Torta for Dinner

Susan has been on a baking binge lately. She is slowly notching recipe after recipe under her belt. She's starting with the standards and a number of local delicacies, nothing too hoity-toity or exotic. A few weeks back my Ma gave her a recipe for torta (mamon), which she then eagerly tried out. The recipe was actually shared with my Auntie Mye by someone from Madridejos who used to bake the treat. My Ma and Pa's hometown isn't particularly known for its baked goods, so we were a bit skeptical.

However, all that apprehension melted away after the first bite.

And since this blog isn't intentionally about food, then I'm guessing that you're here for a different kind of recipe. A list of the light ingredients can be found after the jump.

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I wanted to get as much detail as I could off the surface of the pastry, so I opted to use hard, directional side light. I dialed in the following settings to start: ISO 200, f/6.3, 1/200s. I opted for a moderate aperture and a fast shutter speed to kill off any ambient contribution. I popped a test frame and saw that no environmental light was registering in the image.

I proceeded to bring in two HSF's (hot shoe flashes) to cross light the rack of tortas that were cooling on cookie sheet. I placed a 1/4 CTO gel and a 1/4" grid on each of the flashes to warm and restrict the light respectively. I had the power of each flash pegged at around 1/64 or 1/32 since I had them pretty up close to my subject. I shot and reviewed a few pictures to make small adjustments to the position of each flash and my composition. My wife and I selected the picture below from the ones we shot that night.

The first shot in this post had a third HSF added to the mix. This one was in a ring flash adapter and its power was dialed down just enough to get the desired amount of detail back in the shadows. I'm not sure if this is how food photographers go about their process, but I wanted to highlight the pastry's best features (as I would in shooting a person) and I let my love of hard, contrast-y light get the best of me.