|
On the 21st, I treated
myself to an early Christmas present and bought a modest set of
studio flash units. I'd been wanting to try indoor and studio
photography for a little while. I had also volunteered to do some
product photography for a friend, and having plug-in lights would
make that easier than using my portable flash.
Okay, I admit it. That's
rationalization. Really I just felt like getting new camera toys.
On my way home from
the camera shop, I stopped at my favorite supermarket and picked
up some fruit and vegetables to use as test subjects. When I got
home, I ate a few of my test subjects, and then got down to playing.
The first still-life
that I set up was a few tomatos and kumquats resting on a lovely
blue dress shirt. I set up both of my new lights, one on the left
at full power, and one on the right at its lowest power setting.
I pointed both lights directly at the subject and, after taking
a lot of shots and fiddling with camera settings, got the following.
|
|
 |
|
I spent a lot of time
trying to get good rim lighting from the right-hand light.
Rim lighting lights up the edge of an object and helps to separate
it from the background. I got the effect on the rightmost tomato
in the following shot; its right edge is slightly brighter than
the rest of it, making it stand out. But I also got bright highlights
from that left light, which I didn't really want. In this photo,
the left-hand light is bounced off the ceiling, making it very
diffuse and comparatively dim.
|
|
 |
| In this
one, the left-hand light is passed through a softbox, which
is a contraption that holds a white cloth in front of the light.
The cloth diffuses the light so you don't get a sharp highlight.
On the left tomato is a square highlight, hinting at the square
shape of the softbox. This photo is a little dim, and I've resisted
the urge to photoshop it brighter; I'm working on getting the brightness
right by adjusting lights and camera. I do have a version of this
photo that is exposed a little longer, and thus brighter, but it
made the highlights from the right-hand light too dominant for my
tastes. |
|
 |
| In this
one, if I remember correctly, I'm bouncing the left-hand light off
of a silvered umbrella (which creates a highlight somewhere between
the ones you get by pointing the light straight at the subject and
passing it through a softbox). I've also moved the right-hand light
in closer. The resulting bright left-and-right-hand highlights look
a bit unnatural to me. |
|
 |
| After an
hour or so of tomatos and kumquats, I was yearning for some different
subjects, and so I set up some of my other purchases. I quickly
found myself moving the camera in tighter to fill the frame with
the food. |
|
 |
| This shot
has two of my favorites from the group, a passion fruit and a japanese
eggplant. |
|
 |
| Here's my
idea for a new gelato flavor: jalapeno passion-fruit. |
|
 |
|
Well, you can see why
I don't run a gelato shop.
I was enamoured of
the detail of the jalapeno stem and where it met the jalapeno
body, and took several shots of it. Here's one showing just the
stem, again with the passion fruit.
|
|
 |
| And here's
a close-up on one of my old friends, the kumquats. This is the last
photo ever taken of this guy, who met his demise before I pointed
my camera at my next subject. I'll always remember him as such a
juicy little fellow. |
|
 |
| The next
two photos are of the same veggie; in both of them I've put the
light low on the left in order to emphasize the textural detail. |
|
 |
| Naturally,
I'm not telling you what it is yet so that you'll have time to wonder
about and maybe guess at it. |
|
 |
| Actually,
I warned you about it earlier: it's a japanese eggplant. In particular,
that's the cap on the end of the eggplant; it had a lovely texture
and color. Here's a slightly wider view of it. The long tube of
its body is on the left and the stem is on the right. |
|
 |
|
I guess that I had
lost track of the time, because after this shot I looked at a
clock and noticed that it was 1:20 in the morning. I decided to
call it a night, and so I put most of my subjects in a plastic
bag and thence into the refrigerator. The few unlucky ones that
didn't make it into the bag got eaten before I stumbled off to
bed.
Hungry for more studio
photography,
Tom
|
|