bennieoberholzer
FollowCups with coffee beans
Cups with coffee beans
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo in my home studio in Wilderness, Western Cape. My studio is really small, so I have to really give some thought and planning before I set up a shot.Time
I did the shot in the evening, because I wanted to control the light in the shot, and the daylight coming through the window was not going to give me the look I wanted for this image, so I waited until it was dark, and only used the modeling lamp on my flash unit to light the studio for the correct white balance.Lighting
I wanted the dark background and the light to fall off on both sides of the cups, to let the viewer's attention stay on the cups. I used one overhead 200w studio flash with a soft box and a grid, and that was it. I learned a lot from this shot, especially how the shadows behave with regards to the distance of the light source, the inverse square law.Equipment
I used my Nikon D5200, 50mm 1.8 Nikkor lens, a tripod, and a photon flash unit with a soft box and a grid.Inspiration
I am a coffee fanatic!! After spending a bit of time looking at pictures with coffee beans for some inspiration, I decided to try something different. I saw a lot of images with coffee cups filled with beans, but it looked like more of an after-thought. I started with one cup filled with beans, wide open aperture for a very shallow depth of field, but it looked used up to me, to many of those images around. I got 3 more cups and lined them up, filled them with beans, and started taking photos. I wish I could say I took one Hero Shot, but it took quite a lot of fiddling around all in manual to get the look I was imagining. I had to dip the beans in olive oil to get the shiny look, otherwise it looked a bit dull.Editing
Yes I did a bit of RAW processing, but nothing major. I really don't like fiddling around with an image to much, I am an photographer, not a graphic designer. My goal is always to get the shot in camera, and just do small contrast, some exposure and color correction in Photoshop. The biggest change I made was adding a bit of post crop vignetting, but not a lot, and a bit of unsharp mask.In my camera bag
I have my Nikon D 5200, with mostly my 50mm 1.8 Nikkor lens attached to it. I have a 55-200 mm kit lens in the bag for the closer shots of wildlife. I never leave home without my extra battery in the bag, and my nd filters,remote trigger,and my tripod. I am just starting out, so that is about all I have. I believe it is not all about the gear, it is what you can do with what you have. I am becoming aware of my limitations, and have to find my way around it, which in turn teaches me the most about what you can do with a camera.Feedback
See your image in your mind first, and then plan your image from there. You tell your story with light and shadows in the studio, so plan where you want your light and shadows to fall. I used a black back ground and set up the flash so the light falls off before it reaches the background, to make it show up black. I used a f stop of 13 to achieve a deeper depth of field to lead the eye towards the last cup. This is what you need to decide before you start shooting, where do you want the viewers eyes to focus, and how will you achieve it...., use depth of field and light to tell this story, start with one thing like one cup and one flash, and build the scene and lighting from there. Move things around and keep at it until you find your shot, and then start again. Start shooting in manual, you have the control.