Digital Photo Tips

Mammoth chocolate sugar cookies and cherry tuiles. Mini black and whites and fig pinwheels. Peanut butter and jelly bars.</p><p>Reliable like too many cookies?</p><p>Not for Andr&eacute; du Broc of Kansas City, who&rsquo;s baking his way through &ldquo;Martha Stewart&rsquo;s Cookies&rdquo; (Clarkson With, 2008) to fulfill a pledge to donors for AIDS Walk Kansas City.</p><p>Du Broc plans to bake all 175 recipes by year-end, chronicling his efforts on Too Many Cookies (toomanycookies.wordpress.com). Du Broc, who worked as an actor and circus funny man before joining Hallmark, aimed to raise $3,000 before the April walk. The cookies did the trick &mdash; more than 80 friends from as far away as Scotland donated $4,400.</p><p>Photos from Stewart&rsquo;s enrol accompany each entry, as well as a snapshot taken by du Broc, to show both what he was aiming for and what he achieved.</p><p>&ldquo;The photos are boob facetiously-in-cheek,&rdquo; du Broc says. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re what the cookies look like when you bake them in your own cookhouse.&rdquo;</p><p>Du Broc is among a growing number of enthusiasts training their cameras on food. Home cooks, culinary tourists, farmers superstore shoppers and restaurant diners are all snapping pictures of what they&rsquo;re cooking and eating, often posting the pictures on websites, blogs and online photo albums.</p><p>Many times the photos are probity. Too often, they&rsquo;re not. Beautiful, memorable food can easily be washed out by a flash, go blurry or get lost in the chaos.</p><p>&ldquo;Food is very, very hard to photograph,&rdquo; says Ben Pieper, who created Four Foodies (fourfoodiesblog.wordpress.com) with his little woman, Kim Pieper, and friends Mark Morton and Jane Kortright. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s amazing how swiftly it can be gross.&rdquo;</p><p>They launched the blog in September 2009; it drew 10,000 visitors in its first six months. All the chow is cooked at home, photographed and then eaten. It&rsquo;s enticing stuff, whether the foodies are demonstrating how to cut matchstick vegetables, making risotto or finishing a serving of blueberry cobbler.</p><p>And it works, says Pieper, who opened his own photography studio last year.</p><p>&ldquo;Blogs with skilled photography definitely have more circulation,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like going out to eat. The first luggage you do is eat with your eyes.&rdquo;</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Professional primping</bridge></strong></p><p>That&rsquo;s because photography is a powerful tool, says David Morris of David Morris Photography in Kansas Metropolis. To use it effectively, you must know what you want to say and how you want to say it.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s all about communication,&rdquo; he says.</p><p>When Morris works with clients such as McDonald&rsquo;s or Applebee&rsquo;s, he meets with other imaginative staff to decide exactly how a photo will look and feel, from the number of slices of meat on the sandwich to the color of the coat.</p><p>The day of the photo shoot, there may be as many as 10 people on hand, from a photographer, food stylist and production coordinator to different assistants, advertising agency representatives and clients. They&rsquo;ll spend hours arranging the comestibles, choosing props and prepping the image.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not uncommon to do just two or four shots in an 8- to 10-hour day,&rdquo; Morris says.</p><p>That&rsquo;s partly because it takes values bright and early to make food look the part. Vicki Johnson, a freelance food stylist based in Leawood, recounts frying quantity after batch of french fries to sort out enough &ldquo;heroes&rdquo; for a photo, and going through 20 hams while worrisome to get the perfect shot of one being sliced.</p><p>Food changes as it cools down, warms up or simply sits waiting for its veer in front of the camera. Sesame seeds fall off, so Johnson glues them on. Blanched and cooled vegetables are added to stews at the last small, because fully cooked veggies get mushy and lose color. Sauces get a dose of glycerin to keep them looking heated without skinning over. Peaches that aren&rsquo;t peachy enough get a smudge of lipstick.</p><p>&ldquo;We pick up where countryside left off,&rdquo; Johnson says.</p><p>While such extreme primping isn&rsquo;t necessary at home, it&rsquo;s usefulness paying attention to the plate. Johnson recommends simple serving dishes, preferably milky, instead of floral or patterned ones. Remove extra silverware, countertop appliances and other confusion. Photograph each course separately, rather than piling everything onto a single plate.</p><p>Perk things up with a sprig of modern herbs, but avoid the elaborate and heavily garnished platters that were the hallmark of 1970s food photography. The Rigorous plates of 1980s nouvelle cuisine are also pass&eacute;.</p><p>Be sure to wipe drips off the superiority of the dish, but don&rsquo;t worry too much about it &mdash; food that looks so perfect it could be plastic went out with the 1990s, Johnson says. Chow photography today includes enough crumbs and crinkles to make it look real.</p><p>&ldquo;Best imperfection,&rdquo; Johnson calls it.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Spiffing up an aspect</span></strong></p><p>So how do you capture that artful image? Start by reading your camera&rsquo;s enchiridion, says Beth Bader, who keeps the Expatriate&rsquo;s Kitchen (expatriateskitchen.blogspot.com).