Coffee Cake

Ok this is a total, I'm way tired today to take a photo so I'm gonna post one I took the other night while doing some product photography for the bakery team.

About the photo:

This photo was taken after the glory shot of the coffee cake as we were tasting it. But it pretty much had the same feel of the rest of the set that night. High keyed, to the point of really getting overexposed.

The entire set was shot with 2 speedlights on each corner of the room ceiling bounced. This allowed me the freedom to move about and concentrate on shooting instead of moving lights around. When the team keeps coming out of the kitchen with more stuff you just have to move.

No setup shot for this but it is similar to this shot and this one as well.

Oh and a special note to Chef, "The Daddy Mac will make you jump jump"

Strobist info:

1 580EX II (Group A) Master on camera disabled
1 580EX II (Group A) Slave 1/8 power ceiling bounced lower right corner out of frame camera right
1 550EX II (Group C) Slave 1/8 power ceiling bounced upper left corner out of frame camera left.

Camera settings:

1/300 f/1.2 ISO400

Lens used:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Write up on Carlbom Photography

It's alway nice when you are recognized by one of your peers for the work you do as most of the time only people in the trade know exactly what goes on behind the scene to get that shot. So it was a pleasant surprise when I got an email from Daniel asking for a portrait of myself for an article he was writing about photographers that participate in the online photo site Flickr.

Thanks for the write up, I really do appreciate it.

Link to Flickr Featured Photographer article.

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Yogurt Melts

Let's just say they sorta taste like astronaut ice cream that one would find while waiting in line at Fry's Electronics. Not that I don't like astronaut ice cream or anything like that, I'm just saying they have the same taste/texture.

In keeping with the theme of the melt, I wanted to capture them in a sort of dreamy, melty state. This required that I restrict the light sources using various modifiers for the background and rim light. Main lighting would be provided by a single speedlight in a shoot through umbrella.

Strobist info:

1 580EX II (Group A) Master on camera disabled
1 580EX II (Group A) Slave 1/128 power shoot through umbrella camera left
1 430EX (Group B) Slave 1/64 power snoot grid behind melts off camera right
1 550EX (Group C) Slave 1/128 power fired through cup to control light spill fired at wall

Camera settings:

1/200 f/1.2 ISO100

Lens used:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Ovaltine

As a kid I used to just take a spoon full of Ovaltine and shove it in my mouth. Come to think of it I still do.

I've become really interested in playing with similar colors, bouncing lights and this top down perspective that I decided to do it again today. As they say practice makes perfect.

In this photo I mixed as much ambient light as possible into this shot and kept the flash powered down low enough to add some highlights as well as some shadow into the picture.

Strobist info:

1 580EX II (Group A) Master on camera disabled
1 580EX II (Group A) Slave 1/32 power bounced off ceiling upper camera left
1 550EX (Group B) Slave 1/32 power bounced off ceiling lower camera right

I know you're saying "Hold up your strobist info doesn't match the shadows." But I say they do because, it was easier for me to shoot it in landscape with the intention of flipping it to portrait in post.

Camera settings:

1/80 f/4 ISO1600

Lens used:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Brown Eggs

While looking around the house for something to shoot, I popped my head in the refrigerator and decided to photograph some eggs that we had. More and more I'm trying to blend the colors together instead of just putting something red against something thing white.

For today's shoot I grabbed some baskets and clean cloth and arranged it on the kitchen table to shoot it looking down (top down perspective).

My first lighting attempt involved a shoot through umbrella but I found the light a little to directional then decided just to pop a pair of speedlights on either corner bounced on the ceiling so that it would act like a few overhead softboxes.

Try as I might I couldn't get the cloth's designs perfectly square. Only till I opened it up fully did I notice that the design wasn't square in the first place. D'oh!

Strobist info:

1 580EX II (Group A) Master disabled on camera
1 580EX II (Group A) Slave 1/4 power ceiling bounced lower left corner
1 550EX (Group C) Slave 1/4 power ceiling bounced upper right corner

Camera settings:

1/300 f/4 ISO400

Lens used:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Blueberries Revisited

After dinner tonight we had some homemade ice cream for dessert and to top it off we put a blueberry on each scoop. Of course being that you're holding off dessert for kids under 5 you really have to work quickly taking pictures of them because 1) they want their ice cream and 2) it's gonna melt.

