Here's how to make an average photo of an apple look like it was shot professionally.

A few of the methods were taken from a tutorial in this month's Photography Monthly. Hope they don't mind ;o)

This shot was taken using my EOS 300D with 18-55mm lens. It's on my part-extended tripod and facing straight down on the apple, which is placed on the whitest plate I could find. Lighting in this case is provided by what sun there was outside the evening before last. Exposure was 1.3s at f9 and iso200, but will of course vary depending on circumstance.

The resulting shot looked like this:



Horrible isn't it. To make it look more professional I simply worked with the Levels in Photoshop. All you have to do is use the White Point Eyedropper (ringed below) to select a part of the plate. Where the plate looked like a washed-out grey it soon looked more like the brilliant-white it should.



Mess with the other levels a little and the boring photo soon has some crispiness to it. Good enough to eat.