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Really Getting Into It

© Jeff E Jensen

Really Getting Into It

Uploaded: March 06, 2013

Description


1/200 Sec - f/8 - ISO 250 - 35mm
Canon 5D Mk III - Canon 24-105mm f/4.0L IS


Exif: F Number: 8, Exposure Bias Value: 0.00, ExposureTime: 1/200 seconds, Flash: did not fire, compulsory flash mode, ISO: 250, White balance: Auto white balance, FocalLength: 35.00 mm, Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark III

Comments

Jeff E Jensen March 06, 2013

Another entry for Dale's challenge. What's more intimate than a girl and her cake? #1517916

Elaine Hessler March 06, 2013

Oh my gosh this is hysterical. I love everything about it-nothing to change on this end! Looks like she had cake in every nook and cranny by the time you were done with her! Did you take this in a studio? I really like how all the colors tie in together very nicely. The flags break up the white background nicely. CUTE!!! #10599116

Dale Hardin March 06, 2013

Check out his blog for an entire series from this shoot. Priceless. #10599276

Brandi K. Mills March 06, 2013

I can't wait to try and give something like this a shot with a little one. This looks like so much fun!
The lighting and colors are awesome! #10599306

Elaine Hessler March 07, 2013

Ok, that series is seriously amazing. I think one of my faves is the foot shot. Thanks for posting on the blog the setup. Just a paper background. Really? I like the strategic placement of the flags behind her. Did I already say that? :) #10599673

Jeff E Jensen March 07, 2013

Thanks everyone! This is Sydnie, my youngest niece. Today is her 1st birthday. She's a sweetheart and the shoot was a whole bunch of fun.

So, I was given the suggestion that it would be worthwhile to walk through my setup and my thinking for this shoot. So, here goes:

My intent going into the shoot was to put as much attention on Syd as possible. I decided a clean white background would eliminate any distractions. And, knowing my sister, I figured that Syd would be in something bright and frilly so the white background would work well. My sister made the flags and modified and painted an old chair. She also made the giant cupcake.

This was shot on a white, seamless paper background. If you've never used seamless paper, you should give it a try. It's relatively inexpensive and gives you a nice clean background and sweep. You can do some pretty cool stuff with lighting to get all sorts of results for your background. Anyways, I knew that I'd have some daylight from some north facing windows, but I wasn't sure how much, so I brought my light kit with me. The kit consists of three speedlights, various modifiers and umbrellas, a bunch of stands, and wireless triggers. It's a handy kit and takes up not much space so it's easy to take it with me on shoots.

#10599995

Jeff E Jensen March 07, 2013

I got there while Syd was still napping (part of the plan) which gave me a bit of time to get things set up. I set up the backdrop, chair and cake. I enlisted the help of a teddy bear to fill in for Sydnie and fired a couple of test shots. As expected, the amount of ambient light didn't allow for the aperture and shutter speed that I wanted. By the way, my target was to shoot at f/8 and around 1/200 (fastest sync speed available). I knew she'd be moving around a bit so wanted a good amount of DOF and the fastest shutter speed I could get. So, I set up the lights with two up front and one in the back. The light in the back was directed at the backdrop. My intent was to blow it out and eliminate as much shadow as possible from the front lights. Normally, I would have wanted the front lights ratio-ed a bit to provide some depth and contrast on the model. In this case, I knew that my model would be moving around and doing whatever she wanted, ignoring any instructions from me (wait, that sounds like the bigger versions of models). Because of that, I set the speedlights to the same power and positioned one slightly closer than the other one. Once my lights were set up, I fired a couple of test shots to dial things in and I was set. My final settings were f/8, 1/200 sec, and ISO 250. The speedlight on the backdrop was set at 1/16 power and the front lights were set at 1/4 power. In hindsight, I should have bumped the fronts up to 1/2 power. The RAW images were a bit under exposed, but were easily fixed in post. Though I had checked my histogram, I neglected to consider the fact that the bright background was skewing the histogram to the right. Again, not a big deal, just would have saved a bit of time in post. Oh, I almost forgot, all three lights were gelled with a piece of 1/4 CTO to warm them up a bit.

