Nuffnang Blogopolis Key Points – Class 2: Blog Photography

This post will be covering – LIVE! – the key points made at the Nuffnang Blogopolist Conference during Class 2: Blog Photography. For all the key points made during each of the seven classes, check out the Blogopolis schedule. Class 2: Blog Photography Speakers: Danielle Melnyczenko of Danimezza, and Minh Giang of Eat, Show & Tell. Tips and points made by myself will be indicated with (Bree). (UPDATE: For a full list of tools & resources mentioned - with URLs - see here) Key Points… Danni is going to wing her tips For Danni, her blog is a reflection of herself. Why Minh loves photography: Chefs put a lot of work into their presentation, so they love to document their meals on their blog. Danni classes herself as a photo journalist. Capturing the daily moments is what it’s about. If you want to focus on a product shot, make sure the background is clean, and use natural light – not flash. Photos don’t have to be all smiling. They can be all about capturing the moment. It’s not about the gear you’re using, it’s how you take the photo. Five points… LLIGHTING “Romantic lighting” is Minh’s pet peeve. Don’t use flash in restaurants. (A good tip for food bloggers - people go there for the atmosphere.) Use a piece of tissue as a cheap diffuser. You can use this with your iPhone. Back lighting is a really useful tool. You don’t need to light from the front – it can come from the side. COMPOSITION. There are a lot of rules eg: Rule of thirds. The thing is every photo, it changes depending on what you are taking the photo of. Danni hates taking photos straight on. POINT OF VIEW: Top down shots can be overused in food photography. But it’s a great way to highlight certain aspects. SUBJECT: You’ll see high apertures used a lot in food photography. Don’t be afraid to use a fair bit of cropping. (The photos being shown are beautiful... I will have to link to them somehow!) Before you think about pressing the shutter button, think about the environment you’re in. What to use to take blog photos… You don’t need a DSLR to take great photos for your blog. Use your iPhone, check out the Instagram app. What Minh loves about Instagram is that you can make bad photos look good with a filter. If you have an iPhone use the regular iPhone camera THEN add a filter. Don’t take pics with the apps. Minh loves checking the data of photos on Flickr. Instagram strips that data. Cannon G10 range is good and you can get some good lenses (Need to confirm this point - BREE) Nikon D700 is what’s used by Minh. It’s very heavy though! Upgraded to this for food photography – it gives great low light photos. Danni has a lot of equipment and has to be ready for a lot of situations. (Danni and Minh have a list of all of their equipment... Will try to get hold of this... I can type fast, but not quick enough for techie Camera names ) At events Danni uses five cards and switches them out – she knows those images are then safe. Don’t get too into big cards. Batteries – Danni carries three. One in camera, one in bag, one in hotel room. Breath out when taking photo without flash – it helps to be less shaky. The brace position (tuck arms in tight) is like creating your own tripod if you don’t have one. Danni takes iPhone4 everywhere. Lots of lenses you can get for these for about $20. Learn to use the focus point on your iPhone. Have a play! Workflow… Shoot raw. It gives you the raw image and you can use Lightroom to tweak it. LightRoom is expensive software, but it can take photos from crap to awesome. Danni was bowled over by it. When you export photos with LightRoom you can choose to include watermarks. SEO tip for images: People don’t realise you get SEO on photos. Consider the name of the image for Google Image Search. Especially good for event photos. Also add pics to Flickr – it can be a good traffic driver. Food photo tips… hold your camera still! Use 2-second timer on point and shoot cameras. Don’t be afraid to experiment. If you’re interested in a picture, someone else could be as well. DPReview.com is a good website for comparing camera models and prices. The higher the ISO the better for low light pictures. Participate in photography workshops. Embrace your own unique style. If all else fails, Google your photography question. (ENDS) >> View Class 1: Tools Of The Trade >> Back to the Nuffnang Blogopolis conference schedule