Porsche, Bokeh & Water (87 of 365)

Porsche, Bokeh & Water (87 of 365), originally uploaded by lighthack.

This is a picture of a small model of a 2007 Porsche Cayman S. We went to my wife's office to pick up some papers and I saw this sitting on the shelf and decided to snag it for my photo today. We used to own a full size Cayman S exactly like this one, but we traded it for the Cayenne when Ava came along. That was one of the more painful life transitions that came along with having a kid. Ava is totally worth it (but I sure miss that car). :.)

This isn't my favorite picture in the world (the model was about the size of a Hot Wheels car, so it lacks fine detail). But, the subject did give me a chance to try out some lighting techniques that I've been thinking about. First, I had the white balance on the camera set to tungsten, which means that everything bare flashed came out blue and everything flashed with a CTO (orange) gel came out "normal". The model is sitting in a cookie sheet (pan) filled with water up to the wheels. The background has crumpled tinfoil that goes down all the way into the water in the pan. I shot a SB-600 flash, no gel with a grid spot, against the tinfoil for the blue background bokeh (and the blue reflection in the water). I shot a second SB-600 with a grid spot and a full CTO gel at the car camera left and high. In order to get the movement in the water, I banged on the table before taking the shot. Besides the crop and a little further white balancing in the computer, this picture is pretty much straight out of the camera.