Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Carrot Cake Lighting

I know the title sounds strange, weird, and silly, but, please, don't let this article keep you from proceeding with all the other "earth-shattering" tips to follow. But now let me tell you about "Carrot Cake" lighting. Or better said - lighting the carrot cake. As you know, my "gig" is directional light on just about any subject, so when we were served the monstrously sized piece of carrot cake last night - my gosh - one piece was enough or all 5 of us - I had to get a picture.

All I had was my 40D with it's little pop up flash - not good enough for the prime piece of cake. How could I get the light coming from an off-camera direction. No problem, place a saucer at a 45 degree angle to the pop-up flash and in front of it and be sure it's blocking (read acting as a gobo) any direct light from reaching the carrot cake. OK - we have the light bouncing over to the side - how to get it to return to illuminate the cake? No problem, LaDawn held up her nice, clean white napkin to the left of the cake. Those little photons bounced right off her napkin and gave a nice direction of light to the cake - hence, "Carrot Cake" lighting. This technique brings a whole new level of lighting mastery to our profession :~)

23 comments:

  1. Very nice David. LOL at the thought of Strobists worldwide turning restaurants into makeshift studios using the napery and the crockery ;-)

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  2. And this is EXACTLY why I love Strobist!

    Thanks David!

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  3. Wonderfully resourceful - and a nice reminder to concentrate on the light, not the gadgets. Thanks for taking the time to share, David.

    Eddie

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  4. Nicely done. The closest I've come to this is by holding a large white plate up behind my 580EX strobe which was pointed to the back to diffuse the light in a restaurant. But this technique literally takes the cake. (Pun intended) ;)

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  5. Nice shot. I wish the spoon was in frame though...

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  6. Delicious Light and Cake!

    - LightningPaul

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  7. Absolutely brilliant.

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  8. it's brilliant idea! will try tt nxt time for sure!

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  9. David,
    Lovely photo and great improvisation. You mention that you hate "straight on light" so I wondered if you had the headlights on you car moved to the 10 and 2 pm positions on the front wings, or do you drive with just a small light on the front of your car but have two assistants drive at the side of you illuminating the road from each side? :-))
    Great blog David, keep up the good work.
    Thanks,
    Phil

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  10. I'd LOVE to see your setup shot David! ;-)

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  11. This is slightly classier than my "shoot through my fingers" technique I sometimes use in such a situation!

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  13. Yay, thanks for that! Unfortunately I just ate my set up once I realised my flash batteries died... but cheers none the less!

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  14. That is funny stuff! Very inventive indeed:)

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  15. Dave, would love to see the setup used to shoot this image

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  16. Great lighting... but what I want to know is WHERE CAN I GET A PIECE OF THAT CARROT CAKE?

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  17. The pi symbol can be found with your character map and pasted into photoshop just choose the font you wish to use.It is in your Accessories/system tools folder in vista. Didn't know the formula wed night But I enjoyed the Digital wake up call for the second time.

    Bill

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  18. that is SO genius, you are making me think a LOT more and that is good :)

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  19. Brilliant shot David! Nice lighting. My fave cake too, i'm drooling....
    John Merritt

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