In a previous post, I mentioned that I might start trying some of the macro projects and such that seem to be occupying a lot of photographers around the internet during quarantine times. After spending a lot of time with other shelter-in-place projects like digitizing some of my film photos, I finally got around to trying something new at home with the camera.
Nikon D800, Tamron SP 90mm f2.8 VC Macro
I’m a fan of hot peppers and put hot sauce on just about everything. My wonderful wife has been incredibly supportive of this quirk of mine. For Valentine’s Day this year, she bought me a hot sauce making kit from Man Crates. That has proved to be a source of immense fun for me.
On our last grocery delivery, I added some red habañeros to the order so I could make another batch of the mango/habañero/Carolina Reaper hot sauce that I’ve been tweaking ever since I got the batch. In addition to using the peppers for my sauce, I thought it might be fun to start a hot pepper photography project similar to Edward Weston’s bell peppers.
This is my first effort at that. As I think many photographers are discovering while they try out some macro photography during Covid, it was not as easy as I thought it would be and I’m still not entirely thrilled with the results. Fortunately, I have another 29 attempts before I get to Hot Pepper No. 30 and have to get it right, lol.
Here’s a quick iPhone shot of the setup. The pepper is resting on a piece of black velvet (that I meticulously cleaned with a lint roller but still had to clone out some dust spots on in post processing). The camera is my Nikon D800 with Amanda’s Tamron SP 90mm f2.8 VC Macro lens.
The key light is the Nikon SB-26 to camera right. The light by itself was too much for the pepper, so I added the sheet of white paper that is diffusing about half of the light from the flash. I’m also holding a darkslide from a 2¼x3¼ sheet film holder in front of another portion of the remaining bare flash to flag it so that only part of the full flash illuminates the pepper. This flash was at 1/8th power.
The fill light is the SB-26 at camera left with the 8″x10″ soft box attachment. It’s slightly above the level of the pepper so that it’s coming in from a classic 45/45 angle. This flash was at 1/16th power.
The final light is a Nikon SB-24 at camera left and behind the pepper. I’ve got a homemade grid spot attachment made from paper straws, cardboard and gaff tape. I’m using it to add a little rim light and to illuminate the stem of the pepper. It’s at 1/16th power.
All flashes were triggered with Yongnuo remote triggers.
The exposure speed was 1/200th of a second to kill off all ambient light and allow me to control all lighting with the speedlights. I used an aperture of f20 (I think I had meant to shoot at f22 but must have bumped the aperture dial). In truth, I wish I had a little more depth of field to work with but diffraction starts taking a surprising toll in that one stop between f22 and f32 on the Tamron. In the end, I decided that having the stem in focus wasn’t as important as having a sharper image with less depth of field.
As I said, I’m not entirely happy with the end result. It’s functional but there’s not really any emotion to it. When I look at Weston’s iconic Pepper No. 30, I’m struck at just how much visual interest and emotion he captured in a picture of a pepper. Part of it is the pepper itself. What a fascinating form. Since we’re buying our groceries with Instacart and having them delivered as part of our efforts to shelter in place, I don’t have a lot of control over the peppers that I receive. I look forward to the day when I can go shopping again. And I really look forward to the day that I can plant a hot pepper garden of my own and watch for unique shapes as they grow.
A much bigger part of the success of the image is Weston’s beautiful use of light. He placed the pepper in a tin funnel which created some unique and highly appetizing light contours on the pepper itself as well as a textured surface that fades gently to black. The tones generated by this lighting are some of the most appealing in all of black and white photography as far as I’m concerned.
So, I think that’s my next challenge for the hot pepper series when I continue it. Figure out lighting that is more than just descriptive and functional.