I really wanted to separate the color of the ice cream from the background color yet still maintaing a somewhat similar tonal range so I had to be careful to not overblow the wall. Also I wanted to just highlight a single cone so I positioned the main light in such a way where the fall off would be somewhat steep on the side not exposed to the light.

To insured that the side of the main cone did not go deep into the shadows I spilled a bit of rim on the dark side of that single cone.

Strobist info:

1 580EX II (Group A) Master disabled on camera
1 580EX II (Group A) Slave 1/16 power shoot through umbrella camera right
1 430EX II (Group B) Slave 1/8 power snoot/grid pointed behind in focus cone out of frame camera left
1 550EX (Group C) Slave 1/32 power on floor behind table pointed at wall camera center

Camera settings:

1/300 f/2.8 ISO100

Lens used:

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM

Set up shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Blueberries

We just came back from the store where we picked up some blueberries so I decided to make them today's subject before the kids gobbled them up.

I really like the lighting I did for the Ciabatta that I did the same setup for today's shot. I'm also growing fond of our cutting board as well because it gives the photos a earthy quality. The only variation in today's photo from yesterday's is that I placed the key light on camera right instead of left.

Strobist info:

1 580EX II (Group A) Master on camera disabled
1 580EX II (Group A) 1/128 power shoot through umbrella camera right
1 550EX (Group C) 1/16 power behind blueberries on chair ceiling bounce

Camera settings:

1/300 f/1.2 ISO100

Lens used:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Canon EOS 1D Mark III AI Servo Part Trios

[flickr video=3759707814 secret=e273133004 w=500 h=281]

Round 3 of testing brings us outside to see how the camera handles daylight. For this test we go out to the local school and I asked my daughter to ride her bike towards me as fast as she could pedal. After that I asked her to start from one side then turn towards me.

In both cases the camera's focus system kept up for the most part. There were a few out of focus frames in the first scene and the out of focus frames in the second scene could be attributed to me as I lost framing half way into it. I was surprised that even with the miss framing on my part the camera still managed to get things back in focus.

Granted we're not going at Tour de France speed here.

Camera settings:

1/800 f/2.8 ISO100

Lens used:

Canon EF 70-200mm f.2.8L IS USM"

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

AI Servo Test Part Deux Video

[flickr video=3757290706 secret=443aa55bcf w=500 h=281]

I had a chance to try out the focusing on the Canon EOS 1D Mark III again today and found that it does have issues. It's not as quick locking onto focus* and even when it does it sometimes forget that you're tracking someone/thing and focuses on something else for 2 or more frames.

Is it a show stopper for me? Not really but I could see where it could come in really handy when say shooting kids having fun and some where in between all those spray and pray is the perfect photo.

I'd like to thank Nat Dogg for being such a good sport in helping me with this.

Camera settings:

1/400 f/1.2 ISO3200

Lens used:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

*Just to be clear obtaining initial focus is WAY faster than my previous 40D and the 5D Mark II that I tried. So slower in focus is all relative.

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Ciabatta

The bakery team comes in with another wonderful creation: Ciabatta. This one came with instructions to eat right after the photos where taken since it just came out of the oven moments prior.

I tried a few different ideas with the bread but then ultimately settled on doing a tone on tone photo. Instead of placing a cherry tomato and some basil beside it on a white plate for some contrast I decided to just play off the natural colors of the bread by placing it on top of a bamboo cutting board. To highlight the light colors I added a dish of butter to the left.

While the lower left looked like a good place to put a knife or something else I purposely left that blank so there would be some empty spaces within the frame.

I also got to try something else out with the background. With only one light off camera left the fall off towards the rear was pretty steep. So one way I correct this was to place another speedlight off in the distance to act as ambient bouncing off the ceiling. I adjusted the power till it gave the fall off I was looking for.

Strobist info:

1 580EX II (Group A) Master on camera disabled
1 580EX II (Group A) 1/128 power shoot through umbrella camera left
1 550EX (Group C) 1/16 power behind bread on kitchen tabled ceiling bounce

Camera settings:

1/300 f/4 ISO800

Lens used:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

枝豆

Experimenting more with my "Japanese styled lens" I thought that today's subject was very fitting. I grabbed the edamame and placed it in one of my kid's tea cup, spreading the various beans around till I got something that I was happy with.

