And I love to read your blog ( oke, just started actualy ).

Busy to build an area in the house to set up a ‘set up’.

About your setup, 1. what color ( K ) of light did you use and 2. how much lumen or watt did you shine on your plate?

Greetz

As for lens, the 50mm f1.4 will actually work better in low light. The f-stop of a lens is how wide the lens can open up and a lower number is better. The 60mm is macro lens though, which will let you get closer to the food. That is great for small objects or when you want to capture a praticular detail and not the whole plate.

I think both setups would work well. As long as you are not working by candle light, I don’t think you should have too much of a problem with a lack of light.

Some local camera shops let you buy a lens and then return it if you don’t like it. That could also be an option.

close-up food photography in low light conditions: for ie, at restaurant dinings with very weak light and yet get sharp clear close up detailed pics from such condition with no use of flash.I bought the 550D but now I am searching for the right lense to go with it: What do you think of a 60mm f2.8 paired with the 550D? Any better suggestion given what I want to do?

Also: Would the 550D paired with a 60mm f2.8 make superior low light macro food dinnerā??s food pics than a Canon 350D paired with a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.4 lens?

PS: I do understand the necessity of the tripod, but most restaurants will never accept that I get in with a Tripod. I havenā??t yet used that Canon EOS 550 (just have the body and I am now planning for the Lens), but if this is going to be shaky enough to the point that taking photos without a tripod would be impossible, please let me know: I will return the digital SLR.
Thanks to all for your replies.

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

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?

I hope to see more tutorials like which angle to look for the best shots, bring out the best in food & beverage serve in glasses, etc.

Thank you for sharing the infos and I’m waiting for the next tutorial!