Photography - Answers, Part 10

I know technically the next question on my Ask Me Anything post is actually from Kate (about my favorite cooking blogs) but since I already answered that, and plan to soon write a post about ALL of my favorite blogs, I'm moving on to the last two, which both are about photography! This series was so much fun for me, and if you haven't noticed, I'm ALWAYS happy to answer questions, so continue to ask if you have any!

A post about photography is not fun without photographs, so I'm including some of my favorite (non-Annie) shots from over the years in this post. This post makes me glad that I'm making a point of doing photowalks with my friends from now on because a large piece of getting awesome photos is being in beautiful places focused on photography!

Rice Park - December 2007


Minnesota State Fair - August 2008


St. Paul Farmers Market - August 2008

This one is from "Anonymous Molly", who emailed this to me after commenting on this post:
For one of your "Answers" posts, I'd love to hear more about how you got so good at taking photos. Did you take any classes? Just play around with the camera? Have a natural talent there?

This is almost embarrassing for me to answer, because I truly do not consider myself that great at taking photos. It's something I love to do, for myself, and I really do enjoy the positive feedback, of course, but especially since I have some friends who REALLY ARE amazing photographers (I'm not even going to link here at risk of offending someone I forget), I don't really consider myself in the same league.

That being said, I got where I am today basically through educating myself, and trial and error. A LOT of trial and error. I have 33,591 photos on flickr. That is not a typo. THIRTY THREE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND NINETY ONE. (Side note: I have a very methodical system for backing up and uploading my photos if anyone is ever interested in hearing about that) I take photos literally every day. It's hard not to get better at something when you're doing it that much. In high school, we got to choose a few electives. After deciding early on (9th grade) that no matter what my mom said, I WOULDN'T regret quitting band, I decided to devote all of my electives to art. I took the intro art classes, drawing, painting, and eventually took every single photography class offered at AVHS from Doc, the art teacher there. We got to be BFFs. I learned a lot of the basics of composition and the technical details of operating a SLR camera during those classes. I had a brief hiatus during college where I focused my photographic attention more on capturing drunk nights of partying, but when I studied abroad and traveled around Europe, I got more into photography again.

I got my first Digital SLR 3.5 years ago, and before making that purchase, read obsessively about it. I read my entire manual, read the book Understanding Exposure, talked to my photographer friends, and really learned how to use my camera, and learned the basics of DSLRs - full frame versus cropped sensors, auto exposure and ISO, and just anything that was different from the fully manual camera I used years ago. I also know how to use it for ME - I do not shoot in manual, I know what is important to me and what I will be using my photos for. Every photo does not need to be technically perfect, and I am 100% okay with that.

Newell Park - December 2007


Zihuatanejo - January 2008


Bruges - May 2009 (taken with my point-and-shoot - the only one in this post)

J and J (my coworker Jo, or the "other J", Jesse - not sure which typed the comment!) asked:

I love viewing your pictures! Besides having a nice camera and impressive picture taking skills do you regularly use an editing program (such as Photoshop)? If so, which one and are there certain standard things you do to each picture (sharpen, highlight, saturation...)?

I do have and use photoshop, but rarely use it anymore. I use picasa for things like cropping, red eye reduction (which doesn't happen with my DSLR), but I always do this on my point-and-shoot pics and really nothing enrages me more than seeing red eye in photos because it is SO EASY to get rid of, not to mention FREE. Seriously - every one of you out there - get picasa, or look into the photo program you use now, and GET RID OF THE RED EYES!!! This is 2011, people. It can be done.

I do frequently edit the photos I take in restaurants, to adjust the brightness, sharpen, or color correct (frequently they are too warm due to lighting and my laziness with custom white balancing). If I REALLY love a photo and plan to print it or feature it is some way, I'll edit it - I use Pioneer Woman's free photoshop actions and don't know how to use photoshop beyond that unless I google step by step instructions. Most frequently used actions: Define & Sharpen, Boost (LOVE this one for outdoor photos), Slight Lighten, Cooler/Warmer. My eyes cross when I think about wedding photographers and how much editing they have to do, because I'm really not a fan - or at least, I'm not a fan of doing it in my spare time. If that was my main job, I don't think I'd mind it at all.

