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Part I - The Basic To Start
We all know that April showers bring May flowers. Since we've had a rainy April - witness the floods in the Dakotas - we can assume a bumper crop of May flowers. And flowers are a favorite target of every camera enthusiast. Here are a few tips to help you make your flower pictures knockouts.
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 macro 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 your picture.
Let's start with the macro - that is, with extreme closeups. Of course, you can only take this type of picture if your lens has a macro mode. This rules out most point-and-shoots which can't focus closer than two or three feet. With a macro, you're focusing from a few inches!
When you shoot a macro, 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, snap it!
While it is possible to take a good macro handheld, our advice is to use a tripod if at all possible. Since the flower is probably 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 make-shift 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). Or both.
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. (These alternate methods have previously been explained on this site. If you are unfamiliar with them, they may still be posted in the Recent Topics section.) 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? Or a hummingbird? 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, applies here too. You can't get close enough for this type of picture with most point-and-shoot cameras. You're better off using a tripod. 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 so 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 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 shoot from the position that appeals most to your eye.
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.
What about a bed of flowers...or a field of them? Here, you can probably use a point-and-shoot as well as an SLR. 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. 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 (Christina's world!)? 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 this up: Flowers are colorful and can make beautiful 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.
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Article reprinted with permission of New York Institute of Photography.
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