Sometimes opportunity just seems to fall in your lap. I was getting ideas that I would like to do some table top photos using flash. I had a plan in mind but was looking for something to photograph. My mother in-law Shirley stopped by with a chocolate cake and some of the most perfect strawberries I have seen in quite a while. "Eureka!" I thought, (These just happened to be imported from California) I had my subject.

If you are interested in knowing a little more about how I took this follow the jump. 




This actually a combination of 2 pictures. The bowl of strawberries was set on a paper back drop on the kitchen table. I had a VIvitar 283 speedlight on a stand shooting through a white umbrella to the left of the strawberries and slightly behind. That was the main light which I triggered with radio control from the flash. I also had a Vivitar 285 speedlight to the right opposite the main light through an umbrella at about quarter power. It was triggered with a wireless slave. Started with a meter reading of about f8 but moving the flashes about the f stops varied a bit and I was winging it a bit shooting and checking the LCD screen on the back.  

In this shot I had a nice clean white background but the upper side of the bowl and strawberries were washed out. I took a few shots changing the settings a fair amount and I also got this shot.

 The inside of the bowl and the strawberries were exposed nicely but the background was grey. I used Photoshop Elements and put the lighter photo on a layer over the darker one. I used a layer mask and painted out the strawberries and the inside of the bowl on the top layer so the darker ones appeared seemlessly in the shot. 

 I cropped the photo to match an 8.5x11inch format and straightened it out a little. 

I am pretty sure there are easier ways to do this. Even just making adjustments to one picture. This was something I wanted to try, it was fun and I got a photo I am happy with.