Food Photography Assignment

Let me just say right off the bat that I'm not a food photography specialist. I don't really know the first thing about 'styling' a food shoot, and don't have a studio with a wall of lights or specialist equipment. I'm just a guy, with a camera, and 25+ years experience of shooting a variety of subjects.

Coconut Pumpkin Soup with Prawn Wonton. Canon 40D with 50mm f1.8 STM lens; @f2.5, 1/200th, ISO 200

Recently, I was asked by the marketing department at Tai Poutini Polytechnic (where I work) to photograph the Tutoro Restaurant's evening service. The Tutoro is the polytech's student restaurant, and every year the chef trainees and food & beverage service students team up to run a night service open to the public. They plan, prepare, cook and serve a three course meal to those lucky enough to book a table for a night of gastronomic delight!

Waldorf with a Twist. Canon 40D with 50mm f1.8 STM; @f2.8, 1/60th, ISO 400

The brief was simple - turn up and take photos of the food once prepared - and some of the action in the kitchen. Images that can be used later on for promotional and marketing purposes, and as teaching aids for the course tutors. Sounds easy enough. But the challenge comes with trying to achieve all of this in a working kitchen, in the middle of a real service. I had a job to do - but more importantly so did they - with paying customers. So it was important that I move fast and not get in the way, but still come away with great food images!

Tai Poutini Tartlet. Canon 40D with 50mm f1.8 STM; @f2.8, 1/50th, ISO 800

I knew I was going to want to get in fairly close, use a fast lens, and create as much shallow depth of field (background blur - bokeh) as I could. As such, my newly acquired Canon 50mm f1.8 STM lens was going to be perfect for the job. Attached to the 40D it gives an equivalent fov (field of view) as a 80mm short-telephoto does on a full frame camera. And the fast f1.8 aperture - even stopped down one stop to f2.8 for a touch more sharpness, was going to give me just enough light to hand-hold the camera and work quickly.

Seared Salmon Fillet. Canon 40D with 50mm f1.8 STM lens; @f2.8, 1/50th, ISO 400

The general rule for achieving a 'sharp' image is to not use a shutter speed below the lenses focal length. With the 50mm Canon prime, this means not going below 1/50th of a second. In the artificial lights of a commecial kitchen, in the evening, at f2.8, I was there or there abouts with the shutter speed. Hovering around 1/50th and occasionally getting up into the dizzying heights of 1/100th of a second. To help with my 'keeper' rate, I shot in 'continuos low' drive mode so I could shoot a short 'burst' of shots. When you do this in low light, it's more likely that at least one of them will be in sharp focus.

Farm Raised Lamb. Canon 40D with 50mm f1.8 STM lens; @f2.8, 1/50th, ISO 640

I also set the camera in auto ISO - to range between 400 and 800. With the 40D, ISO 800 is the top number that the auto ISO will go up to, while its 'default' is apparently ISO 400. I don't use auto ISO all that regularly - preferring instead to choose the lowest ISO I can get away with. But inside, at night, under artifical lights, I was always going to have to ramp up the ISO anyway - so why not let the camera take care of it for me? One less thing to have to worry about - right?

So how is the noise at ISO 800 I hear you ask....  and it's a good question. Noise is certainly apparent at ISO 800 - and can be quite obvious in the shadows if the image is underexposed. The 40D is, after all, a 10 year old camera! But if you get your exposure right then noise isn't a major problem, and can be controlled nicely even with the basic noise controls available in Lightroom.

BTW - the Farm Raised Lamb was what I ordered at the end of the night when I was very knidly offered a meal. And it was amazing! A Rack of Lamb served with rosemary polenta, cauliflower puree and seared asparagus. Yummmm! Delicious.

Seasoning Asparagus. Canon 40D with 50mm f1.8 STM lens; @f2.8, 1/50th, ISO 640

I wasn't just there for food shots though. I took a lot of photos of the students themselves preparing, cooking and serving the meals. I obviously can't show these on my blog since I don't have model releases etc - but the above image is one of my favourites of the evening and gives some indication that it was truly a working kitchen in full service mode. I now also know where the saying "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen" comes from!  I've never sweated while taking photos so much in my life!

