Terry Miles making Popcorn

This is a shot of independent film director Terry Miles, who has a new film debuting at the upcoming Vancouver Film Festival. We wanted to do a story on do-it-yourself film making for the cover of the Urban Pie. First we thought we'd get him working in the projection booth at the Rio Theatre, but they had a show going when we arrived, so we had to settle for the concession stand. The first couple of shots we had going just we're working for me, and then I noticed the popcorn maker and thought it would make a cool photo to get Terry running that. The problem was that the glass was covered in a thick film of popcorn grease, and as soon as I put a light on it, it became impossible to see through. The solution was to put a flash up on the popcorn cooker inside.


Here's the lighting setup. The cooker was still hot from the last batch of popcorn, so I got a wet rag from the dish sink and put the flash on that. I fired it with the SU-800 controller.


Here's the original shot, which isn't bad, but just wasn't making the cut.

Tech Stuff:
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8
Lighting: Nikon SB-900, trigger by the SU-800 controller.