In today’s picture I decided to use natural light. I was walking through my library and noticed a wonderful natural light filtering through the windows. So, I quickly ran to the kitchen and dug through my refrigerator and found my subject–three big oranges. I went back into the room and looked at the angle of the light and knew I had to be at eye level or below for the shot I had in my mind. I got a black saucer and a white bowl. My plan was to place the oranges on the black saucer and to place the saucer on top of the white bowl knowing I would get a reflection off the floor and bowl on the bottom of the saucer. Then I need to eliminate the book cases because they would have been distracting so I ran downstairs and got a small piece of black foam board that I picked up from my local department store. I also keep white on hand as well.
If you look closely at the oranges you can see the pattern of the windows as the light casts upon them. I got down on the floor “army style” and started taking some test shots. Because I wanted to capture the texture and definition of the oranges I settled on f/7.1. I used a Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L lens for this shot mainly because that was what was on the camera from yesterday at the ball park. If I had more time I would have picked a different lens, probably my 100mm f/2.8L Macro, but this is real life…you use what you can to make the shot in front of you. I recently picked up a Rebel T2i for second and third camera HD video purposes, but thought this might be a good test for a still photo. I am becoming more impress with this little camera and on a side note I am extremely pleased with the quality of HD video that I am getting.
In this picture you can see how I had setup the shot and hopefully this will give you some ideas to be creative in your own picture taking.
Tim Layton
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