There can never be enough said about capturing the beauty of flowers!
Here is an excellent article from The New York Institute of Photography.
Flower Photography
When you
photograph flowers, you have to make a couple of important decisions.
As with any photograph, your first decision is to decide: What's my
subject?
Is it a bouquet of flowers, or the macro view of a stamen? A single
flower closeup? A bed of hundreds of flowers? A field of thousands?
From this decision will flow many specifics of the
picture you want to take and how to go about it.
Let's start with the macro photo — that is, with extreme closeups. Of course, you can only take this type of picture
if your lens has a macro mode. With macro, you're focusing from a few
inches! Many of today's point-and-shoot models do have this type of
capability.
When we talk about what you see in your camera's viewfinder, bear in
mind that we're thinking of the viewfinder in a single lens reflex (SLR)
camera, where you see the image as the film or chip will see it –
through the lens that takes the picture. The viewfinders on
point-and-shoot cameras don't work very well when you're extremely close
to your subject. That means with a digital point-and-shoot, you should
use the camera's LCD viewing panel to make certain the lens is pointed
at your intended subject.
When you take a macro photo,
focus is all-important. Your
plane of focus is very shallow — just a fraction of an inch. So you have
to make another decision: Exactly what part of the flower do you want
to be in sharp focus? The pistil? The stamen? A petal? (We've run out of
high-school biology terminology, but you get the idea.) Unless you're a
botanist, you will probably make this decision "on the fly" — that is,
as you look through the viewfinder. When you see the image that you
want, press the shutter!
While it is possible to take a good close-up photo
handheld,
our advice is to use a tripod if at all possible. Particularly if the
flower is swaying in the wind, changing the focal point every moment,
you're better off not adding the additional confusion of a swaying
camera too. Use a tripod and be patient. Most often, the wind will die
down from time to time and the flower will stand still and "pose" for an
instant. That's the instant to shoot!
While on the subject of wind, here are some other tips: If the wind
is blowing hard and steady, the flower will probably sway incessantly
and fast, so that you will be hard-pressed to get the shot. Consider
waiting for another time — perhaps, the next day — when the wind has
died down. If you must shoot during an unremitting wind, place a
makeshift shelter around the flower to protect it from the wind. A few
sheets of poster board may be sufficient. (Of course, keep the shelter
out of the picture!) Or tie the flower stem to a thin post (the type you will find in any garden center).
How
should you expose this shot? The easy way is to trust your meter. It
will generally give a fairly accurate reading in this situation. For
pinpoint exposure, however, we recommend that you use a gray
card
or take an incident reading. By using one of these alternative methods,
you end up with an exposure that is precisely calibrated to the light,
and is not affected by the color or reflectivity of the flower.
Macro flower shots can be pretty. But if you want to turn the ordinary macro shot into an extraordinary photograph,
try to add something of interest. What? How about a bee gathering
pollen? Or a spider crawling inside? Or a butterfly? Now you've got
something to grab the viewer's attention beyond a pretty picture. This type of photograph
may not come easy — you have to wait for the critter. But if you wait
long enough and your patience is rewarded, you can end up with a really
great photograph.
Let's move on to consider the shot of a single flower head. Much of
what we said for the macro view applies here too. As before, you can't
get close enough for this type of picture with point-and-shoot cameras.
Once again, you'll be better off using a tripod if possible. Remember
also that you don't have to make pictures of single flowers while you're
bent over in the garden. Over the years many great photographers have
made wonderful still life studies of flowers in a studio setting where
there's no wind and the photographer has precise control over the
lighting. Whether you're taking pictures indoors or out, once again
exposure will be more precise if you use a gray card or take an incident reading. And the picture will often be improved if you can add a crawling critter.
Good focus is still important, but it's not as critical as it was
with the macro. The zone of good focus is now a few inches, not just a
fraction of an inch. So, while you still want to focus well, you don't
need to watch focus quite so critically.
An added decision for you to make with this type of shot is to consider the
direction of light. It's possible to take a very attractive picture
with the light in its "usual" position, streaming from behind you
toward the flower. But give strong consideration to backlighting — that
is — light coming from behind the flower, toward the camera. Since
flower petals are usually translucent, backlighting can give them an
iridescent glow that accentuates the flower's color and brings it to
life.
How should you decide which light is best? Easy.
Walk
around the flower, observing how it looks through the viewfinder from
different positions. Keep a sharp eye. You may see an appealing shadow
from one position. A glow of iridescence from another. Maybe you can get
both together. Walk around, and then take your picture from the position that appeals most to your eye.
