Still Life 335

Day 335 of 365

"Still Life 335"

 

There is a great scene in "Papillon" where Steve McQueen's character, in an effort to ingratiate himself to the stranger, shares a cigar with a leper. When the infected man asks how McQueen knew that the man suffered from dry leprosy (the non-contagious version), McQueen replies, "I didn't." I love that scene! Anyway, the film came to mind when I saw this tiny squash in the kitchen. With a model with such texture to her dermis, the lighting makes all the difference. One obviously wants to accentuate the texture, not hide it. Also, this was a perfect opportunity to use chiaroscuro lighting. What the hell is that, you ask? Look it up! In reference to photography, it basically means to create a gradient from dark to light, and back to dark and light. In this image, the camera-left section of the background is dark, then the edge of the cucurbita is light, then it fades to dark on the camera-right side, then the camera-right side of the background is light. In this case, I believe the image explains the term better than I. Our key light was a strip bank at camera-left, and it is very close to the squash, and it is feathered to towards the camera, in an effort to prevent any of the light hitting the dark side of the background. Our second lights is a beauty dish at camera-right, and it is used simply to light the camera-right section of background paper. One squash, two lights, so many memories. Thanks for stopping by!!

 

#squash #vegetable #food #foodphotography #chiaroscuro #renaissance #lighting #papillon #stevemcqueen #canon5dmarkIII #paulcbuffinc #paulcbuffeinstein #striplight #beautydish #canon100macro #macrophotography #gourd

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