Ever since I undertook the 365 Project, shooting unique shots everyday has become an impulse. I don’t spend hours into thinking the shot to be made each day, but it comes to me naturally(touch wood). If you’ve been following my project, you would be knowing about the shot titled “Food is Ready”. Today, I’ll show you exactly how it was achieved.

EXIF Info:

Shutter Speed : 1/250th

Aperture : f/7.1

ISO : 200

Focal Length : 50mm

Camera & Lens : Canon EOS 60D with Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di II LD SP Aspherical

Flash : Vivitar 285HV at Half Power(triggered via wireless flash trigger)

 

Looking at the shot, you might be fooled into believing its a two light setup but its not. The shot was done using a single speedlite. I used a Vivitar 285HV manual flash. For the shot setup, its nothing but my kitchen platform on which my stove rests. I cleared up utensils lying around the stove so I could setup my tripod & on it the wireless flash receiver(with flash off-course). The flash was covered by a newspaper so the light could not spill in background or cause a glare on the lens and illuminate the pressure cooker sharply from the left side. On the right side of the pressure cooker is a wall which acted as my reflector in this photograph. I sat around two feet away with my camera ready & with the composition I wanted. Just as the whistle of the pressure cooker blew, I took the shot. The first shot had less steam, so I took another a while later & that was the one you’re seeing here.

As for post-processing, its minimal. Just RAW processing in Bibble Labs Pro followed by a greyscale conversion, contrast curve & a slight cropping in GIMP. My desired shot was ready. So before getting another flash, know how much one can do just with a single flash. This is just a simple example.