Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Practice Makes Prettier (I Hope)

Taking good pictures of food is harder than you might think. I have a lot to learn, but I have recently acquired two reinforcements to help me photograph "better":

1. Photoshop Express: a free Photoshop service that probably does not come anywhere close to being a substitute for Photoshop, but is great for people like me (read: newbie to editing photos and without the funds to purchase Photoshop).

Yellow curry noodles at Nakkara: $8 lunch special! This photo was auto-corrected slightly with Photoshop Express; even though it was daytime, there wasn't a ton of light at my table.



2. Lowel EGO Light: Charles got me one of these lights for my birthday, which I'm very happy about! I need to play around and get better acquainted with how to best use this light, but I love it and the crisper looking photos it provides like the one below.

Spaghetti with mushrooms, garlic and pecorino: I was lazy that night and didn't use the reflector board, which would have given a brighter look on all sides (or so I would conjecture).



I leave you with a little round-up of bloggers whose photos have given me a dash of inspiration lately:

- udon & stilettos and her lovely posts about a recent trip to Napa. I've never been, but as her pictures prove, I should've gone ages ago!

- Gazing at Last Night's Dinner on any given day makes me wish I lived next door to this woman. Seriously.

- Each time I visit I'm Mad and I Eat, I wonder, why am I not eating that right this second? Mostly inspiring, but also (excuse the pun) maddening!

5 comments:

SinoSoul said...

FYI: Hite beer owns this place. Or so they tell me...

SinoSoul said...

oops. that was s'pose to be for Hite! not for your Lowell ego lights! btw, I wish there was something akin to this that I can take with me to restaurants

Marie said...

Tony: Thanks for both your comments, haha! Yeah, I don't know how they'd manage to incorporate Hite into their restaurant name otherwise.

And maybe soon enough, they will invent a handy pocket-sized light for restaurant shots. Even with the help of Photoshop, I'm astounded by people who get clear photos from high end places with mood lighting!

Brooke said...

I seriously LOVE my light. I think it's one of the best inexpensive food blogger purchases you can make.

So great meeting you last night! Hope to see you again soon!

Marie said...

Brooke: I am having trouble finding a suitable place to keep my light, but my lack of space is not its fault. I will continue to love it ardently. It was wonderful to meet you, too!