Forks, a black egg and a shadow

[Manfred M]

Some more experimental work on my part.

I placed an egg (that met up with some matte black spray paint), cradled it between two forks and placed it on some seamless paper in a sweep (gradual transition from vertical to horizontal) and shot that with a studio light that I had put a snoot on to create some hard light. This is the result.

[Jim A]

Very nice, Manfred, VG project. Presume that you used a tile to put everything on, like you have in the past? I presume that it was okay to eat the egg afterwards?

[Manfred M]

Very nice, Manfred, VG project. Presume that you used a tile to put everything on, like you have in the past? I presume that it was okay to eat the egg afterwards?

Thanks Jim, but no, I did not use any tiles. Just some standard seamless paper. The smooth transition from vertical to horizontal in the background is important to make this shot work.

I doubt very much that I would trust eating it; I expect that the egg has been contaminated by the organic chemicals in the paint. I don't know how flawless the shell is and I poked a small hole in the bottom while boiling the egg, so some material would definitely have gotten in that way. When working with eggs, I use hard-boiled ones; much less risk of creating a mess if I drop one. I still have some more work planned for this egg, so it is resting in the refrigerator right now.

[Jim A]

Many thanks for the feedback, Manfred, seeing what you are doing is an inspiration to me, so that I may quite likely try something along the same lines. This would be interesting because I am a much better post-processor than a photographer. I had a laugh when I read that you have it in the fridge for future use, you must have Scots heritage like me, who spent my first 21 years of life in Scotland.

[Manfred M]

Many thanks for the feedback, Manfred, seeing what you are doing is an inspiration to me, so that I may quite likely try something along the same lines. This would be interesting because I am a much better post-processor than a photographer. I had a laugh when I read that you have it in the fridge for future use, you must have Scots heritage like me, who spent my first 21 years of life in Scotland.

There is fairly limited PP work in this image. The beauty of still life is that I can control the light so well that only cleanup was required. I often stick my camera on a tripod and light multiple parts of the image individually and then blend in post, but that was not necessary here; this is a single shot.

This is also not the shot I had planned to do. I had a different shot in mind that involved 2-1/2 dozen eggs in a flat. I wanted to skim the light in a way that caused each successive row of eggs to cast a shadow on the row behind it. I was going to flag the light on the first row so that the effect happened there as well. I didn't think this would make an interesting image unless one of the eggs looked different and would draw the viewer's eye, hence the black egg...

I ran into a bit of a technical problem. In Canada, eggs must be washed before they are sold to reduce the risk of Samonella. This removes a naturally occurring coating, so the eggs are more susceptible bacteria getting in, so our eggs have to be refrigerated. This means that condensation formed on the eggs and I had to wait for the eggs to warm up and dry before I could start shooting. As I had some time on my hands, I worked with my single black egg to create this image, I tried an unpainted egg, but it did work as effectively, in my view.

No Scots heritage here; 100% German. That being said, I was born in Bavaria and they are traditionally viewed as a very frugal group; the German version of the Scots....