Because the weather was so warm last week I did a mini shoot in the garden involving some very cute drinks jars I found for 59p each! I knew that I wanted a bright, summery shot and I knew that I wanted my Japanese Maples in the background, but the sun was far too bright in that corner of the garden so I had to soften the light somehow. I decided to use a reflector as a scrim so that there was less light hitting my setup, it also meant I was able to shoot at a wider aperture to make the background less in focus. You can use anything translucent to make a scrim - a shower curtain, tracing paper, a voile curtain. It's great when you're shooting portraits too and want to keep bright sunlight from someone's face.
I took a few shots before adding the tablecloth but decided it didn't look bright or summery enough...
...so I added a white tablecloth.
...which also helped to bounce light back up into the scene.
The roses are from my garden and are called Tess of the D'Urbervilles, they also smell as beautiful as they look.
David and Ralph dropped by to see what I was up to, I think Ralph was hoping he'd get to have his photo taken ;-)
