I’m up early today; plenty of time to check out the “Our Daily Challenge” theme: Three Colors. That’s easy. The beautiful and tasty strawberries I just bought at the nearby Granny May’s strawberry farm seemed perfect for the challenge: red berries, green calyx, red and white background. The “easy” shot turned into an hour of fiddling and retaking and exchanging backgrounds. When I downloaded the first batch of photos I realized the red and white checked Paris-Bistro apron I used as a background was a more intense color of red than the strawberries and was distracting so I found a white dish towel to use instead. Then, the placement of the berries became an issue and I fiddled some more. I started out using Aperture Priority and thought the results were too bright. I realized I needed to change my white balance to tungsten and that helped. I finally changed back to manual mode and was able to change the exposure settings to my satisfaction. When I returned the settings to Aperture Priority just to see what the difference was, the settings the camera chose were suddenly the same as my manual settings. Woot!
After all of this, on closer inspection, the third color actually is the yellowish color of the tiny strawberry seeds. And, since white is really the presence of all color, I should have used a black background which is the absence of all color if I really wanted to be a purist about the whole thing. But I’ve fiddled long enough and I don’t think a black background with strawberries would look very good. Unless they’re on a black reflective surface…uh oh. No, I don’t have anymore time for this shot or I’ll miss my Pilates class.
Focal Length 50mm
Shooting Mode: Aperture Priority
f/1.4
1/20
WB Tungsten
SOOC
Love your thought process! You must be using a tripod at that shutter speed. Low ISO? So glad that Aperture Priority gave you the same readings as your settings in manual. I love your composition, clarity and color here. Simple and very elegant. Love the berries against the white- beautiful!