Assignment 5: Still Life

Travis Bow: Floating PB&J (setup)

The four frames here show three pictures that I took to get the effect of a floating sandwich, and the final effect shown in the bottom right. I chose the background of this picture to be a counter top (where you make sandwiches) with the materials you use to make it framing the picture. The lighting is the fluorescent kitchen overhead, which is also appropriate for the situation.

Top Left: in this picture (the bottom layer of the photo) I got just the bottom piece of bread, balanced on a pepper shaker that it was fairly easy to blur out of the frame (I realized afterward that it would have been easier to take a fourth photo without the bread, but it was too late by then).

Top right: this was how I got the jam and knife into the picture. I spread some jam on saran wrap and balanced it between two cups (which I had to tape to the counter to get the wrap stretched tight enough). This way the shadow of the jam shows through to the toast below. I used a purple glove to hold the knife so that it would be easier to select and cut out in Photoshop.

Bottom left: the final shot was simply of the top piece of bread, which I held with a spatula. For all of these shots: f=18mm, shutter=1/25 second, white balance set for fluorescent, f/3.5.