I chose to light it in a way that would further emphasize the natural vignetting that occurs with this lens when shooting wide open. That meant concentrating my lighting efforts towards the center and having it drop off naturally as it got to the corners.

Main lighting was provided by a speedlight in a shoot through umbrella followed by another speedlight pointed to the rear of the cup to give it that extra twinkle.

The background light proved a challenged as even at it's lowest setting it was coming in a bit too hot. I ran out of ND gels so to stop it down I placed 2 measuring cups full of water in front of the flash. Not only did this cut down the light more but it also diffused it as well.

I did shoot this at various apertures but felt wide open best captured the look I was going for with this lens.

Strobist info:

1 580EX II (Group A) Master disabled
1 580EX II (Group A Slave) 1/128 power shoot through umbrella camera left
1 430EX (Group B Slave) 1/32 power snoot/grid pointed behind cup off camera right
1 550EX (Group C Slave) 1/128 power stopped down by 2 measuring cups on floor camera right.

Camera settings:

1/300 f/1.2 ISO100

Lens used:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Cheerios

We tend to have a lot of Cheerios around the house because of the kids. Well that and Grape Nuts. So today while looking for something to shoot I looked at my daughter who was munching on some mixed with dried cranberries so I borrowed a few. Yeah she wasn't happy with that.

Looking at what I had in my hand I notice that the cranberries would make a great contrast to the Cheerios. I decided to shoot them against a greyish tone. In order to do that I underexposed the background as well as the foreground instead of exposing them correctly which would have made them bright white. To add a bit of accent to the Cheerios I lit it with a speed light pointed at the space behind the cereal.

One thing I also got to try was the camera's higher sync speed of 1/300 unlike the 1/250 of the Canon 40D and 1/160 of the 5D Mark II.

Strobist info:

1 580EX II (Group A) Master on camera disabled
1 580EX II (Group A) Slave 1/16 power shoot through umbrella camera right
1 430EX (Group B) Slave 1/8 power snoot/grid behind Cheerios off camera left
1 550EX (Group C) Slave 1/16 power pointed at background off camera left

Camera settings:

1/300 f/16 ISO800

Lens used:

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

AI Servo Testing

If you haven't heard the Canon EOS 1D Mark III has been plagued by AF issues since it's release. While Canon has acknowledged the issue and has posted numerous fixes for it, some are reporting that the problem still exists.

Tonight, I decided to give the AI Servo and AF a go so I mounted a 50mm lens metered for ambient and just let it rip while my eldest daughter did her thing.

Afterwards I took a look and while I did get a number of OOF shots some of the shots that I thought were OOF was due to the thin DOF that f/1.2 would do.

So I won't pass judgement just yet and will wait till I'm able to test it with a different lens in better conditions.

Camera settings:

1/125 f/1.2 ISO3200

Lens used:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Spaghetti

On today's house menu (read: what I found in the refrigerator) we have Spaghetti with tomato sauce and zucchini. Pretty tasty dish that I quickly ate after I took a picture of it.

Lighting was provided by a single speedlight off camera right. I choose a slow enough shutter speed to let in some of the ambient in the background.

Strobist info:

1 580EX 1/64 power shoot through umbrella camera right

Camera settings:

1/40 f/2.8 ISO400

Lens used:

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Popcorn Bokeh

Using some caramel popcorn from the bakery I wanted to create my own bokeh with food instead of lights. I was going to string up the popcorn at various height and distance from each other but after my first test shot I decided to keep them on the table as the OOF window light and the empty space between them looked pretty cool as is.

Lighting is provided by 1 speedlight off camera left pointed in such a way to spread the light over the entire group of popcorn.

Strobist info:

1 430EX 1/64 power shoot through umbrella camera left

Camera settings:

1/160 f/2 ISO200

Lens used:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Milk Bread

This is the 2nd shot I did of The Bun. In this one I wanted to show a "suggested serving" type photo. I spilt the bun open and spread some jam across. I think this is more of a comfort food type photo.

Originally I planned on using just a single light to the left but the shadows were a bit harsh. I didn't want to eliminate the shadows, just soften them up so I placed another speedlight opposite of the key flash.

