Flashing Crabs

From photo project 2010

The Subject:
In-laws came over last night and brought a bounty of food to cook with. My mother in-law doesn't do anything small when it comes to meals. A dinner for four last night consisted of a huge platter of blue crabs, filet steak cubes, steamed fish, chinese vegetables, and an order of roast duck. I wasn't planning on taking anymore photos last night, but when the huge plate of blue crabs came out, I had to take a shot. I don't think we'll see that in my house for a while.

The Shot:
Prior to dinner, I was reading a book that talks all about using Flash. Flash is a frustrating device that frustrates novices like myself - wreaking havoc on the natural colors of any composition. But if used properly, it can produce amazing shots - but this isn't one of them. I read a little bit about using flash with the rear curtain, and how it won't impose it's cold harsh colors on a shot. It's used just as a fill flash, and will maintain the color of your natural light by adding the flash at the end of your exposure. So I figured this was a great opportunity to try out what I just learned, and here's the result. This shot actually came out really warm, and I had to dial in some color correction to the blue/green end of the spectrum a bit. The effects of the fill flash just fills in some of the detail underneath the crabs where it likely wouldn't been darker shadows had the flash not been on since the main light source was coming directly from the top of the crabs. Not the best example of what a fill flash can do I'm certain, but figured I'd give some introduction to it. Look for more experiments with flash in future posts. On a side note, I now find myself needing to get an Nikon SB600 flashgun. I guess macro lens will have to wait.