It’s flower and garden season and we’ll find an abundance of colorful flowers and lovely gardens just waiting to be photographed. This is a great way to slow your pace and get totally absorbed capturing quiet garden scenes or delicate flower details.
Whether you're a seasoned photographer or a beginner, these tips will help you take your flower and garden shots to the next level.
LIGHTING is important in any photography but especially in flower photography.
- Direct sun is usually undesirable as it creates harsh contrast, overexposed bright areas and dark shadows. A cloudy day is ideal because the light is evenly diffused.
- If you have no choice but to shoot in sunny conditions, consider using a diffuser. Made of milky white translucent fabric, it acts as a cloud, softly spreading out the light.
- On the other hand, flowers in a shady spot may benefit from a little light bounced in with a reflector. These can be purchased from a camera store but can also be as simple as tinfoil over cardboard or in a pinch, a white piece of paper tilted toward the flower reflecting light onto it.
TIME OF DAY is important and mornings are usually best.
- In the early morning the flowers are fresher, we often find dew on the petals, and as a bonus, most bugs are either too cold or have a bit of dew on them so they can't fly away.
- The Mid-day light is often too harsh, creating strong shadows and blown highlights.
FRAMING your flower or garden scenes can make your images more unique.
- Shoot straight down from above.
- Get low to the groud and shoot across.
- Use flowers to frame a pretty scrtreet scene on your travels.
- Fill the entire frame with a grouping of flowers.
COLOR There are no limits to what you can do with color in flower photography.
- Mix bold complimentary colors or compose with a single color.
- Consider black and white.
- Experiment with different white balance settings to tweak the colors if desired.
- Experiment, try new things, and use your own creative vision to compose with color.
BACKGROUNDS can make or break a great flower/garden photo.
- Too much detail behind your flower can be distracting. To avoid this, use a wide aperture such as f2.8, f4, f5.6 and either get close or zoom in tight for a blurred out, dreamy background.
- A wide aperture also allows more light, which can help with faster shutter speeds to freeze any motion from winds.
- With garden scenes, you may want more depth of field (sharpness throughout the scene) so try using f8, f11 or f16.
- The closer you are to the first subject and the greater the distance behind it, the more you’ll need to close the aperture to render it all sharp. Try f11 or 16 instead of f8.
- Composing a garden shot can make a lovely photo but don't forget to also move in and get close.
CLOSE UP flower photography allows you to see and capture all the tiny details.
- To truly capture a flower's intricacies, macro gear is essential. A macro lens allows for tack-sharp focus on the smallest details.
- The focal lengths of macro lenses vary, usually between 50mm to 200mm. The difference represents how physically close you can be from your subject and still maintain a 1:1 reproduction ratio. The larger the mm number, the further away you can be. If you're photographing flowers, 60mm, 90mm or 105mm may work fine, but if you need more distance, say for butterflies that will fly away if you get too close, a 180mm or 200mm macro lens would be better.
- Another options for shooting close-ups is using extension tubes or close-up filters. These also allow you to focus closer.
- With any type of macro shooting, using a tripod can help to capture a sharp, in-focus subject.
- For more information on Macro photography check out our Blog article, Move In Close With Macro Photography.
Have intention and consider what type of images you want to create, then get out in a garden and work on capturing them.
With the right lighting, timing, and camera settings, you'll be able to produce breathtaking flower and garden portraits that highlight nature's incredible beauty and craftsmanship.
The season is underway so get outside and get shooting - the blooms won't last forever!
Orange dalia photo by Beth Haubach.