Cow Creamer with Crayons - Day 25 of 365

I was leafing through my copy of "Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting" tonight and I re-read the section about photographing white on white, so I figured that I would try my hand at it. I didn't have a white bust of Mozart (it was Mozart, right?), but I did have a nice white porcelain cow creamer, so I figured that I would go for it. I always loved these cow creamers when I was a kid. I threw in the crayons to add a bit of color to the picture (it was kind of boring with just white on white).

I stayed pretty true to the setup in the book for white on white. I used two pieces of white copy paper to make a white seamless background/floor. I just taped the paper to the wall and let it ramp up from the floor. Then, I lit it from above with my Nikon SB-600 flash with an umbrella diffuser. I used a reflector in front of the cow (between the camera and the cow) for a little extra fill on the bottom half. Then, I held a book between the umbrella and the cow to keep the top of the cow from getting over exposed. That's it. Do all that and you too can make a picture of a cow creamer with a side of crayons. :.)

In the end, I would have liked it a little bit better if I lit the bottom of the cow a little more (probably with better reflector placement). That being said, I'm happy with how it came out. The fact that the cow was shiny (unlike the Mozart bust) made this a bit more of a challenge than the example in the book.