Quick Corks

In the cork snap in the previous post, I failed to mention that I was using a grid. The shot is basically the corks in a rocks glass on it's side. There is a flash to camera right as before, but this time I velcro'ed a grid to the light to make it more directed. This, plus the texture of the rocks glass gave the light more drama.

I liked the effect so I thought I would try a little more with it. The shot above I just dumped them on the white paper and shot through the g

rid again. But since a grid is basically a square with a bunch of holes in it, I thought I would further the effect by putting a metal grid up there as well. One of those metal trays with patterned holes that you use to grill veggies.

I like the drama, but maybe too much

So, I took the grid off the flash and just shot through the bbq tray. The next step is to monkey around with the distance the flash is to the grid. The closer it was, the more pronounced the holes. Look at this shot and the one below. The grid pattern in

the background is softer and further because I moved the flash around. I should have also moved the bbq tray around now that I think about it.I wanted to show a little more of the dark side of the corks so I added a second light on camera left with the power turned down very low. I also put up a piece of cardboard so the light would only fall on the back side of the corks.

Or at least that was the idea.

I think it was partially successful.

Flashes are flexible and cheap compared to pro lights, but it can be hard to visualize the effects and then evaluate correctly the impact. Remember that on the counter this just looks like corks on a piece of paper. In fact it looks like this:

There's the bbq tray leaning against the coffee maker. Fancy, no?