food photography

[chefjacob]

hi
i cook for living, but i constantly build my portfolio, i take a lot of pictures of food that i make my question is what is the best lens for a close up food pictures, i realize lighting is a big part of it but how much of that do i need , im trying to make my food look really proffessional like in cookbooks but im having a hard time capturing those pictures please help

thank you

 

[taracor]

Well, my suggestion would be to use a light tent. They are not hard to make.
They can make a big differance. Here is a link on how to make one.

http://instructables.com/id/EKTSDWUR5HEP286OV2/

Problem is that instructables is down at the moment, but that should be fixed soon.

 

[KevinR]

Alot of what I see in the food magazines can be down with one light and a softbox and maybe some reflectors. Or a softbox on a good flash (like a SB800 nikon). as far as lenses go, any of the say 100mm macros on the market would work. For a litlle money saving, check out the sigma or tamron offerings. My lense is a 28-75 2.8 Tamron and it focus down to just over 12 inches. I am able to get really close with this lense at 75mm, plus the magnification factor of the D200.

Hope some of this helps

 

[Flash Harry]

food photography presents its own difficulties, DOF needs to be around f11-f16 for front to back sharpness, spray food with glycerine n water to give it that juicy look, dont fully cook the food either so that it keeps body while standing/composition is being sorted, light from off centre / side and use reflectors or as above says use a light tent, experiment experiment. Its tougher than it looks.