335: Mints on Pink

Settings: f/5.6, 1/180, ISO 100, 50mm Pentacon M42, 19mm extension, 1/4 flash, foil reflector, green paper, tripod. Colour & levels adjustments, crop.

320: Confection Racket

I drop the M&Ms and try to trigger the camera at the right: Not easy to do, especially when you consider that all digital cameras have a slight delay between pressing the button and the shutter opening. Okay, DSLRs are pretty damn quick, but the delay is nonetheless there. Out of about fifteen tries, I got two-thirds fairly well timed, but I really could have done with more M&Ms to fill the frame. Like a whole bowl next time!

Set up with a large mirror on a table, black velvet cloth hung over from behind at a slight angle, and a barrier of upended VHS cassettes around the perimeter.

Settings: f/7.1, 1/180, ISO 400, P-FA 50mm, 1/4 flash, mirror, black velvet, tripod. Levels adjustment and crop to vertical 16:9.

271: Jellies

Settings: f/8 (approx), 1/180, ISO 100, 58mm Helios-44-2 M42, 43mm extension, 1/4 flash, foil reflector, tripod.

225: Floral Arrangement

A matrix of floral sweets, laid out in a fashion not unlike that of a phosphor CRT - although I don't imagine floral pastel displays will ever catch on. Home theatre magazines would criticise their colour depth mercilessly.
They could be a huge leap forward in scratch 'n' sniff technology, though.

Settings: f/2.8, 1/180, ISO 100, 50mm Cosinon M42, 16mm extension, 1/4 flash, black velvet, white card, tripod.

070: Shrink-Minted

Some polo mints are placed on a rubber mouse mat inside a thin freezer bag; this bag is then tied around a drinking straw at the opening with adhesive tape. I make sure the flash reflectors and other cards are in place, turn off my desk lamp, stop the lens down, take the straw in my mouth and press the shutter button. While the two-second timer runs, I place a white card on the opposite side to the foil flash reflector (in this case in front of my face) and suck hard on the straw. The shutter fires and I'm left with this picture.

Settings: f/16, 1/180, ISO 200, 50mm, 19mm extension, 1/4 flash, foil, white & black cards.
Curiously, there's an impression of curvilinear distorsion; but I'm sure it's just due to the placement of the mints. I'm not very happy with the top corners either. I think they needed more crinklyness. But I'm sure I can make a better, similar picture some other time; I like this unusually shrink-wrapped objects theme.

055: Sweet Wrappers

Such bright colours. This one was another straight from the camera, another first shot got just right.
Close scrutiny reveals a curious fact: The wrappers are not solid colour [as I imagined,] but printed with their particular colour tint, plus the white text. Actually, this detail is difficult to make out in the 1600-pixel version here, but the full 3872-pixel original definitely shows the printed pattern of colour.

Settings were f/5.6, 1/180 sec, ISO 100, 50mm M42, 19mm extension, low flash, white reflector. The chocolates were arranged in an eggbox, four in each of the six dips. A simple and effective setup. The background blobs are a bit hexagonal, but that's fine by me.

014: Shards of Toffee

I'm savouring a piece of this delicious stuff as I type this.
Toffee is a curious confection when broken in such a way, as it resembles shards of obsidian - or even Neolithic flint tools. Although it's definitely the opposite of sharp in the mouth.

There are many ways of capturing such a simple scene like this, and this is just one of them. I thought the blue paper would make an interesting contrast with the golden brown toffee, but I am not so sure now. I reckon a yellow background might have been better, just to give an extra golden glow to the sugary chunks. Also a lower angle and wider aperture could have been more desirable to get a shallower depth of field, and pick out certain details on a few bits.
But it's just one photo, No more. I'll save any experiments for something else tomorrow.

010: Chocolates!

Aah, chocolates.
I'm sure some people wish they were a complete foodsource, but not I. Why..? They wouldn't be special if we ate nothing else! I see the maker's logo is noticeable, although I'm not advertising them. Honest. (They're nice enough, but not my favourites.)
This shot was done using the same basic flash setup as the potatoes, but with the black chocolate box paper underneath. This was to give the shot a dark base for richer contrast and shadows, and to keep the chocs clean. They are for eating, after all.
I keep a few large sheets of white expanded polystyrene around when I do these kind of shots - I find them very useful for holding in one hand to bounce the flash around at arbitrary angles. Cheap and effective.
Oh dear, I just noticed a fingerprint on one of the chocolates. Not so perfect now, but nevermind. And there's green fringing in places too, that'll be from using the lens wide open. But who cares - I'm tired and they look delicious anyway.