Breakfast Strawberries

Breakfast Strawberries, originally uploaded by carlcmc.

# Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200) [+]
# Aperture: f/1.4 [+]
# Focal Length: 85 mm [+]
# ISO Speed: 100 [+]

Strobist info and setup: I draped black cloth over a stool. I placed strip lights on each side and slightly behind (each on 4' with 2 bulbs, each bulb 40 watts at 5000k). This aided for focusing and add lighting of about a -3 to -2 EV. In a test shot the strawberries were visible but underexposed as I said by about -2 EV. 43" white satin umbrella with black backing on at camera right with SB-800 gelled at CTO 1/4. SB-800 set at M 1/32. White satin 43" umbrella with black backing behind and to the left high up at the ceiling (see setup shot) with SB-600 gelled at CTO 1/4. SB-600 at M 1/16. Both SBs triggered with Nikon CLS/AWS with IR pass through filter in front of on board flash.

I tried some with the second umbrella by me camera left but I got too hot of highlights and not enough exposure of rear strawberries. WB was set for flash and so I had some low warm light from the 5000k bulbs and additionally warming with the gel.

I shot at f/1.4 to control the depth of focus and make sure the attention was on the top strawberry. That worked fairly well, but I wanted even greater emphasis. So I then orton process with three layers. A gaussian blur of 20 applied to top layer and then with a layer mask I painted with a 50% brush over top the top most strawberry. While the gaussian blur contributes *some* the majority of the out of focus effect is simply from the amazing Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 AFD lens at f/1.4

**Real info**: Our strawberries are finally producing! We have been going out and picking strawberries from our patch. Sometimes eating them just then and there (brush the dirt off!). I got up Sabbath morning and took some out of the refrigerator and cleaned them while everyone slept. Here they are before I sliced them for our oatmeal (see another photo coming in my photostream). Wonderful strawberry aroma and delightful taste!