View of sunset over Minneapolis from Prospect Park - April 2008


Gainey Winery in Santa Ynez Valley, CA - May 2008


London - May 2009

Are there certain types of pictures that you prefer taking (besides Annie, of course)such as nature or people?

I'm not a big portrait person at all, although I did enjoy the one wedding I shot with Kate. I don't even really like taking photos of kids unless it's my own. I love nature and architecture photos. Obviously have a big thing for food photos. You can see examples of my favorites throughout this post. You'll notice a severe lack of any favorites from 2010 and 2011. Not that I haven't taken photos that I've loved in that time, they are just all of Annie.

Downtown Minneapolis - May 2008


Lake of the Isles - July 2008


Amsterdam - May 2009

Is photography a shared interest with you and your husband?

Haaaaaaaaaaa. No. Not at all. Sometimes Ben says things to me like "did you get a picture of that?" or "let me see that one", especially when traveling, but he has quickly learned that if he keeps that crap up, he's liable to get slapped.

Minneapolis - June 2008


St. Paul - April 2009


Ely, MN - July 2008

I see that you take a lot of pictures at restaurants (for your other blog). Restaurants can often be dark and hard to photograph well in. Any tips for taking pictures in low light areas such as these?

These are mostly assuming you are using a DSLR, or a high end point-and-shoot. These are also assuming that you understand the intersection of ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. If you do not, click here. If anything doesn't make sense, consult your camera manual or google.
1. Do not use the flash, no matter what.
2. Use the largest aperture (smallest f-stop) that you can - on a kit lens, that would be 3.5.
3. If you do not have one, a 50mm f/1.8 lens is a great investment. It's one of the most affordable lenses out there, and makes restaurant photography MUCH easier. 99.9% of the food photos on We Got Served were taken using that lens.
4. Use as high of an ISO as you can on your camera without noticeably sacrificing the quality of your photos. With my new camera (Canon Rebel T2i), I can push it up to 1600 or even 3200 before grain becomes a major issue TO ME (some people are VERY picky about this and may notice it even at 800, but it doesn't bother me). My old camera, the XTi, got grainy at even 400. If you can get a fast enough shutter speed to take a clear photo using ISO400, great. But if you can't, bump it up to 800 or even 1600. A grainy photo is better than one that isn't even in focus because your shutter speed is too slow.
5. Adjust your exposure setting to underexpose. Sometimes your camera will think that the photo needs to be brighter than it actually is. This is something you can change in post-processing too, so if it is REALLY dark, adjusting your exposure setting so that you are technically underexposing your shots may make the photos look more like they do in real life. You can always make a photo brighter in post processing if needed, although this isn't ideal. Again, a dark photo is better than one that is out of focus.
6. Use continuous shooting mode. If you have a shutter speed slower than 1/30, camera shake might happen due to your hands not being steady. Rest your elbows on the table, hold your breath, focus and shoot 3-5 photos in a row of the same thing. Review them - one is likely in focus. If not, do what you need to do to get a faster shutter speed - see above points on adjusting exposure and ISO.

For examples of very dark restaurants, please see these posts, which are some of my favorites from We Got Served: Cosmos and La Belle Vie.

And what is your favorite lens to take pictures with? (Molly also asked: Also, what lens(es) can you not live without? but I'm combining it here)

I'm not a kit lens hater, and that's what I use the vast majority of the time with my Speedlite. It works perfectly fine for my purposes. I was even fine with the admittedly crappy kit lens that came with my XTi, but the one that came with my T2i is great. I L-O-V-E my external flash. I'm SO happy I got that a few years ago, it makes food and Annie photos at home possible. I was fine using the 50mm, but in low light (which in our house is always, no matter the time of day), the depth of field was so shallow that some photos just wouldn't work. I'm as big of a bokeh fan as anyone else, but a photo where only the tip of Annie's nose is in focus isn't something I want.

