235. Sweet - December 17-23, 2017
Jerry-
With my left hand I held the rack of peanut butter blossoms and with right I held the Sony with my 55 mm Micro-Nikkor. Exposure was 1/50 @ f16, ISO 6400. Lighting was from the north. One blossom did slide off and hit the kitchen floor so I had to test it for integrity - and it passed all tests as I wrestled the family dog for control. It was very good and Jack only got a few crumbs.
With my left hand I held the rack of peanut butter blossoms and with right I held the Sony with my 55 mm Micro-Nikkor. Exposure was 1/50 @ f16, ISO 6400. Lighting was from the north. One blossom did slide off and hit the kitchen floor so I had to test it for integrity - and it passed all tests as I wrestled the family dog for control. It was very good and Jack only got a few crumbs.
Don-
Ah yes sweets. I like this subject. I ate the rejects of the photo setup.
I used sodas from Mexico because they use real sugar and having the
chocolate in the foreground gave the thought I had of 'so sweet, the picture
made my teeth hurt.' I use my garage for doing this kind of photograph. The
garage is in total disarray because of work being done in the house and I
am just finishing up a round with the flu so I am not up to cleaning but
I thought you all might like a picture of my efforts.
Enough expounding on the irrelevant. I used three lights. The smaller ones
(5 watt LED) are properly diffused with a Bratonic type device, parchment paper.
The larger light (50 watt LED) diffused by a proper diffuser.
Focal was 70 mm with a 24 to 70 mm lens, no surprise there. Exposure was
a shutter of 0.4sec; f/13; ISO 280; Aperture Priority; Pattern Metering;
no flash. Camera was a D810 with the mirror set to pop up 3 seconds before
the picture was taken to reduce camera shake, damn 36 megapixel cameras.
Ah yes sweets. I like this subject. I ate the rejects of the photo setup.
I used sodas from Mexico because they use real sugar and having the
chocolate in the foreground gave the thought I had of 'so sweet, the picture
made my teeth hurt.' I use my garage for doing this kind of photograph. The
garage is in total disarray because of work being done in the house and I
am just finishing up a round with the flu so I am not up to cleaning but
I thought you all might like a picture of my efforts.
Enough expounding on the irrelevant. I used three lights. The smaller ones
(5 watt LED) are properly diffused with a Bratonic type device, parchment paper.
The larger light (50 watt LED) diffused by a proper diffuser.
Focal was 70 mm with a 24 to 70 mm lens, no surprise there. Exposure was
a shutter of 0.4sec; f/13; ISO 280; Aperture Priority; Pattern Metering;
no flash. Camera was a D810 with the mirror set to pop up 3 seconds before
the picture was taken to reduce camera shake, damn 36 megapixel cameras.
Byron-
Earlier in the week I got together with a few friends (yes, I do have a few friends outside of WPOTM) and they each gave me chocolate in one form or another. I added some to their gifts and created a pile of chocolatey goodness. It was all lit with one flash equipped with a Byro-snoot. I always try to use the least amount of post production as possible. I think it harkens back to albums made by Queen. Somewhere on the back it would say "No synthesizers". I enjoy it when I can say "No post production". This one came close. I did use the lens correction in Lightroom, and in Photoshop there were 2 crumbs that were distracting so I made them disappear. That was about it.
f11, 1/30th sec, ISO 200, 50MM
Earlier in the week I got together with a few friends (yes, I do have a few friends outside of WPOTM) and they each gave me chocolate in one form or another. I added some to their gifts and created a pile of chocolatey goodness. It was all lit with one flash equipped with a Byro-snoot. I always try to use the least amount of post production as possible. I think it harkens back to albums made by Queen. Somewhere on the back it would say "No synthesizers". I enjoy it when I can say "No post production". This one came close. I did use the lens correction in Lightroom, and in Photoshop there were 2 crumbs that were distracting so I made them disappear. That was about it.
f11, 1/30th sec, ISO 200, 50MM
Darin-
I'm embarrassed to say that I don't even know this gentleman's name. Whenever I go to the 7-11 on Waterman Avenue in San Bernardino, CA, I have him wash my car's windows and I pay him a small fee.
He's had hard life. With paper towels and knockoff Windex in hand, he works this parking lot and the AM/PM gas station across the street. He won't ask for a hand out... He wants to work for the money he is given.
In our last conversation, he informed me that his grandson recently died of a drug overdose. You can tell it bothers him. He rents a room from a Granddaughter and this is how he makes his living. He's a good dude that just couldn't catch a break.
He was nice enough to model this candy cane for me, then told me he doesn't eat sweets and will give it to another, younger Grandson that he lives with.
He told me, with a laugh, if I make a million dollars off this photo, I have to come back and give him some. I said, If I make a million dollars off this photo, I'll come back and give you HALF!
I'm embarrassed to say that I don't even know this gentleman's name. Whenever I go to the 7-11 on Waterman Avenue in San Bernardino, CA, I have him wash my car's windows and I pay him a small fee.
He's had hard life. With paper towels and knockoff Windex in hand, he works this parking lot and the AM/PM gas station across the street. He won't ask for a hand out... He wants to work for the money he is given.
In our last conversation, he informed me that his grandson recently died of a drug overdose. You can tell it bothers him. He rents a room from a Granddaughter and this is how he makes his living. He's a good dude that just couldn't catch a break.
