If you’re looking for the best camera for food photography, the Sony a6000 is a fabulous investment. Its mirrorless body makes it a compact and easy-to-operate tool, and it offers a wide array of features that make it a competitive product in the market for bulky DSLRs.
If you usually feel awkward while taking out a heavy camera in restaurants, the Sony a6000 will fit right into your purse and allow you to discreetly churn out creativity. Its Wi-Fi connectivity is another remarkable feature that will enable you to quickly transfer the images to your phone and start posting away on social media.
This article will take a detailed look at Sony a6000 and the various features it offers for immersive and creative food photography.
1. Tackling Overheating Issues
Overheating is a common issue with the Sony a6000, and it typically arises when filming videos. However, this is not a problem that cannot be fixed. The ideal solution is to invest in spare NP-FW50 batteries. This reasonably cheap fix allows you to swap the hot batteries with fresher ones. It will end the overheating issues by resetting the heat building so you can continue your food photography session.
The SD card is another crucial heat source that might be causing the trouble you’re facing. SD cards can generate an overwhelming amount of heat. However, you can fix this problem by understanding the requirements of your a6000’s SD card. It is advisable to operate the a6000 with a card that has a minimum shooting speed of 80MB/s and a tx speed of 170MB/s.
If your current SD card does not fulfill this requirement, consider investing in one that does. Thankfully, SD cards are quite affordable, so upgrading to make the most of your investment should not be a problem.
2. Xavc S Mode
This mode is a dynamic codec that is found on Sony cameras and offers a much more competitive and superior user experience as compared to other codecs. How so?
It allows you to shoot high-definition videos with multiple resolutions, ranging from HD to 4K. It also allows lighter compression, which will help you consume less space and shoot more. You will need a 64 gigabyte SD card, which can be a micro card as well, to support the capacity required for the XAVC S mode.
If you’re shooting videos for food commercials or social media posts, this feature is the best one to use because it won’t take up all your memory, but will still provide the high definition that the a6000 is known for.
3. Flexible Spot Focus Mode
Food photography is all about the mouthwatering details, from garnishing to dripping sauces that will attract customers. The a6000’s flexible spot focus mode allows you to zoom into the frame composition and select one element or feature that you would like to focus on. It could be the juicy steak nestled in a bed of leafy greens or one cupcake in a platter full of assorted desserts.
This feature highlights intricate details of the subject in focus. By blurring out the backgrounds, it provides good contrast between the foreground and background. By doing so, it ensures that your subject commands attention.
You can also customize the focus by dragging the little green corners that appear on the screen. If you want to return the focus to the center of the frame, you can do so by simply pressing the ‘C’ button next to the trashcan button.
4. Diopter
The diopter is a feature that goes unnoticed among both novice and seasoned photographers. The diopter is the tiny knob-like button on the front next to the viewfinder that we never use. However, you may find that you unintentionally end up interfering with it, which causes the viewfinder to become oddly blurry.
The diopter adjustment exists to aid people with weak eyesight. In order to use it, bring your eye up to the viewfinder and adjust the dial with your finger until the frame is no longer blurry. If you’re finding it difficult to turn the dial, remove the eyepiece cup, and then give it a try.
5. Grid Line
If you’re a seasoned photographer, you’re probably familiar with the rule of thirds, which defines the foreground, background, and subject of an image. As a beginner, learning the rule of thirds can help create immersive food photographs for your business or blog.
The grid line option divides your frames into smaller grids to help with frame composition. When turning grid line on, you can choose between a rule of thirds grid, a square grid, or a diagonal + square grid.
The rule of thirds grid divides the frame into 9 squares (3 rows and 3 columns). You should ideally place your subject close to the grid lines for good composition. The square grid helps you confirm the horizontal level of your composition. You should use it when shooting close-ups. The third grid line option is great for food photography. When using it, place the subject of the photograph on the diagonal line to draw attention towards it.
6. Bulb Mode
The bulb mode, activated only in the manual mode, allows you to capture food images with fantastic backgrounds. This long exposure can give a picture of any food item a bright and attractive background.
It may seem challenging, but the bulb mode is quite easy to use as manual settings allow the photographer greater control over all elements that define the image’s composition and quality. Once you activate the manual mode, you can find the bulb mode at the lowest aperture setting. You will have to press down the shutter halfway in order to focus. The press and hold the shutter down for however long you desire. Do keep in mind that the longer you hold it down for, the more grainy your image may be.
