The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

What lens do you use for bread pictures?

sphealey's picture
sphealey

What lens do you use for bread pictures?

Question: what lens are picture-posters here using to take their bread photos? I have been using our Canon A530 point-and-shoot digital, but I can't seem to get the right perspective on the bread.

The A530 claims to have a "5.8 - 23.2mm" zoom lens, but I believe that the 35mm SLR film lens equivalent depends on the size of the solid-state sensor in the digitial camera, which I don't know.

So, lens are people here using? Digital or film? SLR or point-and-shoot? What focal length, and do you know the 35mm film equivalent focal length?

Thanks.

sPh

mse1152's picture
mse1152

I get better photos if I use the macro setting with Auto mode.  No other changes.  I zoom in or out as necessary.

Sue 

bwraith's picture
bwraith

sphealey, 

Mine is just a little digital Sony cybershot point and shoot. If I can, I try to do the photos without a flash, which is not always possible, depending on when I get around to it. Mine has some settings to use point metering on the light and focus, which seems to help sometimes, and I do use the macro setting also. Digital cameras like that have an equivalent of 35mm to about 100mm in 35mm terms, just roughly. The pictures won't be as distorted if you can use a higher focal length, but I've been too lazy to set up special lighting. The only setting I can get away with no flash is on the widest angle zoom, which ought to be about 35mm equivalent to 35mm slr camera lenses.

Bill

tattooedtonka's picture
tattooedtonka

This is a tad older model it only has 2.1 Mega Pixels. But it has a decent zoom, all my photos posted to date on here have been with this camera.

TT

 

JIP's picture
JIP

I have several lenses for my Nikon D70S 2 of them professional but the one I most often use for bread pics like th ones here http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2645/very-busy-day I shot with the 18-55 lens that came with the camera and I used natural light for the pics also.  Unless you are trying to get a very close image of the crumb or something a macro setting would be necesary for shooting bread.

bottleny's picture
bottleny

Just remember few points.

1. If the distance is less than the focus length (depending on the model, could be 40cm), use "Macro" setting

2. No flash (but be careful about the handshake)

3. Prefocus (ie press the button till the half way) and hold it before taking the shot.

4. With sufficient light indoors

If you do it right, you only need a little tuning in the software (like Picasa is enough), e.g. fulling light, and contrast or shadow etc.

 I'm not saying the pictures will be better than those from SLR by a professional, but they should be good enough.

ehanner's picture
ehanner

sphealy, From your question it sounds like you may be aware of some of this but in general, you should know what the intended use of your images are before you take the shot. Images viewed on the computer are only displayed at 72dpi. Depending on your camera and how you have your quality settings set, the camera will record an image at various sizes and at 72dpi. The higher quality settings available in today's 10-12 mega pixel cameras create a very large 72 dpi image that can later be converted to a higher resolution image (500-600 dpi) for printing. For our purposes here you can shoot at the lowest resolution possible (480x640) which will result in smaller file sizes and more images on your memory card.

As far as perspective goes. Each lens has optical qualities that determines how objects appear. In general you are better off if you don't try to work at the edge of the envelope. In other words, don't get as close as possible and expect that your equipment will produce clear images. Unless you have a higher end camera your point and shoot camera will work best at 5-10 feet if the flash is needed. Zoom as tight as possible and hold very still. I usually take 2-3 images especially if I'm not using flash so I can pick the best image in terms of sharpness.

Hope this helps.

Eric