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Feb 14, 2012
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50mm Lens

In this year's SAVEUR 100, we take stock of our favorite things: recipes, people, places. We consider every last one a new classic.
By The Editors
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50mm Lens Enlarge Image
There's a reason so many food bloggers we know have a 50mm f/1.8 macro lens attached to their cameras: It makes virtually every dish it captures look delicious. That lush close-up of a carton of raspberries, where just a few are in razor-sharp focus and the rest gradually blur away? This lens. A shot of a garden salad, every vein and dewdrop perfectly visible? This lens. Its large aperture and shallow depth of field are the keys to foolproof food photography.

50mm 1.8 lenses are available for all makes and models of SLR and DSLR cameras. You can find a full selection at Amazon.com

 
Photos: Todd Coleman

 
Photos: Helen Rosner, MacKenzie Smith
50mm Lens

This article was first published in Saveur in Issue #144

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Comments (2)

noAvatar
Well, which is it? A 50mm f/1.8 or a 50mm macro? A 50mm f/1.8 macro is a lens that doesn't really exist. Either way, though, you're missing the point. Yes, these are nice food shots and the use of a fast 50mm is something of a commonplace thing (largely because the great value represented by the performance and low price point of 50mm f/1.8 lenses), but does the lens do that? Nope. You're selling it as a magic bullet and it isn't anything of the sort. One is no less likely to take a crappy food shot with that sort of lens than with any other. It's a good tool, sure, but good photography of any sort comes down to what happens between your ears a hell of a lot more than what you put between the camera and the food.
noAvatar
I absolutely agree with the above commenter. It seems that every "food blogger" has become an overnight expert in photography, and a self-appointed advisor on cameras and lenses.

As a septuagenarian who has been making professional-quality photographs for nearly 50 years, I am often amazed, and sometimes irritated, by the new generation of foodies who have to photograph everything they put into their gullet, and then who seriously believe that they are the final word on photographic technique and equipment.

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