How difficult can it be?
If your are new to photography like me, your first thought when you see a picture of a beautiful flower may well be: How difficult can it be to take a good picture of a flower? But I think that if you give it a try, you’ll find that there is more to it than just point-and-shoot. Not that it is complicated or anything fancy, but there are a number of things you can do to maximize your chances of a good picture. I’ll cover the basics here.
Taking flower pictures involves many hours out and about, so before moving into all the photo specifics: remember yourself first! I find that a rain coat, a cap, a bit of sunscreen, something to keep the mosquitoes at bay, a bottle of water, good walking boots (that supports your ankles) and a few biscuits are invaluable items when spending many hours in nature.
1. Bad weather is good weather!
Bad weather is your friend! Quite counter intuitive, bad weather is good weather for flower photography! A cloudy day, even a rainy day, is excellent: direct sunshine from a cloud free sky gives harsh light and strong shadows and can make it really difficult to get some appealing shots of flowers. And a few drops of water on a flowers petal almost always looks beautiful! I know that some use a spray bottle to add water but I find that mother nature is so much better at this, that I prefer not to, and instead shoot flowers after the rain has ended.
If the sun is beating down and there is no clouds in sight at all, you can diffuse the light with a thin white piece of cloth (like a piece of sheet wrapped around a hanger) or you can buy an umbrella designed to diffuse the light – you can get one for a very reasonable price, they wont take up much space in your camera bag and it doubles as a wind shield.
2. Stabilize your subject
Wind will push your subject around and make focus difficult. See if you can find a quiet corner if it is windy. Flowers sitting low are typically less prone to wind, and you can also try to see if a shield (yourself or a piece of cardboard) can help. Supporting the flower with a stick and a clothespin can also help, especially if in combination with some kind of shield. Finally, there tends to be less wind early in the morning or in the evening.
In the picture below (yes, I admit it is somewhat busy) you can see that I have a clamp around the stem of the little purple flower I am shooting. The clamp is not holding the stem as such (it would probably ruin the stem), instead it simply creates a tight space where the stem can only move very little and that is enough to stabilize the flower head also. The stand that I am using was too tall for this flower, so I had to tilt the stand 90 degrees to get it low enough. This is where more clever photographers buy one of these flexible arms with a clamp (also known as a plamp) to get the job done in a more elegant way!
The reason a stable subject is vital for flower photography is that you typically shoot with the lens very close to the flower, and hence the depth of field (how much of your picture that is in focus) becomes very shallow, so that even a very small movement of the flower can change it from in focus to out of focus. In other words, a stable subject is key to success.
3. Stabilize your camera
3.1 Tripods and monopods
Stabilizing your camera is as important as stabilizing your subject. You can get really great stabilization either via the lens or the camera body (IBIS – in body image stabilization), but you may not have access to such gear and anyway it can never be a bad thing to have a stable camera to avoid camera shake.
I am only too aware that not everyone likes a tripod, but if you don’t mind, get a heavy tripod like the Manfrotto 550 (no, not sponsored by Manfrotto). You can of course use a sand bag or something heavy to make the tripod more heavy and stable, but I find it is easier if it is simply born heavy. Also, if you can get a model that (as in the picture above) can go really low by spreading the legs almost parallel to the ground, this is a great aid when trying to capture a flower sitting low.
If a heavy tripod is not to your liking, then a lighter travel friendly tripod could work for you, like the Manfrotto Befree (no, still not sponsored by Manfrotto), and if that is to heavy for you or takes up to much space, a mono pod could be the answer.
A mono pod only stabilizes the up/downwards movements obviously, but it is better than no stabilization. If you wear a camera strap around your neck, you can push the camera away from you so that the strap is tight, further eliminating back and forth movement. A mono pod may seem like the least optimal solution, but if you go looking for flowers where the ground is covered by bushes or other stuff that makes it difficult for the tripod to get footing, the mono pod may simply be the only viable option for such locations.
If none of all this sounds appealing to you, then my best advice is to use your own body for stabilization. Squat down and let your elbow rest on your knee and hold the camera tight to your face to reduce movements and shake.
3.2 Remote triggers
In the best of worlds, you should also use a remote trigger. I seldom do, I must admit, but if you want to minimize all the factors that contribute to camera shake, there is no way around a remote trigger. Notice that with many cameras you can remotely trigger your camera via your smartphone and an app – no need to invest in a separate remote trigger.