Strobist info:

1 580EXII 1/16 power 1/4 CTO shoot through umbrella camera left
1 580EXII 1/64 power 1/8 CTO shoot through umbrella camera right

Camera settings:

1/200 f/2 ISO200

Lens used:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

The Bun

Midnight comes on time and so does a delivery of fresh baked buns from the bakery. I did 2 different versions of photos for the buns. One was plated with some jam on a pink polka dot plate and the other was this one.

I decided to post this one because something about the top of the bun just appealed to me more than the version that was split open. In addition this one allowed me to add text to the top of the final photo.

2 lights were used for this shot. 1 to blow out the background giving it that seamless paper look and one to light the bun. This is very quick and easy to setup and tear down. No need for any of those macro studio boxes you see on eBay. Just 2 lights and a table.

Stobist info:

1 580EX II (key) 1/16 power shoot through umbrella camera right
1 580EX II (background) 1/2 power pointed at wall

Camera setting:

1/200 f/8 ISO400

Lens used:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

The Strobist Dilemma

Today I participated in the World Wide Photo Walk in my area. After a quick meet and greet with the rest of the group we were on our own. Most of my photos are ideas in my head that I want to try out so I can experiment with camera and lighting settings.

For today's walk I already had a few shots in mind all of which involved off camera lighting. I was able to strip down my idea to only 2 lights, 1 8' lightstand and a small gorilla pod stand. To me, I was traveling light.

Cut to the chase I was given a hard time by the security guard on duty. I tried to explain that I was here with a group of other photographers yet that didn't seem to help my situation. In the end I decided to pack it in and call it day.

So this leads me to my question. Are strobist more inclined to get the boot than our non lightened colleagues? There's no real way to blend in with the surroundings when you're putting up a light stand or two, unlike going natural light and blending in with the rest of the tourist wielding SLR crowd.

About the photo:

This was my only photo of the day as I was seeing how the background would look OOF. Not sure why the guy with the backpack was pushing a bin. He may have worked in the area. But I don't blame him for looking a bit cross it was about 110 degrees F today.

Camera setting:

1/160 f/2.8 ISO400

Lens used: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Strawberry Croissant

As I was getting ready to call it a day last night, till I received a plain white box from the bakery team with the words "Picture This" scribbled on top. This meant that I would have to push off sleep for just a few more hours.

In the box where a little more than a bakers dozen of Strawberry Croissants. While I'm no food expert I do know that at 12 in the morning the smell of fresh baked croissant certainly was enough to keep me awake.

The problem that I had with these however was that unlike normal croissants that are puffy and give great volume when photographed these were split in half and filled with almond paste, strawberries and a crumble which made them lay flatter than what I would have liked.

I tried a few different shots from grouped, stacked, laying side by side to a single one but none of them gave the look of "Good morning and welcome to your breakfast."

In the end I decided to photograph it like an open faced sandwich. To me this conveyed that it is a croissant but with a lot more inside.

Strobist info:

1 430EX 1/16 power 1/4 CTO shoot through umbrella camera right

Camera setting

1/200 f/2.8 ISO100

Lens used:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

No setup shot for this one as I was pressed for time.

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Cork Shaped Brownie

Are these brownies, I would think these have surpassed anything that one would call a brownie. The name of these chocolate treats come from the French word meaning cork or plug. Which is also funny since the name of the bakery is also named this as well.

You really need to be careful with these, since the servings are rather small you can pop an entire package of these in your mouth quick style.

I shot this with my, as I like to call it, "Japanese styled lens" all wide open at f/1.2 letting in the funky energy saving lights in the background while highlighting the corks with a warmed up speedlight to get the color combination you see here. Not everything has to be 18% grey.

Strobist info:

1 430EX 1/32 power 1/2 CTO snoot/grid high camera right

Camera settings:

1/200 f/1.2 ISO200

Lens used:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Almond Dragees

What more can be said about almonds dusted in some of the finest coco you can find. These things are dangerous when you're sitting in front of the computer, I can go through a few containers easy.

Being that these almonds aren't all that big I wanted to capture them in a light that highlighted the beauty these little dragees had. With that in mind I lit them with a single speedlight placed high above camera right and a long enough shutter speed to capture in some of the ambient light.