To change it up, especially when traveling, I love my wide angle. It's not something I use that frequently at home though, so I wouldn't call it my favorite.

Holidazzle - December 2007


Como Conservatory - March 2009


London - May 2009

To round this out, I'm actually including a very detailed email that I just wrote to someone considering purchasing a Canon Rebel. Kate referred her to me via twitter, and we exchanged emails. Her name is Angharad, and she has an amazing food blog you all should check out! (I sent this email to Janelle, and she insisted that it be turned into a blog post!)

Her questions were:
1. Why do you recommend getting the 50mm 1.8 right away? Other people have suggested this but why specifically?

2. Do you use yours just for food photography or would you recommend it for other usage?

As I said on twitter, my first DSLR purchase was the XTi, which was something like 4 versions ago, and it held up very well. The main reason I wanted to upgrade was because of video and higher ISO options with less noise (on my XTi, even above ISO 400 the photos started looking grainy, on the T2i, I don't even notice graininess until ISO 3200).

I checked out your blog, and it I love your photography - you already are doing an amazing job with whatever camera you have. I'm not sure how much you know about photography, but I would recommend the book Understanding Exposure to learn more about the basics of ISO, aperture, and shutter speed and how the three interact.

As for your specific questions:

1. The 50mm f/1.8 works much better in low light than the lens that comes with the camera (18-55mm f/3.5-5.6) because the aperture goes down to 1.8 (meaning the lens opening is bigger and lets in more light). For indoor food photography especially, this is crucial. Also because this is a cheaper lens, it's affordable for most to get right away. The kit lens really isn't THAT bad for photographing things that don't move - you can use a tripod to take food photos, which many do. The big limitation of the kit lens comes into play in very low light situations (like restaurants - that is where I ALWAYS use my 50mm) and when photographing moving subjects indoors.

I noticed that you seem to really like macro/close up photos of food. One limitation of the 50mm f/1.8 is that the closest distance you can get to your subject is 1.5 feet away. Typically you still can fill the frame with your subject, but it's something to consider. You can also crop the photo after the fact.

2. When I first got my camera, I used my 50mm all the time for food photos. I also used it for nature, travel, and portraits. My lens actually is broken now so I haven't used it as much because I need to get it fixed. I also purchased a 430EX II Speedlite flash which is what I use for all the photos I take at home - this actually might be an even better purchase for you than the 50mm lens because it gives the appearance of natural light because the flash can be bounced off the ceiling instead of pointed directly at the subject.

Just so you have some comparison, here are food photos I've taken with flash and kit lens, and without flash and 50mm lens.

Photos with kit lens and flash (these were links in the email but I'm including the images in the blog post)

Following are with my old camera, XTi

Photos with 50mm and no flash:

All food photos on my restaurant blog - you can usually tell the amount of natural light by the photo of the first restaurant, but some are basically pitch black - I got the T2i last October, so all posts before that are with the XTi - the T2i again is MUCH better in low light.

I also have lots of non-food photos on my blog - here are the posts specifically about photography. The vast majority of my current posts are just me blathering about my daughter :) probably not of too much interest to you! I also have food and travel labels so you can check those too for more photography examples.

Another great resource is http://dpreview.com/ - you can compare different cameras you are looking at, and read very extensive reviews. I'd also highly recommend going to a camera store (West Photo is great) and trying out the ones you are considering to see how it feels in your hands. Nikon and Canon both make great cameras, sometimes it just comes down to what feels better for you.

Surly Brewery - February 2009


St. Paul - September 2008


San Diego - March 2011