I decided to do more practice with the two off-camera flash units. This time I was using a single apple with a sheet of glass (glass from a simple picture frame) to play around with reflection and flash placement.
The equipment:
- Two Yongnuo YN460-II set in S1 mode at 1-3 bars of power. They were mounted on Flashpoint stands.
- Camera was a K-5 and DA* 55mm f1.4 lens.
- A glass picture frame as well as a plastic container.
First off I just tried photographing the apple on the picture frame. The frame came with a matte black background:
 |
| Apple |
I had to clean up the black area on the left a bit by “burning” the blackness to make it less reflective and showing imperfections. I had first started off by using the healing brush, but it wasn’t enough.
 |
| Apple |
Next up I decided to get some spacing between the glass and table by using a plastic container. I also put one of the flashes under the glass to provide some floor lighting:
 |
| Apple on glass. |
 |
| Apple reflected |
I noticed a few things I need to work on:
- I need to work on more diffusion of the flash light. Even at minimum power and with a basic diffuser at a low ambient light level, the apple experienced blown highlights often.
- Unlike my last studio practice, I was using a larger aperture most of the time. It was too large, so the apple was not fully in focus.