Maki, over at I was just really very hungry posted her tips for taking better photos in restaurants and indoor markets, including the golden rule (never use your built in flash!) as well as some neat ideas to use those white napkins for something other than wiping off your face. Even if you do everything right taking those photos, low light conditions usually mean extra work in Photoshop. You’ll likely end up with several typical problems:

• Photos that are just too dark
• Photos with a yellow/green cast
• Graininess, color loss or noise due to high ISO speeds (400+)
• Blurred photos due to your hands shaking while trying to hold a long exposure

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Last week’s session of food presentation was delicious and beautiful, but a little less focused on presentation than the previous two classes. We split up to work on our own dishes… mine the Sesame Tahini Noodle salad pictured above, others made beautiful little breads for dipping into some amazing hummus with herb-infused oils, an amazing halibut filet poached in a curry and sherry broth, a savory phyllo strudel, and then some quick little beet salads. Continue reading →

I spend a lot of time fine tuning my images for my blog to get them to achieve the right balance of color and light. While it’s certainly not the hours that some professionals spend, it’s still probably the most time consuming part of food blogging for me (with the exception of some of the actual cooking). I want colors that are vivid, life-like or sometimes very subtle, to fit the mood I’m trying to achieve and I’m willing to tweak and futz with them until they are, in my eyes, just perfect.

So, imagine my disappointment when I went to try out Firefox and pulled up my blog and found, instead of the beautiful rich colors I was expecting, photos that looked dull and dead.
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