A good compromise is to you can use the timer function so that your camera releases the shutter after 5 or 10 seconds – this is my preferred option, as it is almost as good as a remote trigger and it gives me one piece of gear less to remember when I pack my bag.
4. The gear
4.1 Use a reflector
A reflector is cheap, light, packs down easily and does a lot of good in terms of casting more light to your subject! I find it is one of the most overlooked or under-praised aids of photography! Even on an overcast day the reflector helps a lot and can remove unwanted shadows or simply give you more light to work with.
So always bring a pack able reflector! You can get smaller version that the one in the picture above (!). If you don’t have a reflector, use something reflective to add light to the flower – try using your smartphone or a piece of tin foil.
If you do decide to buy a reflector, no need to buy a big one. The one that I show here is 30 centimeters in diameter, and it does not need to be much larger than that to work for flower bud shooting. This version is a 5-in-one version that has both diffusor, reflector (white, silver, gold) and a black side. It serves me well.
If you find you don’t need the reflector, it can double as wind shield, so in my mind it always comes in handy. The biggest problem with a reflector (other than learning how to fold it down!) is to hold it in the right position and stay there! If you have someone with you, this is where an extra pair of hands really make a big difference. And if not, this is where you will be extra glad that your tripod holds your camera steady, so you have one moving part less to deal with!
4.2 Use an artificial background
Experienced flower shooters knows that a good part of a good flower picture is the background. Sometimes the background can be difficult to control – no matter how much you change your angle and try to be creative, the background is simply too busy or too bright. You can try to use the reflect as background (many reflectors have a black side and a white side in addition to the silver) and even better you can bring a piece of cloth or cardboard or whatever in the color of your liking:
Above I am using a green piece of cloth to isolate the rose, but you can try with many different colors. If you don’t have a piece of cloth, the reflector can be used as a background – here I am using the black side of the reflector to create a more “calm” background:
This enables you to – with a bit of post processing – to create a picture where the flower is the only subject of interest in the frame and hence no distracting elements.
If you instead use the reflector as background, you get a very different expression. Here I was so lucky that the sun lit up the diffusor that I held just behind the flower, and as you can see the expression in this picture is very different from the one above:
4.3. Use the lens you have
I suggest you to start out with the lens that you have available and see how you like flower photography, before you move on and invest in a lens. A kit lens or a 50mm nifty fifty can be used for starters. In my mind the most important for your lens is to go close to the subject. If you cannot help investing in a new lens, see if you can lend or borrow it and try it out, before you make the decision.
I know that some like to use a long lens and zoom in heavily, and if you have a long lens available, you should certainly give this a try. The advantage of using a long lens is that the background is more compressed and hence it is easier to compose the picture. Further, the increased distance between lens and subject also increases the depth of field, making it easier to get the entire flower in focus – when you are very close to the subject, even with very narrow aperture (high f-stop numbers), the depth of field is paper thin.
However, I find that the camera shakes in such setup simply make me seasick as the slightest move of the lens makes what I see in the viewfinder jump up and down vigorously! So I use a lens that can go close to the subject, i.e. where the minimal focal distance is 30-40 cm or so. If you have a long lens, give extension tubes a try – they are metal rings (extension tubes) that you put between the lens and the camera body to increase the distance between the two. The effect is a reduced minimum focus distance, i.e. your lens becomes more of a macro lens.
If you decide to invest in a lens, one way to save money is to go for a used vintage lens. I use the Nikon Nikkor 35-70 mm 2.8D that I think you can get on e-bay for 100 EUR or a little more, subject to the condition. The Nikon has a macro mode that enables you to really fill the frame with the flower.
Another classic lens for macro / close-up photography is the 100mm Tokina F2.8D, which is very fairly priced even from new. I think it comes with different mount systems, so with a bit of luck, there also is a version for your camera body. The Tokina is known to be a budget friendly lens that produces pictures with a sharpness you would expect only from much more expensive lenses.
4.4. Using a non-macro lens
Sometimes the scene or the setting is as important as the subject. With macro lenses or lenses that can go very close to the subject, you often want the subject to fill the frame and be the only start in the picture. However, sometimes the flower sits in a wonderful setting, where the scene or the setting is as big a star as the flower itself. In such cases you can use a short lens to capture this:
The above picture was shot with a Samyang 14mm f/2.8 which is a very short lens (manual focus, aperture control on the lens). You can also give a nifty-fifty lens a try in order to capture the setting.