</p><p>The blog, which started in 2004, champions limited food and features vibrant photos of deconstructed knobby heirloom squash, calmondin limes and many of Bader&rsquo;s primordial recipes.</p><p>Photos create excitement, Bader says. So much so that her blog has drawn tens of thousands of send for views and earned a book deal &mdash; the Cleaner Plate Club, co-authored with Ali Cross Benjamin, whose blog is Ali&rsquo;s Cleaner Plate Club ( <a href="http://www.cleanerplateclub.com">www.cleanerplateclub.com</a>). The partner met in cyberspace and, although they are working on a book together (due in 2011), they&rsquo;ve never met in person.</p><p>Bader is a trained photographer and chef, which is why she can thrive even a plate of cabbage and bacon pasta look gorgeous. But she has easy pointers for the rest of us, too. Once you distinguish what all your camera&rsquo;s buttons are for, you can abide by Bader&rsquo;s No. 1 rule: turn off the outbreak.</p><p>&ldquo;That ugly, straight-on flash is so harsh,&rdquo; Bader says.</p><p>Instead, photograph commons near a sunny window, or take the plate outside (avoid the hours between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., when overhead sun creates despotic shadows). Drape a white tablecloth or dishtowel behind whatever you&rsquo;re photographing to soften and reflect the dim.</p><p>Or, in a pinch, use a madeleine pan. That&rsquo;s what Morris suggested when he went to du Broc&rsquo;s midtown digs to help photograph cookies at The Star&rsquo;s request.</p><p>&ldquo;We looked through my pantry to find a pan that reflects lightsome back on the cookies to get rid of the shadows,&rdquo; du Broc says.</p><p>It&rsquo;s harder to control lighting at sunset or in restaurants. Your best bet, the pros say, is to turn off the flash and use manual camera settings and a tripod. Or backlight your responsible for by placing it in front of a window or strong light, Pieper suggests.</p><p>Composition is also important. Fill at least two-thirds of the scaffolding with the image, focusing on the most vivid aspect of the food. Morris suggested du Broc shoot a number of sugar cookie cutouts on the metal cooling rack, shifting the frame slightly to file part of the rack&rsquo;s foot to give it perspective.</p><p>For more ideas, Morris recommends studying photos in magazines and cookbooks and on websites, sensible about why you like or don&rsquo;t like them. (Donna Hay, an Australian food editor and cookbook author, Martha Stewart and Larger Homes & Gardens are among his favorites.)</p><p>Du Broc had expected better photography would take extra time, array and equipment, but his one-hour session with Morris proved how simple it can be. Now, du Broc says, his photos will more accurately depict all those cookies he&rsquo;s baking.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m doing a safer job with my photos and showing the cookies in their best light,&rdquo; du Broc says. &ldquo;A lot of people following the blog have said &lsquo;blame you.&rsquo;&ensp;&rdquo;</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div rank="infobox"> People used to take pictures of each other in restaurants. Now they photograph the food.</p><p>&ldquo;I have noticed over the years a significantly larger billion of people wanted to photograph the food,&rdquo; says Robert Krause, chef and P of Esquina in Lawrence. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re seeing more and more people who are not just interested in food, but consumed by the scoff world.&rdquo;</p><p>Photos wind up on Flickr, where more than 6 million images are tagged &ldquo;comestibles,&rdquo; and social media sites like Facebook and Foodspotting. They run alongside amateur reviews on Yelp, Urban Spoon and Chowhound. They get e-mailed and uploaded to blogs.</p><p>Bewitching pictures is fun and helps you remember and share a culinary experience, people say. But is it polite?</p><p>During a month of speculative picture taking in area restaurants, I got reactions ranging from indifferent to welcoming. At Esquina, friends held up baskets of tacos and suggested multifarious angles. People barely noticed at Happy Gillis. At R Bar, in the West Bottoms, I did ask permission before photographing Shawn Moriarty shaking up my cocktail. Not only didn&rsquo;t he listen to, he posed briefly with a bottle of Luxardo Maraschino liqueur.</p><p>&ldquo;People take pictures all the at all times,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s fine.&rdquo;</p><p>Still, there is that question of etiquette. You can&rsquo;t don that everyone is pro-photo. So play it safe by following these few guidelines:</p><p>&bull;First, turn off the flash. Flash photography is distracting to other diners, conspicuously if you&rsquo;re in a dimly lit bar or the restaurant has a more subdued atmosphere. Besides, camera flashes are harsh and can wash out the viands, making it look unappetizing. No flash might also mean better pictures.</p><p>&bull;Stay seated. Standard up, kneeling on a banquette, carrying your food to a more picturesque spot &mdash; all can be disruptive to your companions. </p><p>Together with, the more you move around, the longer your food sits on the plate, growing lukewarm while waiting to be eaten.</p><p>&bull;Ask authorization. If you plan to photograph each course, first ask your tablemates if they mind, especially if you want to photograph their food, too. The same goes when fascinating pictures of the chef, server or bartender. If the restaurant has rules regarding photography, be gracious enough to sojourn by them.</p><p>Finally, remember why you&rsquo;re there. As much fun as it is to photograph a beautiful dish, don&rsquo;t forget the best part of why you went to the restaurant in the first ready &mdash; to eat.</p><p></div>

