5 Make a strawberry splash with off-camera flash!

Use an external flash unit to freeze the decisive moment when a strawberry is dropped into water, to add some dynamic action to your photographic repertoire

There are few shots as vibrant as a perfectly ripe red strawberry crashing into a glass of water, with a zingy blue background to set it all off. This shot can be a little tricky to achieve, but as long as you follow the steps and have patience, it’s just a matter of perfecting your timing. It won’t be long before you’re onto a winning image!

Flash is essential for this technique, as we’re relying on the bright burst of light to freeze the strawberry still and make sure it comes out pin-sharp. A softbox helps make the flash less harsh and cuts down on reflections in the glass, too. We used a tall glass storage rice or pasta jar, which was ideal, although you could get even better results with a small fish tank.

We also propped up a blue background behind to add extra colour – and as it’s a vinyl backdrop, it was easy to clean up the water splashes, too!

PRO SHOT Strawberry splash

It took a lot of patience and practice before we’d mastered our timing and captured the perfect shot of our strawberry crashing into the water – not only in the right part of our frame, but in sharp focus, too! The punchy red strawberry, vibrant blue background and dynamic movement make this shot a keeper.

PRO ADVICE Sync speeds

When you use flash, pay attention to your shutter speed. The maximum sync speed on many cameras is around 1/125 or 1/200 sec: setting the shutter speed faster than this can result in a large black bar appearing at the top or bottom of your images if the flash is out of sync with your camera’s shutter.