January 29, 2014 - 11:26am
Bread Photo backgrounds
I was just looking at Adrian's Rustic Rye photo (beautiful loaf) and thought for a minute that the picture was taken on a dark brown cloth background. Great picture. So, a question. What background have TFL'ers found to make pictures come out best and most accurately represented with minimal camera resources, which in today's world usually means a smartphone camera.
I have to try getting a piece of med-dark brown cloth.
Paul
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Hello Paul, trying different backgrounds can be very interesting, i've got a few colourful walls here at home, some of my favs are red, brown and i sometimes use the back of a black leather sofa. you could have a look here
I like to use indirect natural lighting, no flash. It's realy good to use a tripod, even if your using a point&shoot camera.
cheers, happy baking and shooting
daniel
Nice loaves and well photographed. Thanks Daniel. It does seem that dark backgrounds work best. That way the auto features of most cameras concentrate focus and light on the subject itself and not on extraneous objects or light colored surfaces near the bread.
Paul
Not being a super-creative-type-person, I often cheat on this and just shoot downward. Then I only have to worry about what’s under the bread, not behind it (usually my messy kitchen). Not the most exciting way to go, maybe, but you can mix it up a bit – sometimes the cutting board or wooden table, sometimes a basket, sometimes a piece of linen – something “bready”.
Another cheat is to set-up somewhere where the background is far enough away to be completely out of focus. This works well for close-ups.
As far as getting true color without jumping through all sorts of hoops, natural light is ideal, of course. But “daylight spectrum” type bulbs can help a lot. They may look off to your eye, but they tend to have a more neutral effect than ordinary flourescents or incandescents, which can give your camera fits. Much depends on the camera, and the look you are going for, but this has helped me get more consistent results.
Marcus
The small piece of the loaf that still exists says thanks for the compliment. ;)
Actually this photo was taken on my cooker. It has a dark glass-ceramic cooktop. In the first picture you can even see the reflection of the wall tiles.
My father, who does really great photography art, sometimes uses black stage molton.
Even the camera is a cheap one I bought about 3 years ago for less than 100€ at the local (food-)discounter as weekly offer. Reduced to a width of 480px (original 3808px) you don't see the artefacts and noise it produces.
I really like the way aguats (and many others) take his photos. They are real still lives that tell a small story:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/36857/k%C3%BCrbiskernbrot-pumpkin-seed-bread-100-whole-grain-sourdough
Adrian
All his photography leaves me in awe! Now only the photos but the way neighbouring photos react with one another. They tell the story.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/33735/home-bread-fighting-gravity
Pip's photos are that good.
Thanks Mini.
Indirect natural lighting - no flash works best for me. I have 2 tripods but for the life of me, can't find either one of them! A good camera would help too but that is subjective and I'm pretty sure I'm not getting one any time soon:-)
biggest variable is to use a camera that has the ability to spot meter. By this I mean that you can measure the light off the bread which is your focus point. Otherwise most point and shoots will compensate for everything in the frame and give you an average reading. Works in some cases but better results will occur with metering off the subject. Some cameras will allow you to zoom in on the bread push the shutter button halfway down then back off and get a reading that way. I was a commercial photographer for 30 years but the technology today is changing at such a rapid pace its tough to keep up.An iphone does allow you to compensate for the surroundings just by touching the spot you wish to meter. Most point and shoots have several different metering modes built in but that requires the camera owner to read the manual which is probably the last thing anyone does. Manufacturers dont make it easy either by making their camera slightly different much like remotes on televisions or cable TV. Try explaining on the phone to someone which button to push on a remote even when they are identical....nothing is easy.