Fungi O'Bean. Canon 40D with 50mm f1.8 STM lens; @f2.8, 1/50th, ISO 500

Clafoutis. f2.8, 1/100th, ISO 400

As I said at the beginning of this post - I'm no Food Photography expert (far from it). But I did know the 'look' that I wanted to go for - and the steps I needed to take to get there. I had to work fast, stay out of the way, but get close in to get the shots - all in a very hot, frenetic, working kitchen environment. So yes - I'm very please with the images of the food that I was able to take with my old Canon 40D and 50mm STM Prime lens.

Panna Cotta. f2.8, 1/60th, ISO 400

The Canon STM f1.8 is a joy to use. Fast focusing, accurate, quiet and super sharp - especially stopped down to f2.8. It's because of this lens alone that I use the 40D as much as I do. A 'fast' 50mm is a lens that is missing from my micro four thirds arsenal at the moment - but this is something I hope to rectify early in the new year.. I've got my eye on the Panasonic 25mm f1.7 - the micro four thirds version of the Canon nifty fifty. The Olympus 25mm f1.8 is also a stellar lens, but just that bit more expensive.

NZ Cheese Selection. f2.8, 1/100th, ISO 400

Overall I'm very happy with the food images I captured on the evening.  Boosting the ISO, using a fast prime and shooting RAW gave me the flexability I needed to take half-decent food shots in less than ideal conditions. Perhaps more importantly - the polytech cooking tutors were also very happy with the results. Not bad for 10 year old kit and a cheap prime lens.

The 'Holy Trinity' of Micro Four Thirds lenses

Great things come in threes. Three is a very lucky number in various cultures. It’s balanced (think of the rule of thirds in composition) and just feels ‘right’ for some reason. Photographer’s often talk about the ‘holy trinity’ of lenses – which varies slightly depending on manufacturer. The ‘holy trinity’ of Canon pro zooms, for example, is the 16-35mm f2.8L, the 24-70mm f2.8L and the 70-200mm f2.8L. Another (slightly cheaper) alternative might be the 17-40mm f4L, the 24-70mm f4L, and the 70-200mm f4L. With Nikon, it will be slightly different. Their ‘holy trinity’ of pro zooms consists of the 14-24mm f2.8G, 24-70mm f2.8G and 70-200mm f2.8G.

For the Micro Four Thirds system to be a real contender with working pros and serious amateurs, Olympus needed to address this ‘holy trinity’ in their M43rds zoom lens line up. With the release of their pro body, the E-M1, they also released their first ‘pro’ lens, the 12-40mm f2.8 (24-80mm f2.8 equivalent). This was followed up by the 40-150mm f2.8 (80-300mm f2.8 equivalent), and now finally we also have the 7-14mm f2.8 (14-28mm f2.8 equivalent). All fast (f2.8) pro level glass with solid metal construction all the way from 14mm to 300mm in three lenses. The M43 ‘Holy Trinity’ of Olympus zoom lenses.

The Zoom Trinity. 7-14mm, 12-40mm & 40-150mm f2.8 Pro's

Again, it is slightly different if you are a Panasonic shooter – although of course you can use the Olympus lenses on your Panasonic bodies. If you want to shoot with Panasonic’s own lenses however, then the holy trinity will look something like this; Panasonic 7-14mm f4, Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8 and Panasonic 35-100mm f2.8.

If we switch our attention to prime lenses, then it gets a little more subjective. Some consider the Olympus 17mm f1.8, 25mm f1.8 and 45mm f1.8 to be the holy trinity of primes for micro four thirds. Or, on the Panasonic side, we have the Panasonic 15mm f1.7, Panasonic 25mm f1.4 and Panasonic 42.5 f1.2 which gives a decent spread of fast primes. But it all depends on the focal length you are after.

The Olympus Prime Trinity. 17mm, 25mm and 45mm f1.8 primes

Other options include the Olympus 12mm f2, 75mm f1.8 or 300mm f4 Pro, and the Panasonic 14mm f2.5, 20mm f1.7 and 30mm f2.8 macro. Not to mention some amazingly fast 0.95 (manual focus) lenses from Voigtlander. The 17.5mm, 25mm and 42.5mm f0.95 lenses make up their own ‘holy trinity’.

Of course, the great thing about the micro four thirds system is that you can mix and match lenses from the various manufacturers who support the lens mount (including Sigma, Tamron and Tokina). My prime lenses at the moment are the Olympus 17mm f2.8 and the Olympus 45mm f1.8. I’m not quite sure which lens to add to the mix to make my own trinity – I’m torn between the Panasonic 14mm f2.5 or the Olympus 25mm f1.8. The 17 and 45 give me a wide standard (34mm) and reasonable telephoto (90mm). Do I want to go wider still with the 14mm, or more ‘standard’ with the 25mm? I’m not really sure.

I will probably eventually gravitate towards the ‘classic’ 17, 25 & 45mm combo – although there’s nothing that says you only have to have three lenses J   

Adding primes to my Olympus Micro Four Thirds System

When I first decided to jump into the micro four thirds format, I immediately gravitated towards Olympus. Not that there's anything wrong with Panasonic mind you. It's just that, rightly or wrongly, I think of Panasonic as a video camera company, and Olympus as a stills photography company. And largely, I think that's how it's playing out.

Olympus OM-2 body

Of course, as a stills guy who started on film, Olympus's redesign of the classic Pen and OM series was very hard to resist. I owned an OM-2 and several prime lenses and absolutely loved using it. In fact a few years ago, on a film blog, I wrote that if Olympus could put a digital sensor in the back of my OM-2 I'd be a very happy photographer!

And while they didn't quite achieve that with the OM-D E-M5, I think they've produced the best homage they could to the original OM, while still developing a photographic tool for the 21st century.

So now that I have the OM-D E-M5 Mk2 (and am loving it), I have started building a system around it that can cover most (if not all) of the shooting scenarios I can throw at it. I have the 12-50mm f3.5/6.3 EZ kit lens, the 40-150mm f4/5.6 telephoto zoom, and the 45mm f1.8 portrait prime. What I'm really lusting after though, are the fast 'Pro' lenses - the 12-40mm f2.8 and the 40-150mm f2.8. But therein lies my problem.

17mm f2.8 Pancake

Currently, there's this romantic notion of the 'street' photographer in stealth mode, with one body and a prime lens - capturing the 'decisive moment' (a-la Cartier Bresson). The camera is usually a Leica rangefinder (in the movies) and the lens is a 35mm to give a wide to normal angle of view. 'Street' shooting with mirrorless cameras and a prime lens has become incredibly popular over the last few years. I hadn't even heard the term 'street shooter' ten years ago.

One of the major selling factors of mirrorless is to 'go light', with just a camera and a lens - and in the case of the lens, the smaller the better. Enter the Olympus 17mm f2.8mm 'pancake' lens. With an equivalent focal length of 34mm on a film camera, and its tiny size, it would seem to be the ideal companion for any photographer engaging in stealth mode.

But here's the thing - and getting back to those 'Pro' lenses - I'm not really a prime kinda guy. Sure, I love the idea of shooting with primes. And most of the time I even love the results when shooting with primes. But I must confess to loving the sheer convenience of shooting with zooms. Maybe I'm lazy?

Yet I too have been seduced by the 'micro' in micro four thirds. I am enjoying the benefits of smaller and lighter (although not too small or too light - there is a tipping point). So I am seriously considering getting a used 17mm f2.8 to add to the 45mm prime in my bag.

The Oly 17mm on a Pen. Almost pocketable.

I fretted about buying the 45mm f1.8 prime, even though many micro four thirds users claim it's a must have lens. And I'm sure I will use it. But will I use it enough?

Same is true with the 17mm f2.8. It's the ideal walk-around lens for the system - as close as it is to the classic 35mm focal length. It's the goldilocks of prime lenses - not to wide and not too tight. Just right :-)

There is also an f1.8 version which, not surprisingly, is optically better - at twice the price. And that brings me to my final point with these prime lenses - the price. For a small, light, reasonably sharp and reasonably fast lens, these are a real bargain. They are so much cheaper than the 'Pro' f2.8 zooms (not to mention lighter - obviously), that it just makes sense to get them and use them - at least in the mean time.

I will probably still have the 12-50mm kit lens on the E-M5 Mk2 80% of the time. But maybe, as a walk-around lens, the 17mm f2.8 prime might surprise me. I think I might have to get it and see?