Basically there are five situations in which flowers are photographed: as an arrangement, as part of a landscape, as the main feature of a landscape, as a specimen and as an abstract. Flower Arrangements - Examples of this type of flower photography include a bouquet of flowers and formal arrangements . In either case the artistry of the florist is at least as important as the flowers that make up the arrangement. Best to approach these less as flower photographs and more as either still life or product shots. That means clean, plain backgrounds to complement or, better, contrast with the subject and controlled lighting, typically quite even and shadowless.
Complementary objects, including a vase and, in the case of a bridal bouquet, the bride’s hands and perhaps part of her dress are appropriate to include.
Flowers within a Landscape - Flowers are often the principal colour element within a landscape. How they relate to the broad scale helps determine mood and and balance, but that is not because they happen to be there; it is because of how you place them within the frame.
Use the colours. Reds tend to draw the eye and to “advance” in the frame; blues tend to recede. Small splashes of vibrant yellow have more impact than larger masses of green. Your viewpoint can use these colour elements to lead the viewer’s eye through the scene. At very least, you should avoid placing the floral masses where they will distract from the view you want to convey.
Try getting low and placing floral beds in the foreground, perhaps against the sky. If there are scenic element in the distance that are important to your image(mountains, trees, buildings), keep low but move further back while using a longer focal length. A small aperture will help keep the foreground and background in focus while your greater distance from the flowers will let the background assume a more realistic size relative t the flowers. For the opposite effect, with huge flowers, use a wide angle lens and come in close to the flowers.
With the flowers as a design element in a wider landscape, it is neither necessary, nor even desirable, to have them sharply defined. Try placing the camera on a tripod, setting a slow shutter speed and zooming in as you expose the picture. Zooming out offers a different effect worth trying also.
Slow shutter speeds are also useful for letting the breeze transform your flowers into an abstract element as they wave and move: their shape is blurred and ghosts appear, but their colours remain and you can control how much of their form is altered by how long you make the exposure.
Flowers as Landscape -Although a bed or field of flowers may be a wonderful place to visit, as a photograph...dull and boring! Look for viewpoints or objects to add impact and interest to the picture. Focus is less critical than with individual blooms, as you want to capture an expanse that can extend for feet or even miles. Depth of field and exposure are usually straight-forward and won’t usually need any special attention.
Light is a different matter. Move around and see how light falling on the subject from different angles changes the tones, colours and texture of the field. Overcast days are often excellent for this kind of photography. You will discover that the colours are richer, more saturated. As with most subjects, early morning and late afternoon light is much better to work with than the midday sun with is harsh, shadowless glare.
Frontal lighting may be acceptable for some shots, but often having the light coming from the side or even from behind the flowers yields more interesting, even dramatic images.
When you're photographing a flower bed, look beyond the obvious. Maybe a bird, a child, maybe lovers amidst the flowers will make a far more interesting picture. Or the house behind it. Perhaps the apple tree in the foreground or the fence in the background needs to be part of your composition. Seek out anything 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 it a better subject? A tree? A windmill? A lone person far out in the field. A babbling stream? A majestic mountain landscape?
Single Blooms and Flower Heads - Let's consider a single flower or flowering head. While you don’t need to get as close as you do for a macro shot, film cameras may have difficulty getting in close enough to fill the frame.
A long focus lens zoomed in from a distance is a reasonable alternative, and if necessary, you can crop the picture after - although best results are always had by cropping in-camera. That doesn’t mean using a digital camera’s ability to crop a picture after it has been captured. I mean filling the frame so you don’t have to crop afterwards. Cropping always reduces your file size, which means you are enlarging the picture to fill the screen or make the same size print. Enlarging the picture also enlarges any flaws.
Use a tripod if possible. The larger the photo and the smaller the subject, the more movement becomes an issue - your's and the subject's. If the conditions are windy or if there are other difficulties, remember that you can take flowers home (if it is legal) and make your studies where there’s no wind and you can control the lighting and background.
Whether you’re taking pictures indoors or out, look for insects and spiders amongst your floral subjects. They will challenge you, but with practice they will become a natural part of your nature portfolio.
Focus is important. As the subject matter gets smaller, so does your zone of acceptable focus. Whether you move in or use a tele lens, with flowers it is just a few inches. Fast shutter speeds (1/250 sec and above) will freeze motion and small apertures (f16 and smaller) give more depth of focus. Unfortunately you can’t have both! You will have better luck with stopping motion than increasing Depth Of Field - a tripod, waiting for a still moment, or setting up a windbreak will work as well as a higher shutter speed, so go for a smaller aperture and take along your jumper, a sheet of card or a friend to stand in the right place to be a windbreak.
Again, consider the direction of light. Light streaming over your shoulder is fine until you are in close and your shadow is falling on the flowers. Walk around the flower, observing how it looks through the viewfinder, being alert for your shadow; then take your picture from the position that appeals most to your eye.
Try strong backlighting - light coming from behind the flower, toward the camera. In this light, flowers become translucent and take on an iridescent glow that can’t be achieved in other ways. Watch out for lens flare. Light on your lens produces reflections inside your lens body. Sometimes it is attractive, mostly it just spoils the photograph, taking away any crispness and putting blobs of light just where you don’t want them. You can sometimes avoid flare by repositioning your camera slightly or pointing it down a little. Shading the lens with your hand or a hat or some other object works so long as it doesn’t show up in the picture. A lens hood helps avoid the need to do this, but it isn’t perfect.
The best angle and the right height (on your tummy or leaning down from above) is a matter personal judgement, much based on trial and error. Lie down and get a worm’s-eye-view. Lift the centre post of your tripod to see it from a bee’s perspective. Make exposures from every perspective; you’ll soon learn what you prefer for different flowers.
Don’t ignore the background in the photograph. Brown dirt, green grass, or blue sky can give a very different feeling to the photo.
Abstract - While some of the techniques discussed so far produce an abstract feel - letting the wind turn the field of flowers into shadows and shapes, for instance- the macro flower photo is, by its very nature, an abstraction. With extreme close-ups you are showing your viewer something they will not see in life.
While full heads of photos allowed limited depth of focus, in the macro world your plane of focus is millimetres; just a fraction of an inch. Exactly what part of the flower do you want to be in sharp focus? The pistil? The stamen? A petal? You will have to choose, because you generally can’t have more than one.
Just as the picture is magnified, so is movement. Focus on a petal and sway just a fraction as you press the shutter and your focus will be off! Likewise if the flower moves with a breeze; or if in pressing the shutter, you move the camera a little. So while you will take some good macros without one, you really should use a tripod whenever possible. A flower swaying in the wind is changing the focal point every moment; no point in adding the additional confusion of a swaying camera too. Use a tripod or monopod and be patient. The wind will die down; the flower will be still. Be ready!
Macro flower shots are interesting in themselves, but don’t settle for just a record. Nearly every digital camera has a macro feature, so the impact of novelty is going to wear off before much longer! Treat your macros like miniature landscapes; look for leading lines and use colour as a design element. Insects and spiders in your flowers usually have enough impact to be classed as the subject over the flower: that’s O.K. A good picture is always worth having; but try to master the art of flower macrophotography without the need for butterflies and bees, too.
Flowers are very diverse: from tiny spider orchids to huge tropical lilies as big as a table. Let your floral photography be equally diverse; break out of your preconceptions of what a flower photo has to be and make use of the full range of your skills and photographic techniques. It is very rewarding.
