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Burning Hot
Burning Hot
giantmike


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Sweets (Advanced Editing VII)
Camera: Canon EOS-50D
Lens: Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Location: Madison, WI
Date: Feb 23, 2012
Aperture: 7.1
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1/200
Date Uploaded: Feb 23, 2012

 I took a lot more time thinking about this shot than I ended up taking it. I remembered this tutorial I saw on using lighter fluid (note, you must use lighter fluid for lighters, not for charcoal) for a controlled flame shot. Once I remembered that, the Hot Tamales candy jumped in my head.

I bought the supplies, and setup my shot. I ended up taking a number of photos to get the lighting right, and then a lot more to get the flames right. Using different layouts and compositions, I ended up wanting to make the candy look like it was burning. This is a lot harder than I expected. Putting the lighter fluid on the candy doesn't work, as then it's too spread out. So I had to pull a little bit behind the candy and hope I got it in the right spot (not as easy as you would think). Eventually I got this, which was doubly nice because of the smoke.

For lighting the candy/box I used a single flash gelled with 1/4 CTO shot through an umbrella. The flash was placed camera left.

Post Processing;
* Crop
* White balance
* Increase black point and brightness
* Increase contrast of lower half
* Increase definition
* Increase saturation and vibrancy
* Topaz Adjust 5
* Topaz DeNoise
* Retouch out some imperfections on the glass
* Increase black point
* S-curves
* Export as TIFF
* Resize
* Sharpen Edges
* Save as JPEG

Statistics
Place: 35 out of 69
Avg (all users): 5.7540
Avg (commenters): 8.6667
Avg (participants): 5.4750
Avg (non-participants): 5.8837
Views since voting: 520
Views during voting: 237
Votes: 126
Comments: 3
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
 Comments Made During the Challenge
02/25/2012 04:41:06 AM
Nice shot of the flames, I like the reflection.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/24/2012 05:25:22 PM
SMOKING!!!!!!!!! 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/24/2012 10:00:26 AM
Great idea and good capture. If the candy were a little brighter, maybe, I think the picture would be perfect. I'm thinking the candies are just a touch too dark... But I LOVE the shot. So great job!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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