iffles.com

1/50, f/3.2, 50mm, ISO800

I recently posted the above photo on flickr and I was talking about it to a friend, who asked for some more details on how exactly I produced that shot.

That led me to think about my preferences for shooting flowers. Here are some of my tips:

Shoot after it rains

I’m a sucker for raindrops on almost anything, actually, but it makes flowers just look so much more alive:

1/1250, f/3.5, 50mm, ISO400

In the above photo I love the tiny water drops clinging to… that thingy that comes out of the middle of the flower. Ok, I never said I was a flower expert, I just like taking pictures of them sometimes, ok?

Shoot different angles

I read somewhere once (I think it was in one of Scott Kelby’s Digital Photography books) about how you shouldn’t take photos of flowers looking directly down onto them, because that’s how people look at flowers most of the time anyway, and you should show them something different.

1/1250, f/5.0, 41mm, ISO200

Ok, ignore the fact that the above picture isn’t actually a flower – how may people do you think have looked at a dandelion at that angle before? Not only do I find the underside of the dandelion just a bit more interesting than looking down on it, but the sky makes for a beautiful background instead of the grass and dirt.

1/15, f/3.2, 50mm, ISO800

Or if you want an actual flower this time – the underside of a rose. I love seeing where the stem meets the flower, and the green thingies that look both like they’re trying to still hold on to the flower and also let it go.

Look for flowers that haven’t bloomed yet

Everyone’s always taking photos of those flowers that are completely open and beautiful. And those are beautiful. But I think there’s something to be said for the interestingness of flowers yet to open up:

1/80, f/5.0, 35mm, ISO1600 (I took this photo over a year ago, and I’m looking at those stats now wondering… why? I can’t tell you. I don’t know why.)

I think I like the closed-up flowers for the same reason I like the backs of the flowers – its’ just a view that most people don’t pay attention to. I also like feeling the potential of the flower yet to come.

Get close up

I love flower pictures that are so close-up that you’re not even really sure what you’re looking up. I don’t have a Marco lens, but I do the best with what I’ve got.

1/15, f/5.6, 51mm, ISO400

The above photo is looking inside a lily where I focused on the little “hairs” on the petal. Not only do I like the detail of those little hairs, but I love the out-of-focus “thingy coming out of the middle of the flower” – it softens the photo. I also like the bright color green, too, but that doesn’t have much to do with getting close up :).

Shoot with different backgrounds

I love shooting flowers with a black background:

1/25, f/3.2, 50mm, ISO800

The black background for both the above photo and the photo at the top of the entry is actually the background piece that came with my lightbox. I’m not sure what kind of fabric it is, but I guess I’d describe it as a really fine/short velvety fabric (obviously I know as much about fabric as I do about flowers). I put the fabric on a small table and put either the entire vase of flowers (in the first photo) or just the two flowers themselves (in the above photo) on top of it. Obviously I shot with a bit more of an angle in the above photo. In both photos, though, the black didn’t come out quite as pure black as what you see here – I adjust the levels in order to get it pure black.

1/400, f/1.8, 50mm, ISO800

The roses look different against the white background, though. In this case, it’s actually a piece of fabric I have stretched on a wooden frame and hanging on my wall. I prefer the black background to the white, but I think it’s important to play around and see what works best.

Ignore everything I said

Don’t concentrate so much one what you’ve read (here or otherwise) and heard. Go with your gut. Look at the flower and figure out what you like most about it. For instance, that first photo I posted? Looking directly down on the flower. There’s no raindrops on it, it’s an open flower, and it’s not so close up that you don’t know exactly what you’re looking out. But it’s my favorite of the bunch.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.