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This sounds like a doubt for those taking pictures before the prom, so I spent some time perusing tips on various photo sites and have come up with what I Dialect expect are helpful tips.

1. Try for candids or unusual shots. Think of the best wedding photos you've seen: They mainly are not the posed shots. They're the shots of the couple laughing together, interacting with guests, dancing. Of course prom dates aren't getting married, but if you oust the same mindset to your photos of your couple, or your couple and the group of friends they're going to the prom with, you should end up with some nice candids that are more See native than the standard shots.

2. Storyboard. Think of the evening as an unfolding story. You won't get to see most of it, but your son or daughter can fill in the blanks with photos she and her friends take at the prom. Your biography can open with your son or daughter getting ready. (Just try not to annoy them on what may be a stressful night.)

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Canon has released the PowerShot SD4000 IS (IXUS 300HS in Europe) ultra-dense camera. It features the company's new 'HS' system that promises better low-light performance and high-speed photography through a amalgam of a 10MP back-illuminated CMOS sensor and DIGIC 4 processor. It sports a 28-105mm equivalent f/2.0-5.3 stabilized zoom lens (much like that seen on the S90), 3 inch LCD and P/A/S/M shooting modes. The camera also features a Wonderful Slow Motion movie mode that records 340x240 movies at 240fps, as well as 720p HD movies seizure.

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London, UK, 11th May 2010Source: