I’ve been writing blogs for years. The question that I answer most frequently is about photography, in addition to food. I am not a fan of Salon photography, much less a shutterbug. Readers, however, often leave messages, asking about the brand and model of the SLR that I use to take photos of food posted in my blogs. When I tell them that the camera I use is in fact a DC worth a little more than HK$ 2,000, they don’t seem to believe that what I often carry with me are just a DC and a HTC One Max cell phone. We already have plenty of heavy burdens in our lives. I don’t want to use a big and expensive camera for every dish in every meal, target at the dish, and adjust till the dish is cold. Generally, I only take one or two photos of the food.
I am neither an epicure, nor a professional food critic. I don’t work for ads companies. So, I don’t think it necessary to take a lot of extra effort to take food photos. I take food photos only when the mood is right and the angle is satisfying. Photos will be directed posted on my blogs without being post-processed. In this age, too many people rely too much on good cameras, and forget the importance of the shooting angle.
If the place where you enjoy dinner is too dark but you want to take photos, what should you do? Using the flashlight? The flashlight may disturb others who are dining. To prevent annoying others while taking food photos, I will definitely use an LED light for assistance. In fact, I’ve bought more than 50 LEDs for my friends in recent years, from which you can learn the importance of the LED light.
The LED light provides a centralized light source, and causes much less disturbance to people nearby than a flashlight. In addition, you can adjust the strength of the light to accommodate the site environment. What’s most important is that you can place the LED light anywhere to achieve a satisfying effect. In contrast, the built-in flashlight consumes the battery power of your camera. The more frequently you use the flashlight, the more battery energy is consumed. It would be rather frustrating when the camera runs out of its power after taking only a few photos.
What can a LED light help when you take photos during a memorable candlelight dinner in a romantic western restaurant? Look at the two photos, and the differences between them can best answer this question for me.
About the Author
Sleepless Prince is a food blogger in Hong Kong since 2006 and becomes a Yahoo Blog “Year In Review Top 10 Blogger” at 2010. Accumulative page view is 20,060,000+ past 8 years.