Ethan Cheng old
Last-Minute Kohlrabi Greens
I was cruising the internet for kohlrabi cooking ideas, and afterward I made my usual rounds to techie sites and photo sites and realized this contest was in its last day. I usually don't enter these things – my one-light arsenal is lacking even by Strobist standards and I'm always intimidated by the work that people come up with – but I needed something to do while the kohlrabi was roasting, and I'd just removed a small pile of greens from the bulbs, so here we are.
I blanched the greens lightly to bring out the color and tried to photograph them without any further cooking. I didn't like the results. Then my cheapo Chinese hotshoe-to-PC adapter started crapping out, so I had to fiddle with that for a few minutes. The greens had lost that fresh look by the time I got it all working again, so I took a few more blah shots, gave up, and fried the greens up in some olive oil to eat them. They were almost done when I decided giving up is for suckers, put some of the freshly sauteed greens back on the plate, threw some sesame seeds at them for style, and let it rip. I shot a few frames, fried the greens a bit more, hit them with a bit of sea salt and lemon juice, and ate. Pretty good. Next time I will blanch them for longer.
Setup was a Canon 580EX set to 35mm spread and 1/32 -2/3 power, through a shoot-through umbrella, about 12 inches above and behind the plate. I kept the shutter open for .8 seconds to let the shadows fill in a little bit with sunlight leaking in from a window across the room. Lens was the Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro. As mentioned, I used a junky Chinese PC adapter and an old-fashioned cord for sync. Post done in Lightroom.
Last-Minute Kohlrabi Greens
I was cruising the internet for kohlrabi cooking ideas, and afterward I made my usual rounds to techie sites and photo sites and realized this contest was in its last day. I usually don't enter these things – my one-light arsenal is lacking even by Strobist standards and I'm always intimidated by the work that people come up with – but I needed something to do while the kohlrabi was roasting, and I'd just removed a small pile of greens from the bulbs, so here we are.
I blanched the greens lightly to bring out the color and tried to photograph them without any further cooking. I didn't like the results. Then my cheapo Chinese hotshoe-to-PC adapter started crapping out, so I had to fiddle with that for a few minutes. The greens had lost that fresh look by the time I got it all working again, so I took a few more blah shots, gave up, and fried the greens up in some olive oil to eat them. They were almost done when I decided giving up is for suckers, put some of the freshly sauteed greens back on the plate, threw some sesame seeds at them for style, and let it rip. I shot a few frames, fried the greens a bit more, hit them with a bit of sea salt and lemon juice, and ate. Pretty good. Next time I will blanch them for longer.
Setup was a Canon 580EX set to 35mm spread and 1/32 -2/3 power, through a shoot-through umbrella, about 12 inches above and behind the plate. I kept the shutter open for .8 seconds to let the shadows fill in a little bit with sunlight leaking in from a window across the room. Lens was the Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro. As mentioned, I used a junky Chinese PC adapter and an old-fashioned cord for sync. Post done in Lightroom.