P#26: A Striking Photograph of Ripe Orange Peppers

A Unique Approach

Ron Goldman: In this photograph the orange peppers are actually sitting on a mirror. I used a piece of black foam core board behind the mirror to give it the black background. The orange peppers really stand out well against the black foam and it reflects in the mirror and turns the surface of the mirror black, although it still has its reflective properties.

I kind of stumbled across this one day by mistake and started playing around with the reflections and changing different colors of the reflection. It turned into one of my favorite images of these orange peppers. (click the image for a larger version)

These are habanero chilies that I actually grew myself. As they were growing and ripening, they were so beautiful. I kept thinking, "There's got to be something I can do with these. There's got to be a shot here somewhere."

So I just walked out and cut a bunch of them off the plants, leaving a few of the leaves on and I set them up on this mirror and put the black background behind it and started looking through the viewfinder and arranging them in a pattern that I thought was interesting.

This was all done with natural light, by the way. I actually have a large sliding glass door that I have these tables set up by. It's a west-facing door so in the evening, when the sun is fairly low in the sky, I get a really nice, warm colored light coming through that window. It's perfect for photographing lots of different subjects and that's what I used for this shot of the peppers.

Audri Lanford: Wow, it's interesting. I would never have guessed this was natural light in a mirror. That's fascinating. What kind of lens did you use with this?

Ron Goldman: This was a 28-70mm Canon zoom lens. I don't have the information here in front of me as far as what the focal length was, but probably somewhere around 50mm. A 50mm prime lens would be perfect for shooting something like this.

In Closing

Sometimes with the right subject combined with the right props and the right lighting, you can create the photograph of a lifetime. This beautiful shot of the orange peppers in a mirror is a perfect example of how creative thinking and ingenuity can take you so far in food photography.