Kitchen commercial shot

[pz]

I will be shooting a chef ( on location) at a burner with flames bursting from a skillet preparing a meal.

 

Did this before with slide film and no strobes... shot a roll for ambient and a roll for the flames and did ps

work layers and had success. Now I would like to shoot again but with digital and strobes pocket

transceivers Vivitar 485s. I am thinking F:8 1/125 on down and strobes above and behind turned down to

ambient to start.

 

Any thoughts greatly appreciated....

 

 

PZ

[ellis_vener_photography]

just use the ambient light. No need to over complicate things. f/8 at 1/125th At ISO 100) on't

get you pretty flames.

[danny_wong2]

If it has worked before and you got the results you wanted I would stay with the methodology.

 

Save the experimenting on your spare time.

[brooks short]

Paul,

 

My approach would be to pick an f-stop that will give you the desired depth of field. Then choose a shutter speed for that f-stop that will give you the correct exposure for the amount of flame that you want to show. Then set the power on your strobes at the level that you like for the rest of the scene ie: less to feature the flames or more for the other areas in the scene.

[pz]

Thanks Brooks. That sounds like a plan...( "Then set the power on your strobes at the level

that you like for the rest of the scene ie: less to feature the flames or more for the other

areas in the scene.)" Customer will be there and will make that determination which is why I

want to go onsite digital!!

[brooks short]

Digital does makes it so much easier for this kind of fire special effect. An even better approach is to shoot tethered to a laptop, if you have a laptop and shooting software for your camera. Shooting tethered allows you to see a large image right after capture so you can adjust exposure, composition, propping etc. for even the smallest detail.

[pz]

Brooks

 

Does the Nikon D40x (shipping Apr 30) have provisions for usb or firewire to laptop?

[brooks short]

Paul,

 

I don't know. I know that the D 200, D2X and D2Xs does. Check on the Nikon website. If it is capable of tethered shooting you'll need to get either Nikon Camera Control software or Bibble Pro software.

[tom_jenner1]

I did a shot just like this a few months ago with the shooting flames. I found that there was a lot of flash glare from all of the stainless steel and ended up using existing light with just a slight touch of diffused on camera flash in manual mode.

 

I took a series of pics and prefered how the shooting flames looked in the 1/20- 1/40 range. The chef tried to get fancy with the flames and ended up with burn marks on his uniform!

 

-Tom

[douglascott]

Paul,

 

I have the Nikon D80 and it does have a connection for the laptop. I also use the Nikon Camera Control Pro, which I think is great, especially for the money. There were certainly more expensive options. The only thing I might caution is the "approved" shot on your computer and the final, printed image (if it is to be printed). I don't know anything about color management, but I'm consistently amazed by the difference between how something looks on my computer screen and what it looks like in print. Good luck!