March Challenge 1

#KnowYourNikon

How does one get crisp images, with details so refined, you have to wonder how much editing went into the image?

It's not the editing dearies, it's the camera settings. You can always try to up the clarity in editing, but truly, the clarity comes from the settings used to capture the image. You can't change a blurry image to a clear one in Photoshop.

We've discussed how aperture affects focal distance and lighting. We've talked about how ISO affects lighting and the grain/noise in your image. So what affects clarity? Shutter speed.

You've seen this cheat sheet before, now look at it again:

With culinary photography you have two options with shutter speed.

First option: Raise shutter speed to 1/125 or higher (I recommend 1/250 or higher). This will result in clearer images, as it counteracts the photographers shake as they hold the camera. If you think you have steady hands, try taking a photograph through a telephoto lens on a low shutter speed. With your shutter speed increased, this means that you're going to have to change the aperture and the ISO to make up for it.

When you increase your shutter speed, you are shortening the amount of time that light can enter your camera, which means you are going to have to allow light in by another means. You can either open up your aperture or increase your ISO. Remember, the more open your aperture is, the shorter your focal range is, and the higher your ISO is, the more noise you're going to have in your image, so this has its disadvantages, depending on what your end goal with your image is.

Second option: Lower your shutter speed to 1/60 or lower. To make this a successful photograph, you are going to have to attach your camera to a tripod. The tripod takes away the photographer's shake, and ensures stability so that the only thing affecting clarity is the movements of the subject, and the last time I checked, food doesn't move on its own.

With your shutter speed decreased to low numbers, you now have free realm to leave your ISO low, and your aperture more closed to increase your field of focus.

Try both methods of using shutter speed out and determine what works best for you.