He was nice enough to model this candy cane for me, then told me he doesn't eat sweets and will give it to another, younger Grandson that he lives with.
He told me, with a laugh, if I make a million dollars off this photo, I have to come back and give him some. I said, If I make a million dollars off this photo, I'll come back and give you HALF!
Kevin-
This was “relocate to California week” so things have been a bit hectic with what to pack, what to leave behind, etc. But on Monday I flew to Palm Springs with Squirt and my brother Brad. It was a busy week with auto repair (multiple factory recalls) and home preparations (painting, cleaning). Only vague ideas of what I might photograph had come to mind, and most of them involved candy. Brad suggested blueberry pancakes and maple syrup, and while that seemed like a different sort of sweet I knew that we would at least get a great breakfast out of it.
Nikon D850 on a Manfrotto CarbonOne 440 tripod with an Acratech GP ballhead, 85mm f1.4 Nikkor lens, daylight coming in through the windows combined with light from two Nikon SB-900 series flash units, one from behind as the key light, and one on a softbox toward the front as the fill light. TTL mode for the exposure, ISO 64, 1/60th of a second at f/4.
This was “relocate to California week” so things have been a bit hectic with what to pack, what to leave behind, etc. But on Monday I flew to Palm Springs with Squirt and my brother Brad. It was a busy week with auto repair (multiple factory recalls) and home preparations (painting, cleaning). Only vague ideas of what I might photograph had come to mind, and most of them involved candy. Brad suggested blueberry pancakes and maple syrup, and while that seemed like a different sort of sweet I knew that we would at least get a great breakfast out of it.
Nikon D850 on a Manfrotto CarbonOne 440 tripod with an Acratech GP ballhead, 85mm f1.4 Nikkor lens, daylight coming in through the windows combined with light from two Nikon SB-900 series flash units, one from behind as the key light, and one on a softbox toward the front as the fill light. TTL mode for the exposure, ISO 64, 1/60th of a second at f/4.
Paul-
Candy canes don’t immediately spring to mind (unless they do) when one thinks of all things sweet. But, hardly surprisingly, sucrose is one of the main ingredients in this traditional confection so I thought this would give me the WPOTM equivalent of a “Get Out Of Jail Free Card.”There were quite a few candy canes left in the Library lunchroom last week after the initial “Bring 5,000,000 calorie’s worth of sugary holiday goodies to work day.” After everyone was treated for hyperglycemia, I went back and snatched a few. (Personally, I don’t like these shepherd’s crooks of the candy world, but they are photogenic and I thought fooling around with the shapes in different configurations might reveal something worth shooting.)
I arranged them on a wire mesh shelf and placed a crumpled piece of red (sort of tie-dyed) fabric underneath. I left the plastic wrappers on each piece of candy to impart what I hoped would be a smooth and slick appearance. Lighting came from one lamp tilted up from the bottom (and forward of) the shelf at about a 45°. I also draped a strip of white canvas above my camera as a makeshift reflector.
In addition to the usual Lightroom suspects, I used the Clarity control to soften the image, as well as the Lens Correction control to help the wires appear parallel (there was a parallax issue that needed correcting). I also decided to de-color the image a bit, use a “backlit” control (though barely), and selected Fujichrome Provia to give the impression the shot was made with that film. These things were done in PhotoScape.
I did not eat the props afterwards (see second paragraph).
In my own sweet time (and f/stop): Nikon D5200; aperture priority; 18-55mm lens focused at 55mm; ISO 1000; 1/25 sec. at f/11; pattern metering; -2/3 EV; WB Auto. The camera was attached to a copy stand. I was not.
Candy canes don’t immediately spring to mind (unless they do) when one thinks of all things sweet. But, hardly surprisingly, sucrose is one of the main ingredients in this traditional confection so I thought this would give me the WPOTM equivalent of a “Get Out Of Jail Free Card.”There were quite a few candy canes left in the Library lunchroom last week after the initial “Bring 5,000,000 calorie’s worth of sugary holiday goodies to work day.” After everyone was treated for hyperglycemia, I went back and snatched a few. (Personally, I don’t like these shepherd’s crooks of the candy world, but they are photogenic and I thought fooling around with the shapes in different configurations might reveal something worth shooting.)
I arranged them on a wire mesh shelf and placed a crumpled piece of red (sort of tie-dyed) fabric underneath. I left the plastic wrappers on each piece of candy to impart what I hoped would be a smooth and slick appearance. Lighting came from one lamp tilted up from the bottom (and forward of) the shelf at about a 45°. I also draped a strip of white canvas above my camera as a makeshift reflector.
In addition to the usual Lightroom suspects, I used the Clarity control to soften the image, as well as the Lens Correction control to help the wires appear parallel (there was a parallax issue that needed correcting). I also decided to de-color the image a bit, use a “backlit” control (though barely), and selected Fujichrome Provia to give the impression the shot was made with that film. These things were done in PhotoScape.
I did not eat the props afterwards (see second paragraph).
In my own sweet time (and f/stop): Nikon D5200; aperture priority; 18-55mm lens focused at 55mm; ISO 1000; 1/25 sec. at f/11; pattern metering; -2/3 EV; WB Auto. The camera was attached to a copy stand. I was not.