Introduction to Beauty in Nature – We have all heard the old saying, “April Showers bring May Flowers”; with all the unpredicted weather lately, it is a sure bet that a plentiful winter will bring wonderful crops of nature’s beauty this coming spring.
If you are a camera enthusiast, who loves to capture flowers in the wild or arranged indoors in an artful setting; this article will provide you with several great tips to improve your photography skills!
First and Foremost in Detail – The most important thing to understand about HOW TO photograph flowers is to know which type of photography you are interested in performing. In order to know what optional equipment to use when shooting with digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras; you will want to answer the following questions:
1. Which type of flowers will by my subject for today’s shoot?
2. Do I want to single out only one flower to photograph in MACRO?
3. Do I want to shoot outdoors in a field with hundreds of wild flowers?
4. Do I want to shoot indoors with an arranged basket, vase or other object holding the flowers?
Answering these questions will tell you what equipment you need for outdoors, or how to set up your indoors studio area to photograph your subject.
Shooting Outdoor Flower Subjects – First item to consider when shooting outdoor subjects is the weather. If you are going out to a field of wild flowers on a windy day, you will experience great difficulty in shooting fast enough to capture the flowers, without the wind blowing the subjects hither and thither; thereby blurring the main subjects.
So timing the photography event is an important task to perform, early in the process. Early in the morning (before 10am) or later in the afternoon (after 3pm) make great times to photograph subjects outdoors. The reason for this is that the sun is no longer directly overhead, casting a glare across your lens, or creating harsh dark shadows and the slightly lowered sun allows the colors in your photograph to appear more vibrant, vivid and warm.
Next, you will need to walk around the area to find the best location and angles for your photography. Early in the morning is best for certain flowers, as they open their blooms in early light. An early morning mist is a favorite look of professional photographers.
Be sure to take a tripod with you and set it up, once you have figured out the best lighting and time of day for your flower subjects. Focus, Lighting and Exposure are the most important things to determine, once you have found a location. A few clouds around on a bright day will also help to prevent unwanted shadows.
The best way to discover if the natural light from the sun, needs no additional lighting assistance (such as electronic flash, fill-in flash or even aluminim foil boards) is to simply walk around the subjects without damaging the ground by your footprints and look through the viewfinder of your DSLR camera to see what lighting and exposure the camera suggests that you need to adjust to take the shot. Also, take note of the live histogram option on your LCD display to determine the lighting value.
The light needs to fall onto your subjects in a certain way, as to not cast unecessary shadows across the main subject.
BEWARE, when the light comes from behind you, watch your own shadow carefully. Usually, you want to avoid casting a shadow on the flower.
If you have to shoot on a bright day, use a polarizing filter. This can create dramatic effects at sunset or sunrise. Flowers appearing as stars shimmering with dew, and odd colors are some of the special effects I’ve played with using other filters. Dramatic effects also can be achieved after a rain shower, or even by watering with available bottled water, adding water droplets to the flowers.
One of the main keys to a great photo is good composition. By this, I mean what is in the picture. Those with a good sense of composing pictures are said to have “an eye for photography.”
Decide what you are photographing and fill the frame with only this image. This could be a whole field of flowers or a single bloom. A small warning; when you are shooting with the flower backlit, watch out for flares across the lens.
Shooting in MACRO Mode – Shooting a MACRO is simply another term for photographing in extreme close-up of your main subject, or of a partial petal or bloom of a flower subject. This photography skill is most attractive to viewers of the art of photography and make excellent camera art.
When you shoot in macro, focus is all important. Your plane of focus is very shallow – sometimes, only an inch may exist between the subject and your camera.
So you need to determine what part of the flower do you want to be in sharp focus? The pistil, or the stamen, or a petal? Again, look through the viewfinder, in MACRO mode, and allow the camera to tell you which part of the flower stands out and screams “shoot me”. When you see the image that you want, snap it!
Shots of Macro moded flowers can be pretty. But if you want to turn the ordinary macro shot into an extraordinary photograph, try adding something of interest. Like, how about a bee gathering pollen, or a spider crawling inside, or a butterfly, or a hummingbird? Now, you’ve got something to grab the viewer’s attention beyond a pretty picture.
EXPOSURE – How should you expose the shot above? The easiest way is to trust your meter. It will generally give a fairly accurate reading in this situation. For pinpoint exposure, however, I 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.
BRACKETING THE SHOT – means to allow your camera to suggest what exposures to use when shooting a particular photo; then add in a few shots at over/under the suggested f/stop. For example, your camera suggests you shoot at 1/60th of a second at f/8; you should then shoot over and under those figures as well, such as: 1/60th at f/5.6 and then again at 1/60th at f/11. Professional photographers often “bracket” their shot. That is, they take three–one at the setting their light meter indicates, one with the lens slightly more open (more light), one with it slightly more closed (less light). This way they make sure the lighting is just right. Otherwise, the light may be just right on part of your picture, but not the part you like the best.
Shooting in a Studio Setting – Even a small homemade studio setting, or a room indoors, or even on out on your back deck; you can create a picture of beauty with very simplistic tools and techniques.Getting your gear together and in working order, choosing the right lens, having a tripod set up and then preparing to take the image are the most important preparation tips, I can provide for you.
Some important questions to ask yourself, as you prepare the table top, floor or other setting are the following:
1. Do I want to get in close or use a wide angle lens?
2. What is the main point of interest on the subject?
3. What angle do I want to shoot the flowers from?
4. How do I want the subject lit?
5. What coloring or background do I want?
6. Do I want to shoot in horizontal or vertical format?
If you are working in a well-lit room, you may want to set your arrangement in front of a draped wall, or a green screen, or simply backlit by a white wall. These are options that only your viewfinder and your artistic eye will tell you, whether or not they work.
Also, be sure to decide the creative intent of your artistic statement. Is it to find beauty in the close-up of a bee feeding on the flower’s pollen, or what; each picture should tell a story to its viewer.
Using a flash is also something fun to experiment with. Generally you’ll find that direct flash on automatic mode might wash photos out a little so consider using a flash diffuser and/or bouncing your flash off another object. I find that the more subtle and indirect the flash is the more natural your shots will look.
Reflectors can also be handy in shooting flowers as they give a nice, natural, diffused light into areas of your subject that might not be getting natural sunlight. Experiment with different colored reflectors as they can really impact the colors in your shot.
The Rule of THIRDS – DIVIDE THE COMPOSITION – By standing in front of your background image, mentally scan the image as if you are looking through a see-through TIC-TAC-TOE board, divided into thirds or ninths; all the squares lined up in three rows of vertical blocks. Once you mentally embrace the tic-tac-toe board over your image’s background area, you have an idea of where to center the lens onto the background and lock in the tripod on where the main subject is.
For example if you are focusing on a field of lilies, set next to a small waterfall, with a snow-covered mountain top in the far background; divide the composition into thirds, the flowers, the water and the mountain top to capture the full view. Be sure to capture the full shot in each third of the composition.
Take six to ten practice shots and be sure to do the following two things: 1) take note of the aperture and shutter speed of each individual shot, which the camera is suggesting and then be sure to bracket the shot.
Exploring photography locations is the true art of capturing flowers to make memorable photographs. While, practice makes perfect in the art of photography; do NOT let your early mistakes with the camera hold you back from exploring further. It is truly the only way to perfect a craft of any type.
