251/365 - A Light in the Attic

djwtwo has added a photo to the pool:

Another experimental shot tonight. I've been pondering this for a little while now, and everything was in place to give it a try tonight. This is actually the attic in one of my kids' dollhouses, and the "sunlight" comes entirely from a single strobe. Basically, I set up the strobe on a stand at the right height and angle to get the light to fall on the "floor" basically where I wanted it, chimped in the right power setting, then right before shooting, blew in a tiny bit of corn starch to act as the "dust" and help the strobe cast rays from the window to the floor. Getting the dust to look natural was the trickiest part: I ended up sprinkling the corn starch over a piece of card stock, giving it a puff of breath, then shooting. If the shot was early, you could see it billowing around, and it settled fast enough that it was easy to shoot too late, too. This was the most natural-looking of my attempts.

I also tried a straight-on composition, but I don't think it worked out quite as well.

Nikon D7000 w/Nikkor 18-200mm @ 65mm, 1/250s @ ƒ/8, ISO100. One SB-700 on stand "outside" and above the window, 1/8 power, 120mm zoom. Boosted contrast and vibrance, and cropped slightly, in Aperture.