Strobist info:

1 430EX 1/32 power 1/4 CTO snoot/grid high camera right

Camera settings:

1/30 f/2.5 ISO50

Lens used:

Fixed Canon 7-21mm f/2.0-2.5 as found on a Canon PowerShot G2

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The bakery team really has that special touch when it comes to treats. These are some gigantic cookies which have a great crisp to the outside and remain nice and chewy on the inside. The only problem with cookies of this size is that you can't dunk it whole in a glass of milk. But I've heard the team has solved this issue already.

For the shot I just wanted to capture the innocence of what chocolate cookies still mean to me. Before the days of falling real estate prices, government bailout and everything else going around all you really needed was a nice warm plate of cookies and some milk and after you were done all was right again with the world.

In order to try to pick up the texture of the cookies and to give a bit of shadow I placed my umbrella at a 90 deg angle camera right pointed right at the cookies.

After the shot my daughter and I poured a glass of milk and started eating it to which my daughter proclaimed, "These are the best cookies evar!"

Strobist info:

1 430EX 1/64 power shoot through umbrella camera right

Camera settings:

1/30 f/3.2 ISO200

Lens used:

Fixed Canon 7-2` f/2.0-2.5 as found on a Canon PowerShot G2

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Ice Cream Sandwich

Growing up, this is what I considered an ice cream sandwich.

My mom used to make this for me all the time, some ice cream (usually ube) in between pan de sal. I would walk up and down the block eating this. Only recently did I find out that not everyone ate ice cream this way. Oh wells their loss.

Since I didn't go to the bakery today all I had for bread today was some sliced bread along with some homemade mint chip. The mint chip is interesting as taking inspiration from the bakery @monatheism blanched some mint leaved then added them in while making the ice cream. What you have then is a taste that's so fresh and so clean like from the garden.

Truly one delicious ice cream.

Strobist info:

1 580EX II (key) 1/16 power shoot through umbrella camera left
1 540EX (rim) 1/4 power snoot/grid pointed behind sandwich off camera right
1 550EX (background) 1/2 power aimed at background

Camera settings:

1/500 f/4 ISO50

Lens used:
Fixed Canon 7-21mm f/2.0-2.5 as found on a Canon PowerShot G2

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Rice Crispy Treats

Have you ever had a neapolitan rice crispy treat?

It's raspberry, standard and chocolate layered together. Man this thing is good.

The bakery team really knows just how to extract all the flavors out of everything giving you just that pure taste, nothing out of place.

Strobist info:

1 580EX II 1/8 power shoot through umbrella camera right
1 580EX II 1/16 power shoot through umbrella camera left

Camera settings:

1/500 f/8 ISO50

Lens used:
Fixed Canon 7-21mm f/2.0-2.5 as found on a Canon PowerShot G2

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Cherry Pie

Here is my take on a Cherry Pie. Instead of the standard pie crust and filling I used a shortbread cookie for the crust the cherry filling was replaced by this awesome cherry preserve/jam that's just sweet enough.

All that's needed now is a tall glass of ice cold milk and you're set. Maybe next time I'll also add some really good vanilla ice cream beside the cherry to really complete it.

Eagled eyed viewers will note what's tied around the spoon to figure out where I got my ingredients

Strobist info:

1 580EX II 1/16 power shoot through umbrella camera right
1 550EX 1/32 power shoot through umbrella camera left

Camera settings:

1/500 f/2.5 ISO50

Lens used:
Fixed Canon 7-21mm f/2.0-2.5 as found on a Canon PowerShot G2

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Your Hook

"*itch I'm the bomb like tick tick" - Got Money: Lil Wayne Ft. T-Pain

I was having lunch with my friend @chrisherrin the other day and we were talking about food and why make the exact same thing some other restaurant can make. If you're gonna serve the same thing better do something to it to take it to the next level or just pack up and go home.

This applies to photography also. Do all your photos look like the next person's photo or are you trying to add that little je ne sais quoi that can automatically distinguish your photo from the crowd.

Guess it all depends on what you're after. You can set off to be an innovator like Alinea or just be your average Outback.

I can tell you right now that I am not a fan of casual chain dining.

Also found on my Flickr Stream

About the photo:

Every time I got up from the "seat" to adjust something the auto flush would go off and at one point the 550EX almost fell in.

