web and discovered a powerhouse of a camera for only $500 instead of $700. The fact that it wasn't a DSLR was also a plus in my book as it could be used a bit more discreetly.

The final fact that sealed the deal for me was when I read that the G12 did very well in low light situations AND could focus on a subject as little as 0.4 inches away. Since food photography up to this point was all about taking close-ups of food in low light situations, it occurred to me that this might be the perfect camera for my needs. I went to Best Buy to check it out and walked out with a brand new camera, a SD card for storage, and a carrying case to hold both. This was on a Tuesday about six weeks ago.

Two days later, the thought occurred to me that if I was going to plop down $500+ for a camera and accessories, perhaps I should look into taking a class on photography to help me get the most out of my camera. I googled "digital photography class akron" and found a link to the Continuing Education program at the University of Akron. Apparently, my timing was perfect as a beginner photography class was scheduled to start the next Tuesday and run for six weeks. Although the six week class wasn't terribly cheap at $149, I decided that it would be worth the fee, if for no other reason than it would give me access to someone who could answer my questions.

What I found opened my eyes.

Like most people, I had been letting the camera make all of the decisions for me. "Just put it on automatic," had been my mantra for the last two years. Suddenly, I now had the ability to choose exactly how I wanted to compose and shoot my photographs. I could choose the ISO speed, the aperture setting, the shutter speed, and the white balance. And each of these affected the outcome of the photograph I took. The manual that came with my camera was 214 pages long. I poured over it on a daily basis (and still do), learning something new every day. Since my primary use of the camera was for food photography, I had to figure out what was and what was not applicable from the manual.

Combined with the twelve hours of coursework, I have gone from doing everything in "automatic" mode, to first aperture controlled, then shutter speed controlled, and finally to fully manual mode on my camera. I've learned about custom white balance, metering method, fill flash (for taking pictures of lit signs outside of restaurants), to more effectively using the post-production image software I've been employing since the start of my food blog.

I now realize that there is so much to learn about taking effective photographs given my self-imposed limitations. My goal for this blog is to post every now and again about information that I learn along the way. I intend to post photos for analysis and judgment, and I hope to pass along some tips to those who might be just now be realizing that their camera might not be making the best settings decisions for them. I invite you to join me on this interesting journey.