Before I start, I should mention that nothing compares with getting a great shot on your camera right off the bat. However, there are some times when post-editing makes all the difference.
Take my basil pesto. Here’s what I posted on the blog:
The picture was accepted on FoodGawker, and received a fairly decent amount of recognition and attention. But that post almost never went up.
Wanna know why? I took it late in the day, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the picture bright enough.
No jokes. Here’s what it looked like:
See the difference? Let’s look side by side:
I edit my pictures in Adobe Lightroom. I’m no expert, but its intuitive and easy to do basic editing. I bought it on a one day special for $70, but honestly I think it’s worth the $150 it normally costs.
Wait, there’s more. A coworker of mine, who is both a brilliant photographer and super nice about sharing his photography knowledge gave me a fabulous tip. When you simply don’t have enough light for your pictures, it can be better to take a slightly darker picture and plan to edit it, rather than compromise by reducing the shutter speed or opening up the aperture or raising the ISO more than you’d like to.
Seriously, post-editing is like the undo feature in life. Use it.
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend! – Miriam
Thanks for the advice! I’m new to food photography, and at times, it can be so frustrating. I’ve been thinking of buying some sort of editing program, but for now, I’ve been just using iPhoto. Definitely still in the back of my head, although $150 dollars sounds like a lot!
Great tip! Congrats on having the pesto photo accepted by FoodGawker too 🙂
Sometimes you can totally transform a picture into a stunner if you use Photoshop and press Ctrl+Shift+B (auto color). It’s excellent in many situations. By the way, would you do a post about lighting? I want to take some pics of my foods but I have a poorly lit apartment with yellowish light tones. If I use flash, it’s too harsh on the food (I know I can use a tilted speedlight but I don’t have tons of $ to dish out on that now), and no flash gives me a yellowy picture, with some graininess. Do you use diffused lighting, and what is your light source?
Planning to do a lighting post very soon!