Fire and levitation in a demonstration by Olya Babitskaya in the Dynaphos studio

Strong Bulgarian rakia and fruit slices, decorated with nuts. These are the food items that photographer Olga Babitskaya chose for her demonstration at the Dynaphos studio during a streaming event last night.

The objects, of course, can be arranged in front of the lens by anyone who decides to photograph them, and with proper lighting and interesting decoration, with a few attempts, a decent image will be achieved. However, Olya from Belarus showed us how to turn photography into art. The short answer – with imagination and professionalism in choosing camera equipment and lighting. The long answer can be traced in the effects she decided to include in the two shooting sets. In the first – fire. In the second – levitation of some of the products.

Set with fire and smoke

The label of the rakia contains the definition "hot," and this gave Olya a hint for the effect that would visualize its meaning. Hot makes us feel warm. Warmth is associated with fire, and fire – besides flames – also with smoke. The only thing left was to figure out how to achieve these in a confined space.

Olya shoots with a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and a Sigma 105 mm Macro lens. For the set, she chose a GODOX AD200PRO for lighting, added an AD300PRO, prepared 3 Godox S-type brackets, a 35x140 softbox, a non-optical snoot with a grid and a red filter, as well as a Godox Xpro-c transmitter.

The photo will show you how she chose to arrange them around the bottle, which she decorated with kindling. Behind it, she had previously placed a baking tray with crumpled sheets of paper.

Before lighting the fire, she revealed a small trick for achieving smoke in the picture.

"Not everyone can have a smoke machine at home, but everyone can buy an electronic cigarette," the photographer noted.

And because Olya had to stay behind the lens, her husband transformed into a "smoke machine." So, with the kindling lit from one side and the smoke blown from the other, without even smelling smoke in the studio, Olya created a shot where the bottle of hot rakia looks as if it's placed in smoldering embers.

The fire after that was completely real. The crumpled papers in the tray were mercilessly set alight, and while the flames curled up as a controlled background from the walls of the tray, Olya took a few more shots with her CANON, adding the already rehearsed smoke effect to the fire.

When asked if the flash would eliminate the smoke during photography, she answered negatively. This is because she shoots at a speed of 0.8". The shots are with a 105mm lens, and she uses an aperture of 14 to achieve depth. She paid special attention to the background color:

"If there's a white background, the smoke isn't visible. It's clearly visible against a black background."

Set with levitating products

To avoid scattering the orange slices, decorated with nuts, on a flat surface and thus creating an ordinary photo, Olya arranged an interesting two-level glass table. She did it again with improvised materials – wine glasses served as legs, cardboard cores from several toilet paper rolls became connecting elements between the tabletops, and for the tabletops themselves, she used the glass from two 40/50 cm picture frames.

Olya carefully arranged the food products, inspecting them through her camera lens, held vertically above the structure.

"When shooting from above, it creates the effect of levitation for them. Separately, there's also focus and out-of-focus," the photographer revealed, adding that this is the universal scheme imitating levitation.

To avoid showing the reflection of the orange, the distance between the glass panes needs to be adjusted, which is possible by reducing the height between the glass tabletops.

To achieve an artistic shot, Olya chose an 85mm f/1.8 lens from the same brand for her CANON; for lighting - a GODOX Ad300PRO flash, a Godox Xpro-C trigger, an 80x120 softbox, and a Godox S-type bracket. You can see how they are arranged in the photo:

Feedback from Olya

Olga Babitskaya will soon provide her Instagram followers with the compositional line diagrams she uses herself. This will happen in an app she is preparing. If, while waiting for them, you tag her or Dynaphos in your post within the next two weeks, she commits to providing her recommendation and comment in return.

And at the end of the live broadcast of her demonstration on our FB profile, she advised viewers to do everything from the heart and not to stop learning and experimenting in photography. 

"If you have nothing in your head, an expensive camera won't help you," Olya added with a smile.

You can follow the work process for both sets through the video at the link. And here's the result: 

You can learn more about Olga Babitskaya's work from her Instagram profile.