196. Utensil - March 12-18, 2017
Paul-
No pressure when the weekly theme is the one you selected, right? Yikes.
I had a devil of a time lighting and positioning it such a way it would look reasonably good and realistic. The “realistic” comment refers to the melon ball you see nestled (and dripping) in the cookie scoop. (Some people also call these melon ballers. The can certainly be used that way, but typically melon ballers work just fine and are sold as something without moving parts.)
As you’ve probably guessed—but shamelessly lie to me if this is the case so I feel better about it—the ball of melon you see dripping on the white cotton sheet is not fruit at all. It’s a 1.25” diameter sphere of rose quartz. I had no glycerin around to help give it a more…well, melonly appearance, so I experimented with a thin sheen of petroleum jelly. Nope. Trying to coat it in baby lotion wasn’t very productive either.
I ended up slightly dampening the cloth next to the faux melon to give the impression of it being a ball of fruit, and also tweaked the clarity, sharpness, color and the “film” used for the picture (Fuji Provia/Medium).
Serves four: Nikon D5200; aperture priority; 18-55mm focused at 55mm; ISO 1250; 1/60 sec. at f/5.6; priority; -1 fill flash setting, center-weighted average metering; 21-point AF area mode, Auto WB. The camera was hand-held.
No pressure when the weekly theme is the one you selected, right? Yikes.
I had a devil of a time lighting and positioning it such a way it would look reasonably good and realistic. The “realistic” comment refers to the melon ball you see nestled (and dripping) in the cookie scoop. (Some people also call these melon ballers. The can certainly be used that way, but typically melon ballers work just fine and are sold as something without moving parts.)
As you’ve probably guessed—but shamelessly lie to me if this is the case so I feel better about it—the ball of melon you see dripping on the white cotton sheet is not fruit at all. It’s a 1.25” diameter sphere of rose quartz. I had no glycerin around to help give it a more…well, melonly appearance, so I experimented with a thin sheen of petroleum jelly. Nope. Trying to coat it in baby lotion wasn’t very productive either.
I ended up slightly dampening the cloth next to the faux melon to give the impression of it being a ball of fruit, and also tweaked the clarity, sharpness, color and the “film” used for the picture (Fuji Provia/Medium).
Serves four: Nikon D5200; aperture priority; 18-55mm focused at 55mm; ISO 1250; 1/60 sec. at f/5.6; priority; -1 fill flash setting, center-weighted average metering; 21-point AF area mode, Auto WB. The camera was hand-held.
Jerry-
My entry for this week is called "Scoop of Jerry". It was taken with the Sony a6300 with 16-50 mm lens zoomed to 33mm. Exposure was 1/60 @ f11, ISO 3200, exposure bias -0.3. I did spin it 180 degrees so I wouldn't appear upside down. It was taken in the kitchen with north light coming in.
My entry for this week is called "Scoop of Jerry". It was taken with the Sony a6300 with 16-50 mm lens zoomed to 33mm. Exposure was 1/60 @ f11, ISO 3200, exposure bias -0.3. I did spin it 180 degrees so I wouldn't appear upside down. It was taken in the kitchen with north light coming in.
Byron-
Kitchen safety is very important. If you are handling a cold, wet, slippery, 5lb pork butt, concentrate on what you are doing. If you are holding it in one hand and intend to stab it with a BBQ fork with the other, do not get distracted. Sure, the phone rang just as the fork was on its way.
Don't glance at the phone to see who is calling. That's called distracted cooking.
I think living near Hollywood 2 months each year has had an effect on me.
ISO 200, 55mm, f11, 200sec. Flash through a softbox on the left, reflector on the other side.
Kitchen safety is very important. If you are handling a cold, wet, slippery, 5lb pork butt, concentrate on what you are doing. If you are holding it in one hand and intend to stab it with a BBQ fork with the other, do not get distracted. Sure, the phone rang just as the fork was on its way.
Don't glance at the phone to see who is calling. That's called distracted cooking.
I think living near Hollywood 2 months each year has had an effect on me.
ISO 200, 55mm, f11, 200sec. Flash through a softbox on the left, reflector on the other side.
Kevin-
Paul’s “Utensil” guidance suggested a simple kitchen utensil, which I suppose would be something like the butcher knife that Jerry might photograph, or the olive pitter that Byron will be photographing. Further Paul’s guidance shied away from larger utensils like a microwave oven or a “Mixmaster”. But an “electric beaters” suggestion came up and after pondering it for a while I decided I wanted to do it in a bigger way.
Luckily there is no “Mixmaster" here, just a nice KitchenAid stand mixer utensil that has aided the prep of countless delicious yummy things.
It wasn’t a simple setup to light. KitchenAid on the kitchen counter, with a mix of LED under-cabinet light behind, tungsten lighting in the kitchen overall, plus indirect daylight filtering in through the windows to deal with. To this I thought “Why not add a couple of flash units, one behind the KitchenAid, and one bouncing off the ceiling?”
My goal was to create a lighting level that would allow the creation of motion blur of the KitchenAid from the existing lights plus the frozen image from the flash units. Hopefully I achieved that nicely.
I tested the night before but the image was incomplete and the last critical element was essential. Dry ice to create the feeling that I was preparing a mini-cauldron of whatever it is that typically gets prepared in cauldrons. Of course dry ice plus hot water creates wonderful clouds pouring out of the mix. Double, double, toil and trouble, tasty cookies are coming soon!
Nikon D4s, on a Manfrotto Carbon One 440 tripod with an Acratech ballhead, 105mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens, two Nikon SB-900 series flash units both on TTL settings, ISO 100, f/5.8 at 1/10th of a second.
Paul’s “Utensil” guidance suggested a simple kitchen utensil, which I suppose would be something like the butcher knife that Jerry might photograph, or the olive pitter that Byron will be photographing. Further Paul’s guidance shied away from larger utensils like a microwave oven or a “Mixmaster”. But an “electric beaters” suggestion came up and after pondering it for a while I decided I wanted to do it in a bigger way.
Luckily there is no “Mixmaster" here, just a nice KitchenAid stand mixer utensil that has aided the prep of countless delicious yummy things.
It wasn’t a simple setup to light. KitchenAid on the kitchen counter, with a mix of LED under-cabinet light behind, tungsten lighting in the kitchen overall, plus indirect daylight filtering in through the windows to deal with. To this I thought “Why not add a couple of flash units, one behind the KitchenAid, and one bouncing off the ceiling?”
My goal was to create a lighting level that would allow the creation of motion blur of the KitchenAid from the existing lights plus the frozen image from the flash units. Hopefully I achieved that nicely.
I tested the night before but the image was incomplete and the last critical element was essential. Dry ice to create the feeling that I was preparing a mini-cauldron of whatever it is that typically gets prepared in cauldrons. Of course dry ice plus hot water creates wonderful clouds pouring out of the mix. Double, double, toil and trouble, tasty cookies are coming soon!
Nikon D4s, on a Manfrotto Carbon One 440 tripod with an Acratech ballhead, 105mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens, two Nikon SB-900 series flash units both on TTL settings, ISO 100, f/5.8 at 1/10th of a second.