Black Raspberries on Black

Black Raspberries on Black, originally uploaded by Carl's Photography.

Taken with a Nikon D80.

* Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200) [+]
* Aperture: f/2.2 [+]
* Focal Length: 85 mm [+]
* ISO Speed: 160 [+]

Strobist info: I used a fluorescent strip light to aid in focusing initially and left it on manual focus on the tripod. SB-800 at M 1/16 camera right through a 43" white satin shoot through umbrella about 2 feet from the berries. SB-600 at camera left and behind at M 1/128 through a snoot (pringle potato chip can!). Both triggered via Nikon CLS/AWS with the IR pass through filter attached. I chose maximum flash synch speed of 1/200s and started at iso 100 and went up until I liked the exposure from the rim light at f/1.8. After taking a few, I decided to go for a bit more depth of field and increased my aperture f number to f/2.2. I then correspondingly clicked my iso up to 160. I took some at f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2.2, f/2.8 and f/4.0. I chose this one to show as a good balance between maintaining some out of focus highlights (bokeh) and having much of the bowl in focus. f/4.0 was not looking pleasant in the bokeh at the upper left.

***real info***
We got up and all 5 of us (Becky, Natalie, Danielle, Brent and I) grabbed a bowl. We took the four wheeler along the perimeter of our property, stopping to pick black raspberries when we saw patches of them. The black raspberry is somewhat smaller than a raspberry or blackberry. We picked about a 1/2 gallon. Here you see pictured a smaller portion. We brought them in and had them with our pancakes, bing cherries, white nectarines, red cherries and strawberries for breakfast.