@eddybeh

No 1: Ordinary but nice picture though.
No 2: Try to add some vintage touch, would look a lot better. IMO.
No 3 & 4: I prefer No 3.
No 5: Awesome
No 6: I think increase the exposure would look nicer.
No 7: Good Silhouette

My opinion, don't bother about it if it doesn't affect your photos. SAL18250 collect dust easily. If it's just dust in the front element, can clean it yourself. I opened mine before, of course all I did is take off the front element of the lens and clean the visible dust... not too difficult

Just pluck this out from my old blog entry. My friend Dennis gave some tips on food photography couple of months ago.

1. Lighting
Dennis shared us in setting white balance and getting sufficient ambiance lighting on the subjects.

2. Props
To fill in the frame as a compliment to the main subject.

3. Be Quick
Food are definitely look good when it was served, thus being quick is a must. Nobody likes rotten food.

4. Style it
Arrange the food to make it look good is definitely a must!

5. Enhance it
This relates to lighting by utilizing creating Creative Lighting System (CLS) or remote flash.

6. Get down low
Look for the right angle, preferably lower angle down to the subject level.

7. Macro
Zoom in close for details. Closing up to the subject is part of macro pointed out by Dennis.

8. Steam
Food looks good when we can see the steam, it relates to being quick.


- Style, Enhancing, Polish of the food can be done using Olive Oil.
- Use artificial steam. To make artificial steam economically, use cotton. Wet the cotton and place it in the microwave for a minute, take the cotton out and place it behind the subject/food.
- Etc

Smoky and steam is different. Not easy to catch steam, need to check your backdrop and the angle you trying to capture. Like ier said, there is no right or wrong to take food pics. However, there is a guideline to make it attractive. Practice makes perfect.

There's one forumer, vkeong... check out his blog. His food photos quite awesome, I don't know what setup he uses to take those pics, wondering whether he uses flash for those shots. I find it somewhat overkill to use a flashgun in restaurant taking pics. Maybe it's just me....

lwliam : Yes. White Balance is important. Not only food but all other type of pictures as well.

alex_cyw1985 : 4th picture is awesome.

nabelon : Have you consider to invest in a compact camera such as the WX1, TX1, TX7? They are good pocket camera with excellent low light shooting condition.

The results of stitching 3 long exposure shots. After stitching them... I found it ordinary but weird, what do you guys think?

All 3 pics were at ISO100, f/13, 20 seconds.

Albnok : Hmm... shall tried that again later, did that yesterday I got pincushion on the top, so decide to stick back with this. Maybe I use the wrong correction method

Lugiamcg : Cool.

Clivengu : Sad to hear that, I believe that small piece of plastic can still be replaced with a small fee.

albnok : Your original 135ZA had problems? You sent in to Sony for service and it's still within warranty period, Sony wasn't able to fix it (or maybe it cost them a long time to fix it) and thus they replace it with a brand new 135ZA? Which explains that you have an extra box and lens hood at hand since you just send in just the caps & lens to the service center. Just a wild guess...

This post has been edited by wha7ever: Mar 13 2010, 10:38 PM

dreadlessdream : I believe any part of the camera body can be replace depending on conditions. I had my A300 view finder replaced for free previously as the dust was too stubborn to be removed, says the service engineer. Thus your hotshoe replacement for free (warranty) would depend on the type of story you have?

albnok : Could it be you sold off the old and bought a new one? *Another guess of mine with very low possibility of happening*