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Can I do food photos with Canon 85 f1.2?

Tristan Tom

New member
What do you think? Can I do food photos w/ the 85 f1.2? I know it doesn't focus close at all but what if I use extension tubes?

Or should I just order the 90 ts-e?
 

Gary C-G

New member
No. Unfortunately no food photography cannot be done with the 85/1.2. There's actually a disclaimer on the side of the box "No food photography with this lens".

Looks like you're out of luck. That superb isolating power which would have worked so perfectly when shooting across a colourful plate of food, drawing the eye to the focussed cener of interest and throwing the rest into a fantastic blur of colour.

Ah well! Lament our loss and all due to a silly rule by Canon.

I think food photography is allowed with the TS lenses but couldn't be sure as I've never read the boxes.

;-p
 
Tristan Tom said:
What do you think? Can I do food photos w/ the 85 f1.2?

You can, but with the obvious restrictions to what you'll be able to get into simultaneous focus. So the lack of control over the focus plane (and perspective) will restrict your compositional options.

Bart
 

Gary Ayala

New member
Gary C-G said:
No. Unfortunately no food photography cannot be done with the 85/1.2. There's actually a disclaimer on the side of the box "No food photography with this lens".

Looks like you're out of luck. That superb isolating power which would have worked so perfectly when shooting across a colourful plate of food, drawing the eye to the focussed cener of interest and throwing the rest into a fantastic blur of colour.

Ah well! Lament our loss and all due to a silly rule by Canon.

I think food photography is allowed with the TS lenses but couldn't be sure as I've never read the boxes.

;-p

You sure that disclaimer was for all foods. I thought Canon's disclaimer was specific to JuJuBees, Shrimp Cocktails and produce from Portugal?
 

Mark Adams

New member
Tristan,
I'll take a serious run at your question. First you should shoot with the lenses you have. If, after a lot of experimentation, you find some issues that need addressing then you should look to solve those issues. If, for instance, you find that too much is in focus at your lens' widest aperture then a faster lens may be what you are looking for or a T-S lens to throw the plane of focus off. If not enough is in focus try a shorter lens and stop down more. First you test, then you identify the issue, then you look for the solution. When you know what problem you want to slove, I hope you will post again and I'll bet you get a lot of useful help.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Tristan Tom said:
What do you think? Can I do food photos w/ the 85 f1.2? I know it doesn't focus close at all but what if I use extension tubes?

Or should I just order the 90 ts-e?
Hi Tristan,

Mark's advice is perfect! His approach applies to using any tool. I have a motto which has served me well to get over theoretical barriers to action and to earning experience, and here it is:

"Dont think, try!"

My next motto is

"Good enough, isn't!"

This is the route to food photography as well.

I'm assuming that a skilled eye has set up the food in the first place. That, in itself, is a challenge.

As with beauty photography, people don't pay look at these pictures to see what they can see in the mirror for free. People don't buy photography of food that looks like anything served in most restaurants!

The lens is not the barrier to food or nearly all photography. It is mostly getting lighting that shows the food as inviting and delicious and the presentation, wonderful.

What lenses do you have?

Let's say an EF 50 1.4, for example. You can do perfect shots with that!

There is a major background information missing here.

What is the purpose of these shots:

Your portfolio, fine restaurant, magazine, newsletter or local sandwich shop?

Asher
 

Petter Stahre

New member
Tristan Tom said:
What do you think? Can I do food photos w/ the 85 f1.2? I know it doesn't focus close at all but what if I use extension tubes?

Or should I just order the 90 ts-e?

As mentioned by Asher it depends on what kind of images you want to shot.

I work as a food photographer and have both these lenses. I use the 85/1.2 when I want to shoot food in it's context, often with people in the image. I would use it more if it could focus closer. I got the EF12 extension tube but find it often gets me to close (there should be an EF6 :). Here you can see examples of how I use the 85/1.2 (all images):

http://www.matbilder.se/portfolio-reportage.asp?i=5

The TS-E 90 is a wonderful lens. This one I use a lot when I have time to experiment (and a customer that appreciates it). Two examples with the tilt effect:

http://www.matbilder.se/portfolio-mat.asp?i=9

Both these pictures would have been impossible without a tilt capable lens.

...otherwise I use the wonderful 100/2.8 macro for 90% of all my food photography (which actually is a sharper lens at it's peak apertures than the 85/1.2 - nothing to care about, just tech fun).

Hope this helps!

Regards,
Petter

PS. By the way... this is my first posting in this forum. I read about the forum earlier today - superb initiative!
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Petter,

You're amazing, you read my mind! I was just about to link your website to guide the discussion for Tristan.

So instead of starting a new thread, let me welcome you here! We're so glad to have your talents and experience shared with us.

Just as a theoretical challenge question for someone starting, could you manage, if you had to, with a 50mm lens, getting the needed DOF by stopping down and use PS to simulate limited DOF where needed.

Asher
 

Petter Stahre

New member
Asher Kelman said:
Petter,

You're amazing, you read my mind! I was just about to link your website to guide the discussion for Tristan.

So instead of starting a new thread, let me welcome you here! We're so glad to have your talents and experience shared with us.

Just as a theoretical challenge question for someone starting, could you manage, if you had to, with a 50mm lens, getting the needed DOF by stopping down and use PS to simulate limited DOF where needed.

Asher

Thank you! What a warm welcome!

I can't say I have any experience with the PS filter which simulates different DOF (if that is the filter you were thinking about?). But to get it to work properly you would need to do some serious masking exercise and my guess is it would still look slightly artificial even if you spend some time with it. Still I guess for certain images it could look ok if you don't start analyzing details.

Another way is to use the blur tool manually over parts of the image which - if used moderately - could improve some images, especially if you blur already blurred parts even more (to simulate a larger aperture). That could still look quite natural.

But to be honest I've never used any of these methods professionally (yet! :) , I've been lucky enough being able to expand my lens collection instead. I think the added lens will pay for itself quite fast compared to hours in front of the computer if this kind of assignment will happen more than once. At least the 100/2.8 or TS-E 90... the 85/1.2 might need another Excel-exercise or two before ordering.

The 50/1.4 is (by the way) another lens I've used a lot for food photography. I shot these images 3 years ago on a 10D and the 50/1.4 (right image at f3.5):

http://www.matbilder.se/portfolio-mat.asp?i=11

But since I'm now mainly using full frame cameras I find the 100/2.8 much better (field of view+added working distance+sharpness).

(For the record the images in my previous post were shot using 1DsII+5D and large apertures.)

// Petter
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Well, Petter,

The pictures you show with the 50mm 1.4 show exactly what I expected, one can do a hell of a lot with just a 50mm lens, with the right (well prepared) brain behind it!

Asher
 

Jon P. Ferguson

New member
OK Asher

There you go again - alluding to the fact that you need a good, thinking brain to get good shots. I was under the impression that the little green square on the mode dial took care of that kind of stuff.

You are totally destroying my impression that by buying an expensive camera, I will be guaranateed a high place in the roster of famous photographers.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
In his wonderful book of B&W photography, "Kolbrener's Yosemite", opposite his self portrait write's,

"If you buy a camera, you are a photographer,
If you buy a flute, you own a flute."

Flawed!

A flautist informed me he was a photographer too!

Asher
 
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