Hi, I'm Doug McKinlay and you're watching
AdoramaTV.
One thing I love about photography is
its flexibility; landscapes, portraits,
reportage, all make great subjects.
For today's episode we're going to
stick around the house, in the kitchen.
Hopefully, with the items we find here,
we can some interesting pictures.
We're going to use this array of stuff in
front of me to try to get some great
shots. Camera gear wise, we've got a
Canon 5D Mark III, 100mm Macro, a 50mm
f/1.2 and a 24-70mm f/2.8.
We'll also be using our
speedlight and a torch for some side
lighting. As well as, for stability sake,
we'll be shooting from up with a cable
release and of course off of our tripod.
As for composition, I like to shoot these
subjects really tight.
In fact, if you want to isolate just one
little aspect of one of your subjects,
try using a macro lens for that anti-view.
With this setup for instance, I've got
some forks lined up top to tail with a
couple of asparagus spears, which I've just
salvaged out of the fridge, on top of a
white posterboard, with my
torch or flashlight off to the side. Just to throw
a little bit of side light on there.
I'm getting a pretty good shutter speed
at ISO 200. I'm getting a shutter speed of
about 1/125 - 1/160 with this 50mm lens
set at f/2. So I can handhold this
at the moment. However, if I start to look
for greater depth of field going up the
f/8 or f/11, then I'm going to have to go to
the tripod to steady the camera. It's a very
simple setup but it looks good in color
and in black and white, so make sure
you experiment.
For this next set up, I'm
going to use a colander. The reason why
I'm going to use the colander is I like the
pattern of the holes and metallicness of
the whole thing.
I'm looking for the patterns,
that's what I want to focus on. When I
drop it onto this posterboard, it just looks
a bit dull.
So I want to put a little bit of
an angle on it, it also helps to reflect the
light a little bit better so I'm going
to use anything I can find just to hold
it up. My phone happens to be handy
so it's going to go underneath.
From there, I'm going to use the camera mount
on the tripod because shutter speed
is going to be slow.
I'm also using a 100mm macro f/2.8
which should give me pretty decent blur.
So drag it into place.
Check our composition.
Check our exposure.
Take our test shot.
I do suggest you use a cable
release so you don't have to touch the
camera at all. Thus minimising any chance of
camera shake.
OK what I think it needs is a little more
light so I'm going to stick the speedlight on.
Stick it on to the hot shoe.
This speedlight head pivots; I pivoted it
towards the ceiling
so I can use the ceiling and the
diffuser to create a nice even light.
I also have the speedlight set to manual,
so I can reduce the output and not
blast my subject into oblivion.
Take a test shot.
It's looking good, a slight adjustment.
One more time.
There we go, nice shot of the pattern of
the holes and that nice metallic shiny
surface.
Back to the forks. I think forks
are really great for this kind of stuff.
So I've got two forks head-to-head,
placed on a piece of curved posterboard,
which I've taped to the taps and to the
countertop. The curve is going to give it
that nice, even, almost shadowless light.
Along with that, I've got an egg.
A rubber egg.
The composition is going to be to set
the egg on top of the forks, thusly.
Hopefully without it falling over.
I'm going to use a speedlight attached to
my camera and because I can
balance my camera on the countertop here,
I'm not going to use the tripod.
Brave, I know.
I'm using a 100mm macro lens.
I want to be nice and tight
with with the framing. I want to make
sure I cut out any extraneous material
such as the foreground here, we don't
need to see that tape, we don't
definitely get to the taps either. So it's
just going to be right on the egg, right on the
tops of the forks.
I'm balancing on top of the countertop,
take your time with it, breathe in, let it
out half way.
Take the shot.
I didn't want to use too high an ISO because
I didn't want to introduce any noise. So we're
set at ISO 200 which gives me a fairly slow
shutter speed with 1/60th and f/2.8.
If you decide
you want to increase that depth
of field, then you will have to go to the
tripod because the shutter speed will
go slower.
The last thing I want to talk about
before we sign off for today is, I've only
touched the surface here, we've done some
very simple, straightforward
compositions here. There are tons of
things you can do with your kitchen
materials, so be sure to experiment.
So that's it from me, I'm Doug McKinlay
for AdoramaTV.
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