Eggs on a Soft Background
Key Notes
Trying new things involves a little risk and a lot of experimentation. High key is something I had never tried before and there is a lot to learn.
Overexposing slightly was the first step and it was important to avoid any blowout in either the background or the subject. This was shot indoors on a drab winter day in natural light. The camera was set to shutter priority mode which is Tv or S on your camera dial. Film speed was set at 400 ISO, shutter speed at 1/50 second (use a tripod) at f/7.1 with the lens at 45 mm. No flash was used. Using natural daylight and a piece of white paper on the left side to reflect light and another sheet under the eggs on a soft background resulted in this shot. There were problems that I may have been able to overcome if I had set a custom white balance and used manual settings. Converting to black and white solved the problem of reflected yellows in the heavier shadow areas.
Writer’s note: Drab winter days are a great excuse for eating chocolate and watching re-runs of South Park but they are also a good time to experiment. The high key photo was my way of finding the inside workings of ‘sameness’. Nothing is drab and uninteresting really. Do the same thing with writing. Create an assignment for yourself to write something that features one thing – white. Or something else just as uninteresting on the surface. Create a poem or short story. You might be surprised by what happens when you whisper instead of shout.