In the examples above I used the 50mm Pentax Super Takumar f/1.4 vintage lens. As you can see I cannot get as close to the flower as with a macro lens (and cropping would yield a too low resolution result). So I have included more of the setting or the scene the flower sits in.
4.5 Add flash
Adding a flash may sound like a lot of complication for taking a simple picture of a flower, but you will find that adding a flash will raise the quality of your pictures. I have heard that most professional flower photographers shoot with flash maybe 95% of the time, so it is worth a try to see if it works for you. Rather than being frustrated with all the technical terms like TTL and other advanced flash features, simply set the flash in manual mode at say 1/64th for starters and see what it does to your pictures. If you can get the flash off camera so that you can control the angle of the flash independent of your camera angle, then that can really help getting those dark areas and shadows lit.
Try moving the flash closer to and further from the flower and also try to change the power of the flash output – start with say 1/64th and work your way up and down from there. You will quickly find a level that too much power makes your picture look artificial, too little will leave the shades too dark.
If you want to rely solely on the flash light, that is also possible. Simply set the ISO and shutter speed so that the ambient light alone gives a completely black picture. Then add flash and see what happens. The picture above of the yellow flower is made that way. It gives some great options for isolating the flower completely on a pitch black background. Notice that the flash will make the flower cast a shadow and reflect light from any objects close near by – make sure the flash light is reflected outside your frame.
4.6 Take care of yourself!
I think many of us photographers get so into the process of shooting pictures that we forget everything around us, including ourselves! If you plan to stay out for several hours, think about your own comfort and that you will need drink and food. A banana and a bottle of water cannot hurt – the weight penalty in the camera bag is small compared the benefit.
And in terms of comfort, I know that some bring a little fold-able chair along, others – like me – even bring a pillow of some sort to lie on when shooting flowers close to the ground.
When you lie flat on the ground face down, your elbows and body make up a very natural tripod, so if you know you are going to shoot some flowers close to the ground and only that, then you may find that you can do without your tripod.
5. The site
5.1. Start close to home at first
Before your run into the woods or up a mountain or whatever your plans are, my advice is to start close to your home or your base, so that it is easy to return to base. I often find that I forget something (like the SD card!) that I need for my flower photography, so test your setup in your own garden or in the yard where you live, so it is not too much of a pain if you have forgotten something. After a few shooting sessions close to home, you will know the gear you need. Make a checklist and follow it every time before you leave home. You will not regret it, although it not that exciting.
5.2 Location scouting
Obviously you need to find some beautiful flowers to shoot, and my guess is that you may already have some ideas as to where they can be found. If not, see if there is a public available flower garden near you, or simply take a walk in the woods or in the city. You will find that flowers are everywhere, especially if you look for small ones!
Once at your location my best advice is: take your time. Go look! Use your eyes! Wait at least 5 minutes before you start shooting pictures. Scouting the location will give you a good overview of what is available and what to expect. And you can start with some of the best flowers rather than the first flower you com across. So no stress. Take your time!
6. Plan the shot
6.1. Arrange!
I know this is a bit controversial, but I think we are allowed to intervene and arrange things to make it look as beautiful or pleasing as possible. I know some purists will say that this is cheating and that mother nature put that faded leave in your frame for a reason, but I suggest you arrange and compose as you see fit. It can be removing withered leaves, pushing some less-than- beautiful leaves to the side or whatever is required. Of course, all with moderation and in respect of the locations you are using (the gardener may not like it if you cut off some of his flowers!), but I think we are allowed to improve the composition. Take this example where a flower stands out from the crowd:
And you may think that mother nature has arranged this composition? Not quite:
6.2 Composition is important
Much has been said about composition, and it is a big subject, so I will refrain from diving into it extensively here. But it is always a good idea to have the subject a bit off center and have a beautiful background to go along with the flower. Many good flower pictures are ruined not so much because of the composition, but due to the wrong background.
