Digital Camera World - UK (2022-02)

PERFECT PRESENTATION

BUILD YOUR SCENE

1

LIGHTING

Start with good

food. Make it look

its best with soft

window lighting on an

overcast day, or use

off-camera flash with a

large softbox for more

consistent results.

2

FRUIT PROPS

We added some

extra blueberries and

raspberries around

the plate, to help

add a pop of colour

and make the image

look even fresher and

more delicious.

3

HONEY DRIZZLE

A final pour of

honey or maple syrup

is a great way to give

your food a glossy,

irresistible sheen. We

also carefully brushed

glycerin onto the fruit

for extra reflections.

ENABLE THE 3 x 3

GRID IN LIVE VIEW

1

Most DSLR and

mirrorless cameras

allow you to enable a grid

that can be overlaid in Live

View to help you compose

using a variety of grids,

including the rule of thirds

grid. On our Canon 6D

Mark II, we went into the

camera menu and chose

Grid Display, setting it to

the 3 x 3 grid option.

PRO TECHNIQUE HOW TO

FRAME UP YOUR SHOT

SOFTER LIGHTING

2

Window lighting can be

inconsistent, as it can

change drastically as the

clouds move. We mimicked

soft window lighting on an

overcast day with some off-

camera flash, and a softbox

pointing down at our setup

at 45º. We positioned our

flashgun on a lightstand

with an adapter to hold the

softbox, and were able to

fire it remotely with some

cheap flash triggers.

TAKE THE SHOT!

3

We focused on a

blueberry in the

pancake stack, which

aligned nicely with our rule

of thirds grid, and set the

focus to MF to lock it off.

With one hand we then

poured a drizzle of honey

over the stack of pancakes,

and fired the camera with a

remote shutter in our other

hand, capturing a series of

still-life shots as the honey

was poured.

56 DIGITAL CAMERA^ FEBRUARY 2022 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com

FRESH PHOTO IDEAS FOR 2022

4

How to use the rules of

classical composition

Borrow methods employed by artists over the centuries to compose your

shots, and you’ll achieve engaging compositions in every frame you take

s the age-old

saying goes: if

it ain’t broke,

don’t fix it. That’s

certainly the case

with the tried-and-tested ‘rule

of thirds’ for composing your

photos – whatever the genre!

This is a compositional trick

where you divide your frame

into nine equal boxes and place

points of interest along those

lines or where the lines cross for

even more compositional clout.

It is largely agreed that a

composition following the rule

of thirds is more engaging and

eye-catching than one that

doesn’t use it: you can find

examples of this framing

technique in the paintings of

JMW Turner and even further

back, so the rule has seemingly

been around forever.

That being said, we’d also like

to remind you that rules are

made to be broken; so once

you’ve tried a few shots using

the rule of thirds, be sure to

experiment with different

compositions to see if you

can get an even better one.

A