This allows an artistic interplay of light and is an ideal mode for street food photography at night. It will also help you manipulate the flow of light and how it falls on your food spread during daylight and indoor shoots. Since the shutter is open for a long time, your pictures may become blurry if your hands are prone to shaking. Therefore, be sure to use the bulb mode with a tripod for the best results.
7. Viewing Photos On TV
The Sony a6000 comes equipped with Wi-Fi, and if you have a smart LCD TV equipped with Wi-Fi, you can view your photographs on your television. Have you ever noticed that your food images look differently on smaller screens, and more vivid on bigger TV screens? That is because of the pixels and composition, and viewing your photos on TV will actually prove immensely helpful in selecting the best shots for your social media campaigns.
You simply have to connect your a6000 to your TV, and you can press the center button to start an automatic slideshow that will show you the entire gallery. This is a very convenient feature for food photographers who work with restaurants and brands as they can present their pre-edited pictures directly from the camera storage.
8. Deleting Multiple Images In The Camera
The Sony a6000 allows you to delete multiple images from your memory card without having to connect to a laptop or PC. All you have to do is head over to the menu, hit the playback button, and then choose the delete button. It will give you three different options.
Choosing multiple images allows you to select all the images you wish to delete and then do so. However, you can also choose to delete all the images in a particular folder. Likewise, you can also choose to delete all the images taken on a particular date. This is a super convenient feature for those photographers who end up filling their memory cards during a shoot.
9. Lock On Auto Focus
This is an excellent feature to capture vivid and finely tuned images of food items while moving, eating, or even cooking. The lock on auto focus allows you to lock the focus on your lens on one particular food item, making it easier to obtain clarity and focus while walking. If you are capturing street food while walking through a bazaar or at a farmer’s market, you can activate the lock on AF to ensure superior image clarity and avoid blurry pictures.
It’s a great feature to capture that exciting cheese pull while devouring a pizza or take amazing shots while stirring a pot full of a saucy casserole. You can activate this feature from your camera settings, and use it to enhance the clarity of your food shots while walking or eating.
10. Disable Auto Power Off
Sony a6000 has a poor battery life, which causes the device to turn itself off automatically. This can be immensely frustrating for a photographer, especially if you are in the middle of lining up a fabulous shot or fixing your focus. Booting the camera back up can take a few seconds, and if you’re covering a food event, the shot you intended to capture may be lost by the time your camera is ready to shoot.
A good tip is to disable auto power off. To do this, you need to access the menu and open the very last tab. On page 2, you will find a feature, ‘Pwr Save Start Time.’ The default setting for this feature is 1 minute, but you can customize it according to your preferences. This setting can be changed from 1 minute to 30 minutes, giving you ample time before your camera automatically powers off.
11. Burst Mode
The burst mode is extremely popular amongst food photographers, as it is instrumental in capturing those mouthwatering shots of wine being poured into a glass or of a freshly made pizza being lifted off the platter.
The burst mode is known as Continuous Shooting on the a6000. It allows you to take multiple shots very quickly. As you press down the shutter, your Sony a6000 will start capturing multiple shots of the same frame.
There are three different modes within continuous shooting. The Hi mode is the default setting and takes a maximum of 11 images per second. The Mid mode can capture 6 images per second. Finally, the Lo mode can capture 2.5 images per second.
The burst mode will help you capture more without putting in too much effort. You simply have to activate this mode, press down the shutter and allow your Sony a6000 to work its magic. For instance, if you’re serving a freshly baked dish of pasta, activate the burst mode to take elaborate pictures of pasta being served onto the plates, garnished with herbs and spices. You can even capture the vivid colour of the beverages and play around with rich textures of food items.
12. Auto Focus
If you’re having trouble working with the manual focus point selection, the autofocus can really help you enhance your image clarity and crispness. The Sony a6000 has this amazing ability to predict the exact focus point that will improve your food images and present your subject in an aesthetically pleasing light.
As soon as you focus your camera on a food subject, the camera’s auto-focus kicks in to adjust the focus and allow superior precision for your images. It’s a very handy tool for beginners who are just starting out with a mirrorless camera.
Conclusion
As mentioned above, the Sony a6000 is a fabulous mirrorless camera that allows you to get creative with food photography. From capturing immersive videos to taking engaging burst shots and manipulating lighting and backgrounds, it will enable superior control that empowers the photographer’s ability to channel creativity into the shot.
These tips and tricks will help you make the most of your Sony a6000 and create an incredible spread of food images for your social media accounts or marketing campaigns. As a beginner, it can be overwhelming to work around with such features, but they will gradually become more comfortable to use and experiment with.