That's about it for the setup, now it was time for cake! #10599996

Jeff E Jensen March 07, 2013

And, here's the setup shot. . . . #10599999

Dale Hardin March 07, 2013

Thanks a lot Jeff. This is just the kind of info this club could use. I think it would be a good idea if we all tried to think out our shots and share those thoughts with each other.

This club has reached a plateau and it's time to take it a step further. What are your thoughts? #10600015

Elaine Hessler March 07, 2013

This is excellent. The detail is very much appreciated. This is how we learn! #10600076

Jeff E Jensen March 07, 2013

One more try, here's the setup shot. #10600178

Dale Hardin March 07, 2013

I have a question, Jeff. You mentioned that they were a bit underexposed. Since most of us do not have light meters, what is the best way to stop that from happening in a case like this?

I assume, you are shooting in manual mode to keep the shots consistent. When the girl arrived could you have changed to either shutter or aperture mode, zoomed in and metered for the face, and then return to manual and adjusted accordingly?

Or is there a better and more accurate way. #10600185

Jeff E Jensen March 07, 2013

That's a good question, Dale and I don't know if I have a good answer. Your suggestion for metering off of her is a good one except for one thing. I was shooting completely manual on the flashes, so the metering would have based the exposure on the ambient light. I could have done like you said, zoomed in and taken a shot and then adjusted the settings based on the histogram at that point. That probably would have been the best option. #10600188

Dale Hardin March 07, 2013

I realized you were using the flashes manually instead of TTL and could not easily adjust flash compensation. And I did mean for you to take a shot first and then compensate.

What would be the most accurate way of compensating based on the histogram under this scenario? #10600225

Jeff E Jensen March 07, 2013

I think that the suggested method would have done the trick. I will keep that in my back pocket for the next go around. #10600227

Jeff E Jensen March 07, 2013

Let me clarify. Based on the histogram using this method, I would have done a couple of things to compensate. My first choice would have been to bump my flashes up to 1/2 power. If that wasn't enough light, I would increased my ISO. In this case, the exposure was close enough that bumping my lights up to half power would have done the trick. Might have even been able to drop to ISO 200. Adjusting the aperture or shutter would have been my last choices as I wanted to maintain my DOF and shutter speed. #10600243

Dale Hardin March 07, 2013

Thanks Jeff. This kind if info is just what we are after. #10600282

Jeff E Jensen March 08, 2013

Oh, one other tidbit of info. The flags were hanging about a foot in front of the backdrop to eliminate any shadow on the backdrop. #10601374

Elaine Hessler March 08, 2013

By the way, it sounds like your sister has a creative streak in her too. Must run in the family! #10601527

Rita K. Connell level-classic March 10, 2013

this is really cute I have always wanted to do that with a cake. I checked the other on you web site way way cute. you did a great job! looks like you are doing more portraits? #10603861

Debbra Bailey March 10, 2013

I saw a few of these on FB :) You have joined the world of cake smashes! I LOVE LOVE LOVE a good cake smash shoot!! This is absolutely adorable. Great shot :)

Thanks for sharing your set up and all the info. I used to use white, but I really struggle to get a clean white.... I use patterned drops now, and I they are much more manageable for me! But I do love how the white looks here :) Really sets off the color! #10604227

Jeff E Jensen March 10, 2013

Thanks, ladies! This shoot was a lot of fun. #10604239

Peter W. Marks March 13, 2013

Oh good lord Jeff! I was just enjoying the image and then made the mistake of wading through all that technical stuff; and then Dale encouraged you to tell more!
Now I know why I like street photography and happily sit on my plateau!
But beautifully done Jeff. #10607377

Beth Spencer March 13, 2013

I am way, way late on everything and I am trying to get caught up, not sure what happened. I love these pictures, looks like so much fun. Thanks for all the technical info, I think some of it is over my head, but keep trying to process it. #10608347

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