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

 

Explore July 24, 2009

Done