The rule of odds says that we like uneven numbers like 1, 3, 5, 7 and so on. You can use this when making your composition, so that there are e.g. 5 flowers in your frame:
Balance and symmetry is another thing to look for when composing your picture – a nice balance between the elements in the picture makes it more appealing and easy to take in:
Framing, i.e. “boxing in” your subject to guide the viewer to find the subject is also a classic composition technique, and often nature itself provides the framing if you look for it:
Make it easy for the viewer to find the “star” in your picture. In this example, as beautiful as it may be, it is confusing who is the star and what the photographers point with the picture actually is:
So, keep it simple. Both for your own sake, and to help the viewer read your picture.
Finding a good balance in the picture, maybe even symmetrical, is also a good composition principle, so that your picture is not e.g. “too lefty” meaning that a lot of the visually heavy elements in your picture are to the left. Try to strike a good balance:
When shooting, simply to change your angle of view (move your camera a little bit up, to the side, etc) to see the effect in the viewfinder. I am often surprised how moving the camera just a little bit can take a messy ad confusing background and turn it into a nice balanced scene for the flower.
6.3 Help the viewer
Your eyes tend to search towards things that are bright and in focus. Dark and blurry things the opposite. When you work with your pictures in post or when you select your composition during the shoot, think about how you can guide the viewers eyes to the main subject (the star!).
In the example above, the two flowers to the right are out of focus whereas the dust prisoners on the flower to the left are in focus. So your eyes will naturally go to the sharp areas whereas the rest of the picture is perceived more as a scene or framing.
6.4 Flat, flat, flat
You can angle your lens towards the flower as you see fit, but one way of making the picture very simple is to shoot a flat flower where the lens front glass is 100% parallel to the flower: This way you get the focal plane and the flower to be aligned, so that the shallow depth of field does not stop you from getting the entire flower in focus.This way of shooting can give some very simple yet powerful pictures where the flower seems to be “floating” in mid air as the flower is sharp but the rest of the frame is blurry.Some photographers are so dedicated to this way if shooting, that they only go for “flat” flowers, i.e. with very limited depth.I don’t think you should limit yourself in such way, but “straight on” pictures like the one above is good to include in your photography toolbox.
6.5 Morning light is good light
Morning light is special. I don’t know why, but I guess it is because the sun is lower in the horizon and hence the light has to travel further through the atmosphere before it reaches the ground? Anyway, the light is very soft and even if the sun is shining from a cloudless sky, the morning effect softens the light so you don’t get the same problem with harsh shadows that I mentioned in the start of this post. So if you are up for it, set the alarm clock and shoot flowers in the morning!
6.6 Back lit is a good variation
If you can get the angle right, then a back lit flower gives a very different expression than the more traditional “front lit”. You see the structure and the composition of the flower so much better: Droplets of rain (or some you add yourself) is another good variation, so shooting just after the rain has stopped is another way to vary your flower photography.
7. When shooting
7.1 Think background first
The headline seems counter intuitive. Of course you want the subject to be beautiful and stunning, but a good subject deserves the right setting, so work with the angles when you shoot. A messy and confusing background can distract the viewer from the beauty of your subject.
The example above is not an award winning picture, I agree, but it serves to illustrated the point: I managed to get the red to contrast with the black background. As you can see, had I chosen an angle just a little different, then both green and brown would have joined the party and made the picture more messy. I have heard experienced photographers say that the background is almost more important than the subject – not sure that I completely follow, but the background is as important to bring out the best in your subject.
7.2 Work with the aperture
As you probably know, the more you open the aperture, the more light the lens lets in but it also makes the depth of field more shallow meaning that backgrounds will be blurred. This picture is shot at f/2, meaning very wide open and with a paper thin depth of field:
Whereas this picture of the same flower with the same camera and lens is shot at f/16, and you can see much more of the background:
You may find the first picture more attractive as it has a more dreamy feel to it, but the challenge with shooting with wide apertures is that you get a very shallow depth of field and keeping the subject in focus is more difficult. In this case the flower is flat so you can’t really see it, but had it been deeper, it is likely that not all of the flower would have been in focus.
If you can, see if you can get the subject close to you and the background far away. That will give a blurred background, also at narrow apertures (high f-stop numbers). That way you can get the flower in focus even if it is a “deep” one and still have the blurred background. This one is shot at f/16 and the background is blurred despite the brutal f-stop:
For flower photography I always shoot in aperture mode, so I can control the aperture “manually”. I leave the shutter speed and the ISO for the camera to select (sometimes I also control the ISO manually), but most of the time I shoot in aperture priority with auto-ISO in. I find it is the best way that allows me to use my focus on the aperture setting and leave the rest to the camera.
