I'm attending a dinner party tonight, and I'm taking one of my favorite dishes: Black Bean, Mint, and Feta Salad--it's so full of flavor and color, and it's very simple to make--I'll put the recipe at the end for folks who don't want to talk 'camera.' :)
This photo is all manual and I was able to make adjustments to my focal point (yes, I really am a terrible newbie, but thanks to advice from 365er @foxsparrow on another photo, I located the focal adjustment area). I am indoors with very little natural light (not taking on artificial lighting yet), so I used a high ISO, as much window light as possible, and a white bowl. The Fstop was 7.1, shutter 1/100, and ISO 3200 (using a high ISO is new to me). My goal was to accentuate the mint but be able to see well the other items in the bowl. I think the white of the feta does blanche out a little too much, and I wonder if that is a shutterspeed or f/stop issue--seems overexposed? I'm entering this one in csc-22--I really am interested in feedback on how to improve the "triangle" I'm working with.
And for those who love to eat:
Fresh mint (a bunch, chopped finely--leave a sprig for decor on top)
2 cans of black beans rinsed (or make them from scratch too!)
1/4 cup feta
1/2 of a large vidalia onion diced (red onion is good too!)
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (grate some of the rind for decor!)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Sounds delicious, I'm a big fan of mint. Well done you for pushing yourself with the manual setting, you are getting some good results, I find myself using it more and more.
Sounds and looks delicious. I think I will do the csc-22 also. I only know how to run the manual setting, have no clue as to the rest of the triangle. I like the texture of the mint and the angle that you shot it -- looks a bit like a mouth.
I'm so much better at eating than at photos, so thanks for the recipe. I love mint. Just bought some cans o' black beans. Good thing because I have no idea how you'd make them from scratch. I assume you don't mean I need to grow them... Do they come edible outside of a can? :)
I think the results are fabulous. However if you felt it was overexposed you could have lowered the ISO on three consecutive shots and picked the best one. Glad you've gotten the focus points down.
@foxsparrow Yes, I should have played with the ISO. I could not tell from the small viewer in the camera really, but I should have just used different ones to see the diff when I got it on my computer to view larger! Good advice! :)
Fabulous! You got the effect you were after just right! And for those of us whose mouths watered seeing this photo, you generously provided us with the recipe, too -- thanks! BTW, I only learned to use those focal points last month!
@jyokota I learn so much from others on this site--I offer a great recipe also in one of my early shots in January (a soup shot ala "Downton Abbey"). If I'm not watching Korean dramas, I'm watching something like "Downton"--and then I try to make recipes to go with it all. While you are in Seoul you should give me a push challenge to cook a dish you like there then photograph it! he,he
Well, I'm now back from Korea (although nearly a week behind in posting, despite the fact that I took photos daily) but if you want a challenge any time to do something as intriguing as cook Korean food and photograph it, I'd LOVE to see your efforts. :) Me? I don't cook -- my husband does all of it and he's a great cook. So upon returning to Berlin yesterday, I went to the Asian supermarket and bought some Korean tea and promptly had my home restaurant prepare boiled water for me to put three spoonfuls of tea mix into it. Everyone at the cafe loved it (honey and yuzu citron) and I ended up giving them the rest of the jar. That's the extent of my cooking. The Korean tea shops were fabulous and I think some enterprising person should create a chain of them around the world! I especially liked the walnut, pine nut, job's tears tea! Oh, and by the way, I found a cardboard cutout of Jang Geum and had my photo taken with her!
