Sunday 19 June 2011

365/12 - Day 19 - Jelly Babies

Inspired by a series of images featuring Danbo I wanted to set up a shot featuring Jelly Babies. So, bag of Jelly Babies purchased I set about thinking what to do with them.

the idea:
In case you've never noticed the Jelly Babies actually have individual characters and expressions. Boofuls is always crying, but why? perhaps because one of their friends has had their head bitten off?! (Note: this is the most humane way to eat a Jelly Baby). Now it was to decide which one would loose their head - the only real choice was Brilliant, who was a nice contrasting red to Boofuls' green and he also happens to be the leader of the Jelly Babies. (I'm not making this up)



the preparation:
Jelly Babies tend to be covered in starch, as its used to help release them from the mould during manufacture - or "birth" as they tell me its called. This was removed with my tongue, very carefully to ensure I didn't accidentally swallow the whole subject. It took some practice ;) I then bit the head off Brilliant and believe it or not kept it, there were some shots where the head was laying on the ground.

the set-up:
Using a piece of white A2 card as a "set" I had Boofuls and Brilliant stand in their places and went about setting up the shot. There are two light sources: The key light is coming from behind the subjects at a 45 degree angle (as is evident from the shadows) this gave a nice shape to the image and as the babies are translucent they lit up quite well. However, I also popped a bit of light in from the right as a fill. By solving one problem I caused another. The light from the fill wiped out the shadows cast from the key light and the image lost its drama. AwesomeSnoot(TM) to the rescue, still no joy! The subjects are so small that even the narrow beam of the AwesomeSnoot(TM) was too much. A simple on the spot remedy was to cover the front of the AwesomeSnoot(TM) with an AwesomeMod(TM) which took the form of tinfoil, with a hole punched in the front with a pencil. This gave a nice narrow beam of light which hits Brilliant dead on and then feathers off onto Boofuls. This gave back the vital detail to the front of the babies. Job Done.

the alternative:
The other option for the final image was this one, taken after the main image it struck me that Boofuls would look very sad all alone. I simply removed Brilliant and was left with this. The quote fitted the shot and my mood at the time.

Jelly Babies come up again in day29 "they're coming"

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