7.3 Shoot, shoot, shoot!
I find that even though I hit the shutter with a few seconds interval, the result that emerges in Lightroom can be very different. I don’t know why it is so, but I guess that one explanation can be the flower moving a bit, me moving the camera a bit, or both. It can also be due to changes in the ambient light that you do not notice. Whatever the reason, I find that of two pictures taken seconds apart can come out as brilliant and hopeless respectively. So maximize your chances for success and fire away. In a digital world, all it takes is a bit of space on the SD card and a bit of battery power. And you can always delete when you work with the pictures in post.
7.4 Try manual focus
Should you be so lucky to have auto focus, then it is of course a big comfort, provided you can get the camera to focus exactly where you want it to. The number of focus points in a modern camera has inflated over the last years, but I find that the only one that works for me is single point focus, where I can control the focus point completely.
If you are up for it, give manual focus a try. Be prepared to invest a bit of time before you you get the hang of it, but it is worth every minutes spent in my opinion, and it is a more engaging way of shooting.
When not shooting with a tripod, I zoom in all the way and throw the focus ring to the closest to the subject possible, and then instead of focusing, I rock back and forth with the camera until focus is obtained. That way I know I have filled the frame to the max.
7.5 Watch the shutter speed
When you shoot in daylight with a very open aperture, your camera will – in the automated or semi automated modes – compensate by reducing both the ISO and the shutter speed to the minimum. Your cameras max shutter speed (typically 1/4000th of a second or 1/8000th), will sometimes not be fast enough to get the picture exposed correct. The result is that your pictures are over exposed, so watch out for the shutter speed – it will typically be flashing (or in other ways try to get your attention!) when the max shutter speed is exceeded.
The fix is to close the aperture a bit – one or two stops usually does it. You will then not get the ultra thin and shallow depth of field that gives the “dreamy” pictures that so many find appealing, but better that than overexposed pictures. Alternatively you can start working with ND filters or see if an umbrella or the like can reduce the amount of light in your frame, but then I find that things become too cumbersome for me and I take the easy way out and reduce the aperture a bit.
7.6 Try underexposing just a little bit
If you dial down on the exposure compensation, this may help you make the background more dark and hence make your subject stand out more clearly and even contribute to a more “dreamy” expression. You can do a lot of “recovery” in post processing with an underexposed picture – in my experience it is far more difficult to work with and overexposed picture because the details in the high end of the spectrum have gone lost.
As with so many other things in photography, there is a balance balance to be found, so try to dial down maybe 1/4 or 1/2 a stop for starters, and see how you like it. Then you can always go to more extreme settings if you like to underexpose.
8. After the shoot
8.1 Post processing
I think most photographers do some level of editing although some dislike it and find it to be a bit of cheating. I just want to bring the best out in my pictures, so I have no problems with post processing in Lightroom or Photoshop or whatever you prefer.
When editing I have a few ground rules:
- For every edit done, be careful not to edit too much. Less is more.
- Leave the picture for 5 minutes (coffee break) and come back and see if you still like the edits. If you edit for too long without a break, your sense of proportion gets skewed and it gets worse and worse the longer you edit. Take a break.
- Take a few steps back from the screen and see if you still like the picture. Sometimes your are too close to the picture when sitting in front of the monitor. Assessing the composition is difficult when your nose is 30 centimeters or so from the subject. Take a step back!
- Remember that what is sharp and bright gets attention. Dark and out of focus the opposite. Use this to help the viewer take in the picture and focus on the important parts.
8.2 Try black and white
Often flowers are about vivid colors and the beauty in that, but you can try to blend in a few black and white photographs, to put emphasis on the structure and the form rather than the color. It may also open your eyes to new dimensions in the flowers and thereby take your color flower photography to a new level. I prefer to shoot everything in color and then convert to black and white in post processing, that that is due to my lack of experience: I have a hard time forecasting if a subject will work better in color or monochrome. So taking everything in colors gives me options for both at the price of a little bit of post processing.
Questions and comments
Thank you for reading this far! Questions and comments are always welcome! Hope you will enjoy shooting flowers as much as I do!
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