We should add two words of warning here. First, when the light comes from behind you, watch
your own shadow
carefully. Usually, you want to avoid casting a shadow on the flower.
Second, when you are shooting with the flower backlit, watch out for
flare.
You don't want the incoming light to shine directly into your lens
producing ghostlike blobs. (You can avoid flare by either positioning
your camera so that the light doesn't shine directly into your lens, or
by shading the lens with your hand or a hat or any other opaque object.
Just be sure that the object is kept out of the image frame.)
There's a second additional decision to make when you are shooting a
single flower head. How high or low do you want the camera to be?
In other words, from what angle do you want to shoot the flower?
Once again, the answer is best determined by your eye. As you walk
around the flower to watch the play of light from different sides, also
look through the viewfinder to see how it looks from different heights.
Don't be lazy. Lie down to see it from a squirrel's-eye view. Stand up
and raise your tripod to see it from a bumble-bee's view. Let your eye
decide which you prefer. Also, in addition to the lighting, consider the
tonality of any background that will be visible in the photograph. Brown dirt, green grass, or blue sky can give a very different feeling to the photo.
Let's move on to bigger floral subjects. What about a bed of
flowers...or a field of them? Here, you can probably use a
point-and-shoot as well as a DSLR. A tripod is less necessary. Focus is
no longer critical — it can extend for feet or even miles. And metering
with your built-in meter will probably produce a good result.
What about the direction of light? It still can make a difference. If
you can check how the flowers look from different sides, by all means
do so. Frontlighting may be all right. Backlighting — or sidelighting —
may be better. Camera angle — that is, height — is usually less
important in this type of long shot. (You should still stoop down to see
if the image is improved from a low angle that will accentuate the
nearest flowers.)
What should you look out for here? We think you should go back to the very first decision:
What's your subject? A bed or field of flowers may look exquisite to your eye, but often makes an awfully dull picture. Look for something that will add interest to the picture. Something else that will draw the eye of the viewer and be the subject of your picture, with the flowers acting as swatches of color that complement it.
If you're photographing a flower bed, look around. Perhaps, a child
playing amidst the flowers will make a far more interesting picture. Or
the house behind it. Or the apple tree in the foreground? Or the fence
in the background. Or anything else you can find to draw the viewer's
eye and add interest.
Do the same with a field of flowers. Is there a barn that would make a
better subject? A tree? A windmill? A lone person far out in the field.
A babbling stream? A majestic mountain landscape?
Chances are if you look around you'll find lots of potential targets that will add considerable interest to your photograph.
To sum all of the flower
photography tips up: Flowers are colorful and can make beautiful
photography
subjects when you're close up and they fill the frame. You're better
off finding another subject, and using the flowers as an "accessory,"
when you're shooting from farther away.
NY Institute of Photography
The New York Institute of Photography has been a
provider of high quality photography education since 1910. With more
than 100 years of experience, they've trained more successful
photographers than any other school in the world.
They currently offer three great
photography courses:
The Complete Course in Professional Photography, The Complete Course in
Digital Photography, and the Fundamentals of Digital Photography.
Located in the heart of New York City, NYIP School has graduated
students of their home-study programs all over the world, currently
serving students in over 150 countries worldwide.
In addition to producing these courses, the New York Institute of
Photography continues to produce high-quality, original content and
photography tips
for anyone interested in photography. This content is written and
prepared by student advisors and instructors, who are all professional
photographers employed by the school.
I learned so much from NYIP!
This photo was taken in my sister Cate's garden!
When
we were growing up, we often heard that the early bird gets the worm.
Well, we’re not big on worms, but the adage does apply when you’re
trying to get the perfect shot of autumn foliage.
Some seasons only give you a few possibilities for how to frame your shots outdoors –- not so with Fall! Get up close for detailed leaf shots, or take a step back
and take in a technicolor landscape. There’s so much change come Fall
that the only thing you need do is look around you (or look up!).
So to find out, we called up Mr. Pederson, our former Junior High science teacher. The short story: leaves don’t change color!
Instead, during the Fall the chlorophyll molecules in leaves start to
break down. Normally, these chlorophyll molecules absorb almost every
color in the sun’s light spectrum and only reflect green back to our
eyes. But once the chlorophyll starts to go, and the Carotene in the
leaves progressively takes over, our eyes see less of the green and more
of the yellows, reds, and oranges in the sun’s light spectrum,
reflected back to us from the leaves. -Courtesy of Photojojo
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