Here is a question I got on one of our posts:

Eddie says:

February 3, 2010 at 4:24 am

I have a Nikon D60 and use a 18-200mm VR 3.5-5.6 lens. I am taking photos of foods for a book I am writing and need some help to choose the right lens.

The foods I photograph are at the restaurants that I buy them at, so lighting is dependent on each restaurant. I suppose I could use flash, but I don’t really want to get into flash photography inside the restaurants I visit.

I noticed with my lens that I have to zoom in to get the AF to work best. Also, the depth of field is pretty shallow, and shutter speeds become slow.

I started to consider using a macro lens, but I’m wondering if I really need one. I don’t intend on shooting anything smaller than a muffin.

My goal is to be able to shoot a plate of food and to have most or all of the food in focus. And to be able to do this in a restaurant where the lighting will most likely be less than perfect.

Can you give me some advice?

Hi Eddie,

Good questions! I sound like you are running into two different things. The reason you have to zoom in, in order to correctly focus has do with your lens minimum focusing distance. When you are zooming, what you are actually doing is moving the camera farther away from the food, but keeping the image the same. Lens have a minimum distance they need to be away from the subject in order to correctly focus. Most Macro lens don’t enlarge things any more than a regular lens. The difference is that they have no minimum focusing length. You can get as close as you want to, which works out great for shooting in a cramped environment(restaurant).

Both Nikon and Canon have a 100mm~ & 60mm~ lens. I have the 100mm Macro lens from Canon and I sort of wish I went for the 60mm version. With the zoom factor of my Camera (50D) that 100mm lens ends up being about 160mm and that is a lot of zoom. In order to fit plate in, I have to back up quite a bit. That said, it is an amazingly well made lens and great for taking close-ups of things. If you have a camera that does not have a full-sized sensor, a 60mm macro should be about perfect.

As for the shallow depth of field,that has to do with the amount of light in the restaurant. In order to increase the depth of field, you have to increase the f-stop number. For that to work though, the camera needs more light. You have a couple of options here. The easiest is to increase the ISO setting on the camera. That makes the camera more sensitive. The other option is to increase the amount of time the shutter is open, but that means holding the camera really steady. A small tripod might come in handy.

One other thing to look at is bring a piece of printer paper or a reflective disc. You can uses these to better help bounce light and fill in any shadows if the light is not right.

Here are some things you might want to check out:

Macro Lens -

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens

Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM Digital SLR Lens

Nikon 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor Lens

Nikon 60mm f/2.8G ED AF-S Micro-Nikkor Lens for Nikon DSLR Cameras

Tripods -

Joby GP1-EBEN Gorillapod Flexible Tripod

Lastolite 12″ Circular Collapsable Disc Reflector, Silver / White

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Well, the Cookography staff just grew by one. Carolyn and I had a beautiful baby girl last week, named Elena. Posts may slow down a little as we get used to this new eater and her demanding feeding schedule. We will keep Cookography going though and promise not to have too many baby food related posts.

“Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater” (Matthew Amster-Burton)

That said, I just finished a great book on the adventures of infants and toddlers. Hungry Monkey is written by a dad in Seattle who has a daughter that is an adventurous eater. It was a very encouraging read and he has great advice on foods that both you and your kid can enjoy. Basically, just try mashing up food into non-chokable pieces and see if the kid likes it. His daughter even liked hot food and sushi! It is a great story of how you can share things you like with kids even if they are very young. The copy I read was from the library but I am going to buy one because it is full of easy recipes and cooking tips for harried parents and an adventurous eater kid. He also has a great blog here, which is worth the read.

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Each year we compile our favorite recipes from the year into a sort of cookbook. The Best of Cookography 2009 is ready, so check it out! It’s tough narrowing down which recipes to include, but we try to provide a good variety. It’s a way for us to reflect on the year and remember all the tasty meals we’ve enjoyed! Happy New Year to all!

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This Guest Chef post is from Carolyn’s mom.

This is not your traditional pecan pie recipe, in looks or taste. It is neither gooey nor overly sweet. That is exactly why our family loves it! On top of that, it is so easy to make that you might feel guilty accepting your family’s accolades. It’s become a family tradition to serve this pie at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and other special occasions.

I discovered this untraditional recipe over 20 years ago in the recipe booklet that came with my Hamilton Beach blender, which is over 30 years old–my husband’s from his bachelor days. And yes, it’s “avocado green.”

Everything goes in the blender so there’s very little mess. I’ve reduced the amount of sugar a little from the original recipe and no one has ever noticed. When the pie first comes out of the oven, it is nice and puffy, a beautiful sight.

Since this is still a “rich” dessert, I recommend that you serve small slices. Top it off with a scoop of coffee ice cream. Enjoy!

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The Lazy Baker sent us a cookie mix to try. Just how lazy of a baker am I? Well, it took me a good 2-3 months to get around to making the cookies. It’s not that I was lazy, but that I was waiting for an occasion to make them. Actually, our ambitions were quite high initially…we were going to do a cookie bake-off between the Lazy Baker cookies and cookies from scratch. But, alas, time got away from us. Finally, coworkers were throwing me baby shower, so I decided to make the cookies.

The Lazy Baker is supposed to make cookie making easy. You get all the dry ingredients in a tin, and all you have to do is add the wet ingredients. It’s the cookie equivalent of making cake from a box. So, you’re thinking it’s pretty easy, how could anyone mess it up? Well, leave it to me. I couldn’t find the camera, so I missed the opportunity to show you the “out takes,” but I think the main problem stemmed from using butter that was not at room temperature. Totally my fault, not Lazy Baker’s. I was going to give up on the cookies, but Luke came in and thought they were salvageable. (This is a prime example of why Luke does the cooking and I do the dishes.)

The batter was very dry, which is not what I was expecting and the reason I thought they weren’t going to come out right. But very little liquid actually goes into the mix…just 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

As you can see, we tried two different methods of placing the cookies on the cookie sheet…smooth balls and messy clumps. It made no real difference in the outcome of cookies.

So, what was the verdict from the baby shower? Thumbs up on taste…they all got eaten! I didn’t tell anyone the near cookie disaster. Personally, I thought the cookies tasted a little gritty, but no one at the shower seemed to notice, or they didn’t say anything.

The Lazy Baker saves you a little bit of time because you don’t have to mix the dry ingredients, but it still takes time to mix it all together. Is it worth it? Maybe for some people. If you have all the dry ingredients on hand in your pantry, you may just want to make cookies from scratch. But if not, the Lazy Baker may be the answer to your cookie cravings.

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