Aphorisms from the Professor: Brillat-Savarin

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

back from vacation with a new camera

While away for vacation, I got a new digital SLR camera. This panini was my first real attempt at playing with it, and it's clear I need more practice - I wasn't used to the weight of the camera, looking through a view-finder, and the "double-click", where first the camera focuses, then it takes the picture. The end result was that a lot of my pictures came out blurry, or with weird composition. I am most excited to experiment with the aperture to get nice depth of field. However, what I learned today is that in order to do so I need to get the tripod set up, because of the slow shutter speed associated with small apertures. So although I am happy with the final picture I chose, I know it would have been more awesome had I been using the tripod so I could have achieved a cool "blurring into the distance" effect.


Prosciutto, arugula, mozzarella, and roasted red peppers on Tuscan round

5 comments:

  1. This is an absolutely GORGEOUS panini!

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  2. This is my favorite so far. Yum.

    -Jono

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  3. to get a shallow depth of field (ie that cool blurring effect), you're going to want to decrease your f-stop number, which actually *increases* the aperture diameter. that means that the shutter speed will be quicker. that being said, a tripod may still be a good idea to maximize sharpness...

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  4. Allison -- I got a book to go with my new camera to learn all about how to use it, but haven't had a chance to delve into it in detail. Thanks for the tip, clearly I was confused!

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  5. The great thing about digital is that you can fire away to your ♥s content and not have to spend $$$ on film and processing. You'll be amazed at how much the tripod will help. And be sure to buy a shutter release (little wire thingy with a button on the end).

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