Now That I Think About It

Candy Machine, originally uploaded by evantravers.

Today's exercise was two-fold. I wanted to experiment more with two flashes, especially with my new gels, and also I wanted to take a picture I was proud of with a lens other than my beloved 50mm 1.4.

My mom recommended I try my Dad's antique gumball machine yesterday after seeing my image of the storm lantern, so I spent much of yesterday trying to figure out where I would shoot it. I ended up taking this picture on the raw cement downstairs where we've had to rip up the floor due to the recent flooding. I set up pinball machine, positioned the camera like I liked it, and exposed for the background texture. I decided to try a technique where you set the camera white balance to something warmer than the actual light, which then blue-ifies the ambient light. I then started putting down my flashes, my SB-600 with a sto-fen diffuser on the right and on the left my SB-900 zoomed to 200mm and with the warmest gel I own. I experimented with using the diffuser, and moving the lights around. It was at this time I discovered the wonder and glory of the modeling light button. If you have it enabled on your flashes, when you push the aperture preview button on your body, the flashes light up for an extended period of time at a low power, showing you how they affect the model. Super cool. I don't think my SB-600 has this feature, as it didn't light up, but I'll dig into the manual and see what I can find.

If I could have changed one thing about this shoot, it would probably be the glare in the candy bowl. I tried removing them by putting my needlepoint grids in front of the flashes. It helped, but not much. So I just lived with it and kept shooting.

As always, thoughts and critiques are appreciated. Be sure and check out www.28thfloor.net, and consider contributing to it. Thanks!