Food Friday

I wasn't especially happy with my food photos this week, but here are a few of them...


01/07 - More comfort food--apparently that's all I crave right now. I made mac and cheese, but added green chiles, bacon and green onions to make it more of a southwestern style. It was sooooooo good! (Why yes, K, that is the apron you made me in the background! PS I was asked if you sell your aprons--people are loving this fabric!)


01/10 - Mmmmmm chocolate milk.


01/11 - Whenever I have non-casserole meals with multiple food groups I feel so grown up! Potato wedges with sour cream, cube steak and roasted broccoli.


01/12 - Chai tea

Photography: Aperture (and the blurry background)

USUAL DISCLAIMER: I'm not a professional, I don't always know the right terminology or explanation, I'm just speaking from my own experience and knowledge, limited as it is.

It is often asked how a photographer achieves the blurry background that is popular in many professional photos. The simple answer is that it's the aperture setting, but there are other factors that seem to influence the end result.

First, let's talk about aperture. Technically speaking, the aperture is an opening within the lens/camera that can be adjusted in size. The aperture setting (referred to as the f-stop) will influence how much light is allowed in for the photo. Basically, the larger the hole/aperture, the more light is allowed, which makes sense. In addition to allowing more light, the wider aperture also decreases the depth of field.

The depth of field is basically how many objects will be more or less in focus, depending on their distance from whatever you're focusing on. If you have a large depth of field (a deep focus, you might say...but I don't), more of the photo will be in focus even if the subjects are at different distances from the camera. If you have a small depth of field (shallow focus), you have just a small range of distances that will be in focus, while the rest will become blurrier as it gets farther from the target.

Here's a visual aid. Not a great one, but you'll get the correlation between the f-stop and the blurriness.



So, if you know how to change the f-stop on your camera, change it to a smaller number (which is a larger aperture--it's just the way it's written that is kind of confusing) for a more shallow focus/blurry background. I have a lens that goes down to f/1.8 (that's how you state the f-stop) and I generally keep it at that when I'm taking portraits. Many professional photographers take portraits at about f/1.2 or f/1.4, giving the scene a very dreamy look and helping the subject to stand out. I don't yet have a lens that can go that low (they're expensive).

Now, there's something I had to learn on my own, and it's that most point-and-shoot cameras a) don't allow you to set the aperture very wide; and b) even at the same f-stop, they don't seem to match the shallowness achieved by that f-stop on an SLR. I'm sure there's a technical explanation, but I only have a guess about part of it, so I won't be explaining that here.

The thing about photography is that you need to know your camera's limits and work with them. There are other factors that can increase or decrease your depth of field, or at least how it appears. You can manipulate it even if your camera won't let you get a low enough f-stop. I started practicing photography by taking lots of macro (close-up of a small subject) shots on my little point-and-shoot, and because I was zooming in, I achieved a shallower focus. Try it and see what I mean. So one way to help blurry up your background, even with limited cameras or lenses, is to zoom in on the subject.

Here's an example of what I mean. Before I got my lens that allows me to go down to f/1.8, I used my zoom lens to achieve a fuzzy background (the following two photos were taken on two different SLRs but only in that the second photo is a newer model number in the same camera series):


My focal length was 110mm on this, so the end result is a blurry background despite being at f/4.5.


Here's a comparison with a photo I took with my newer lens at f/2.2 (with the focal length being 50mm). Please never mind the tree growing from K's head.

Also, placing your subject farther from the background will obviously help, since things get blurrier the farther they are from the item on which you're focusing. Leaning someone against a brick wall isn't going to make a crazy-blurry brick wall, because it's so close behind them. But if they are standing 10 feet in front of it and you're zoomed in on their head and shoulders, it'll get blurry.

This is a concise way to explain things as I know them. I don't want to bog you down with too much info, so feel free to ask more questions in the comments.

Did this make sense or did I only confuse you more? I need feedback so I can actually be helpful!

I don't like asparagus

My friend Jennifer thought I had posted about asparagus, but I hadn't. Here I am to change that! After that popular post about Brussels sprouts, I think I should start writing about vegetables more often. They really get people talking!

Anyway, I don't like asparagus, and I never have. I won't gag if I eat it, and if someone fixes it, I'll eat it to be polite (which I would NOT do with peas), but it has a weirdness about it. It tastes like it's built with floss and algae, and you have to tear through the stringy stalk for what reward? A dull flavor that sort of has an aftertaste.

Also, it broke my camera. That picture up there was the very last photo taken by my first DSLR, may he rest in peace. There was a click, an overly-long pause, and then an error message.

One more thing about asparagus is that my late grandma pronounced it like "asparagrus," with an extra r. One time we asked her about it and she thought it was a kind of grass and spelled A-S-P-A-R-A-G-R-A-S-S. We even had to show her the real spelling in the dictionary.

Doooooo youuuuuuu like asparagus?

(You can tell I'm very on task today. Well...I am if my task is to play Wii Frisbee Golf and discuss veggies.)

Stay-tuned for a photo tips post coming on Monday.

Food Friday

I think I'll post some of my daily food photos for you each Friday. It's about time I have some kind of routine in my blog.


01/01 - There was leftover good bread from my NYE party (thanks, D!), so I had to make a grilled cheese sandwich out of it. I'm going to work on not pointing out problems with my photos in this project, so that's all I have to say. :)


01/02 - More leftover usage! I cooked a little extra ground meat for my NYE meal and saved it to put in eggs/etc. later on.


01/04 - K had me over for dinner and a movie (the third of Anne of Green Gables--yes, I know it's not popular with those who read the books :)) and she made this delicious meal of potato soup, salad and homemade biscuits. So good! I should really get a crock pot one of these days.

This project puts food photography on my mind and makes me think about all the things I need to try and ways I need to improve (many, many ways). I hope I can show you better photos as the year goes on.

Friend Links

Happy new year! I am on my final day of vacation, which I can't believe. I certainly haven't done everything I had hoped, but I got all of the mandatory stuff out of the way. Today's theme is folding laundry. I'm so excited!

I had hoped to go take some kind of winter photos, but it's been pretty cold and I've been incredibly lazy over the weekend. It was to make up for all of the busyness of last week. The only thing I have for you is this closeup of the ice in my hummingbird feeder:



Now to the main point of this entry. Here are some of my online friends' blogs, etc. I like spreading the word for others who wouldn't mind more readers. Sorry if this bores you--feel free to skip. :) Also, see my "links" topic for other recommendations.

Danielle Carey - Danielle is a friend from Australia who writes (well!) about her life--mainly the pleasant little aspects of her days--and posts fairly regularly. Oh and she's a very nice and awesome person. :)

small pieces of inspiration and accomplishment - This friend grew up in the US but married an Australian, so she now lives there with her three kids. She's funny, smart and crafty, and doesn't post nearly enough (she may be a little busy), so hopefully this mention doesn't put undesired pressure on her.

Also, her younger sister is a really good artist, and I have enjoyed following her blog. Go look at her pictures!

Softly Sweetly - My friend's etsy store for handcrafted marshmallows. I'm not even a marshmallow fan, but I enjoyed them (as did my family) and want to try more. She has built up her little business and now makes several flavors that sound really tempting! Go check it out for fun, even if you have no intention to buy. (R, I hope it's okay that I stole one of your store photos to make my entry look more interesting. :))

Okay, that's good for now. If your blog wasn't mentioned, it might be that I linked it previously, didn't get your permission to mention it, or will catch it on a future post.