Peking Duck, CC please

InsuredDisaster

Or how I blasted the hell out of some restaurant and got away with it.


One thing that I like about China is that one can just about get away with anything. I just don't think you could walk into a working Red Lobster or whatever in the USA, set up a light stand and start shooting without a whole lotta trees dying first.

Anyway, went to Beijing and we ate at this really cool Peking Duck restaurant. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it is a bit like a taco with duck, cucumber, onions, and some salty sauce thrown in.

Here are the photos:

The ducks are cooked in a wood burning stove. As it takes a long time, you must make a reservation ahead of time. I really wanted a good shot here, but it was difficult to get the one I wanted as the place was pretty busy.


Once out of the oven, the cook/knifeman ran the duck to a small table and started cutting. First the skin came off, which was super crunchy and delicoius. Then the rest of the duck was carved up. Process took just a few minutes.




Then when the people go home, everything must be cleaned.




Would really like to know what you think!

Dogdots

I really enjoyed your photos -- wouldn't it be nice if we could do that in the USA. Love the look on the guys face in #1

InsuredDisaster

Thanks. Maybe I should post the one of him with his knife! Actually, i'm a bit disppointed with the first shot. I asked them to turn the lights off in their working kitchen and they were nice enough to oblige. But I only had about 30 seconds to shoot! Its the best one of the few that I could shoot though.

Anyone else? Improvements or suggestions?

Panther

Howdy Ben,

That is really a neat series love all of them, the first one especially,
and the movement you captured in the others gave a sense of urgency to
get the food to the Table hot.

I wouldn't know how to do it any better than what you've
done, I applaud you for your spunk and inventiveness, and
the only thing that I might suggest is

can you airship some of that to Burleson Texas that looks
wonderful and savory.

NeilL

I like the second the most. It has less in the frame and more of a narrative. Is this a combination of dragging the shutter and panning?

Neil

InsuredDisaster

Thank you for the compliments.

I really wanted to come up with something that wouldn't look out of place in Nat Geo or something. I wanted a lot more than just a pop up flash, face in a cave snap shot that the other tourists were shooting.

For these shots, an off camera SB-600 was used. In the kitchen shots, this was clamped to a stair railing and aimed through some windows, hence the shadows. I wanted gel the shots a bit warm, but in the cleaning shot, the gel blew off! Oh well, works anyway. I wanted a strong shadow pattern. I now generally carry a super clamp with me at all times since they open up so many possibilties and don't take up that much space.

My real problem was getting the fire and the ducks to show up in the first one. I know about increasing the shutter to increase the ambient, but the kitchen lights overexposed everythign else. I thought about putting a flash aimed right at the oven somewhere in the kitchen, but A) where to put it so it wouldn't be seen, and how to put it up without being a pain in the arm. The kitchen just wasn't that big. I'm glad I thought to just simply ask them to cut the lights, though again, I'm a bit surprised they did!

The duck running shots had a flash on a stand infront of the chef, so the flash was camera left or right, almost 90 dgrees. I had to set it to TTL since the distance was changing as the cook was running. Can't remember if I dialed in any compensation. I panned the camera and got about 2 shots each run.

The cutting shot had a flash mounted camera left rather high on a stand aimed down. I think I need to practice getting some more motion along with freezing everything. Would have liked to suggest how fast his hands were moving to cut that duck. Seems most of the moving hand shots I try don't turn out as well as I'd like.

The duck was really good though. Since we ate there twice, I got to eat two of 'em and boy, they are delicious!

Really appreciate the comments.

NeilL

InsuredDisaster wrote: »

Thank you for the compliments.

I really wanted to come up with something that wouldn't look out of place in Nat Geo or something. I wanted a lot more than just a pop up flash, face in a cave snap shot that the other tourists were shooting.

For these shots, an off camera SB-600 was used. In the kitchen shots, this was clamped to a stair railing and aimed through some windows, hence the shadows. I wanted gel the shots a bit warm, but in the cleaning shot, the gel blew off! Oh well, works anyway. I wanted a strong shadow pattern. I now generally carry a super clamp with me at all times since they open up so many possibilties and don't take up that much space.

My real problem was getting the fire and the ducks to show up in the first one. I know about increasing the shutter to increase the ambient, but the kitchen lights overexposed everythign else. I thought about putting a flash aimed right at the oven somewhere in the kitchen, but A) where to put it so it wouldn't be seen, and how to put it up without being a pain in the arm. The kitchen just wasn't that big. I'm glad I thought to just simply ask them to cut the lights, though again, I'm a bit surprised they did!

The duck running shots had a flash on a stand infront of the chef, so the flash was camera left or right, almost 90 dgrees. I had to set it to TTL since the distance was changing as the cook was running. Can't remember if I dialed in any compensation. I panned the camera and got about 2 shots each run.

The cutting shot had a flash mounted camera left rather high on a stand aimed down. I think I need to practice getting some more motion along with freezing everything. Would have liked to suggest how fast his hands were moving to cut that duck. Seems most of the moving hand shots I try don't turn out as well as I'd like.

The duck was really good though. Since we ate there twice, I got to eat two of 'em and boy, they are delicious!

Really appreciate the comments.

Interesting info, thanks. I like where you're going. Cool stuff can be done playing with Tv and flash, and reflections.

Neil

InsuredDisaster

NeilL wrote: »

Interesting info, thanks. I like where you're going. Cool stuff can be done playing with Tv and flash, and reflections.

Neil

No problem. I definately want to experiment a bit more with this.