Also while shooting I did get a number of odd looks my way. I smiled and asked if they would like their portrait taken. For some reason no one took me up on the offer. Bummer.

Strobist info:

1 580EX II (key) 1/16 power shoot through umbrella camera right
1 430EX (accent) 1/4 power blue gel snoot/grid on the floor next stall camera left
1 550EX (background) 1/16 power pointed up behind me

Camera settings:

1/8 f/4 ISO50

Lens used:
Fixed Canon 7-21mm f/2.0-2.5 as found on a Canon PowerShot G2

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

PowerShot G2 Portrait Test

Talk about funny, today I took an impromptu portrait and all I had with me was my PowerShot G2 and a handful of speedlights. While the gear really shouldn't matter, what should is having the right tools for the job.

The PowerShot is a nice camera but...

today I found it lacking in color saturation, sharpness and focal length. Even with it's short comings you still have to make due with what you have so that's what I did.

By working within the limitations of the hardware and trying not to get to crazy with the shot I felt I came out with a nice portrait.

So is it all about the gear? No, but having the right tools for the job definitely makes it easier and I'll leave it at that.

Strobist info:

1 580EX II (key)1/4 power 1/4 CTO shoot through umbrella camera left
1 430EX (rim) 1/4 power snoot grid rear of subject off camera right
1 550EX (background) 1/2 power pointed at drapes behind subject off camera right

Camera Settings:

1/500 f/4 ISO50

Lens used:
Fixed Canon 7-21mm f/2.0-2.5 as found on a Canon PowerShot G2

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Diaper Cake

"Rhymes good as a tasty cake, mix, this style, I'm masterin'" - Brooklyn Zoo: Ol' Dirty Bastard

One of our good friends just had another baby so to celebrate @monatheism made a little cake out of newborn diapers and asked me to photograph it for her (I'm thinking this is gonna show up on her #fb page).

I wanted to capture a very clean/somewhat muted look to the image, so I had @monatheism hold a 580EX in a shoot through umbrella directly above the diaper cake and created a bit of rim light by placing a snoot/grid 430EX behind the cake camera left. Background lighting was provided by a 550EX on the floor pointed at the wall.

Strobist info:

1 580EX II (key) 1/8 power shoot through umbrella above camera center
1 430EX (rim) 1/4 power snoot/grid behind cake off camera left
1 550EX (background) 1/4 power on floor pointed at wall camera left

Camera settings:

1/500 f/4 ISO50

Lens used:
Fixed Canon 7-21mm f/2.0-2.5 as found on a Canon PowerShot G2

Setup shot can be found here

Follow me on Twitter: @joeyjoeyjoey

Canon Ec-D

"É um belo horizonte, é uma febre terção" - Aguas De marco: Elis Regina & Tom Jobim

I sometimes wonder why Canon just doesn't include these in their cameras. Having a grid displayed in your viewfinder just helps with making sure your vertical and horizontal lines are plumb. In addition to that it can help split your frame equally if you want to make sure your subject is as center has possible.

Installation in straight forward and only takes a few minutes using the supplied tool. As you can tell I bought one for my EOS 40D and have purchased one for use in my EOS 1D Mark III.

As for lighting I kept in pretty mundane using a 580EX II in a shoot through umbrella tight camera right as I wanted the light source as soft as possible. I do wonder though given the size of the box did it really matter how tight I put the umbrella? I was too lazy to test it out.

Background light was provided by a 430EX placed underneath the table pointed towards the rear just to bring up the background a bit.

Giving a bit of separation of the box from the background I placed a 550EX on a CRT computer monitor out of frame camera left pointed at the rear of the box.

Strobist info:

1 580EX II 1/128 power head zoomed 105mm shoot through umbrella camera right
1 550EX 1/128 power 1/4 CTO head zoomed 105mm placed out of frame camera left pointed at rear of box
1 430EX 1/16 power 2x Blue Gel head zoomed 24mm with wide angle diffuser pulled out (effective 14mm) underneath table pointed at background

Camera settings:

1/15 f/2.5 ISO50

Lens used:
Fixed Canon 7-21mm f/2.0-2.5 as found on a Canon PowerShot G2

Setup shot can be found here

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