Strawberries Dipped in Chocolate

Here’s a recent food photo I did of strawberries, dipped in chocolate.  The food stylist did a really good job and the texture of the chocolate is perfect.  I love the was the light wraps about each berry and the way the light side of one contrasts so beautifully with the shadow side of the other.  The actual quality of the berries, could of been better maybe, but there’s something to be said for imperfection.  The shots looks real to me and if everything was too perfect, I don’t think it would have worked as well.

This food photograph was taken with a Nikon D810, with a 85mm Tilt / Shift lens, with the aperture set at around f-4 or even f-5.6.  To be honest, I can’t remember.  I think I started out at f-2.8, but I thought that the photo needed a little more depth of field.  Focus falls off very quickly when the camera is this close to the subject.  This lens allowed me to shift the focus so that two of the berries were in focus.  This lens is probably the best lens possible for food photography.  Sure, a food photographer needs more than one lens, but if I had to pick only one lens, this would be it!