Image Vision How to Photograph Flowers

Shooting with a macro lens requires a certain amount of patience, especially in terms of composition - even a slight change in the position of the camera will have a great impact on the composition of the entire picture. In addition, the control of depth of field also needs to be very careful. To achieve a large depth of field, use a smaller aperture so that as many flowers as possible are in focus. On the contrary, if you shoot with a wide aperture, you can get a dreamlike abstract picture that makes people feel the beauty of shapes and colors.

Both wide-angle and macro have their place in the field of flower photography, but you may also be willing to try using a short focal length or even a telephoto lens to make a single flower or a small cluster of flowers stand out from the background. stand out. The shallow depth of field brought by a telephoto lens allows the image to focus on the subject and blur the background (and foreground). This is also a powerful technique for photographing flowers, resulting in simple compositions and attractive combinations of color blocks.

Main tips:

1. Be selective

Don’t stop too long in front of the first flower you see. Next to the sidewalks where people come and go, the flowers here often look haggard, so you might as well continue to search for ones in better condition. Research common flower varieties in your area beforehand to find out their flowering periods.

2. Start early

Try to shoot in the morning, when the wind is lighter and the light is softer. Decide how you plan to shoot, and bring the appropriate lens—wide angle, macro, or telephoto, depending on what you plan to photograph.

3. Stable support

Hold the camera to find the best composition. After determining the position, set up the tripod. Choose an appropriate aperture—f/16 for maximum depth of field, f/4 or f/5.6 for shallow depth of field. Set a lower ISO value, use a shutter release cable and enable mirror lock-up to ensure clear photos at slow shutter speeds.

Practical skills:

1. The early bird catches the worm

Shoot at sunrise, when the wind is relatively light or even non-existent. It will make the flowers sway and cause the picture to be unrealistic. In the early morning, there is often dew on the flowers, which can enrich the three-dimensional sense of the picture.

2. Soften the light

Try to avoid direct light from above the head, which will cause excessive contrast and make the photo easily overexposed. If necessary, light that is too bright can be softened. For example, you can shoot in your own shadow, or you can use fill flash or reflectors to brighten the shadows.

3. Highest quality

Try to use the lowest ISO setting to ensure the best image quality and accuracy. But this often means lowering the shutter speed, so remember to use a tripod to avoid the effects of camera shake.

4. Change various angles

When you find a flower that is suitable as a model, you must fully explore its expressive power. Be as creative as you can and try as many different things as you can. Flowers will not run away, so you can patiently observe and photograph them from every angle, and change different lenses to create different effects.

Experiment with different compositions and focus with creative blur

How you will describe your subject depends largely on your choice of lens, aperture, focus position, and light And composition, any of these points will have a significant impact on the final effect of the picture.

A shallow depth of field can effectively isolate and highlight a specific element, while leaving everything else out of focus. In macro photography, this effect will be very dramatic, and any small change in the focus position will greatly change the effect of the picture.

You can move the camera close to a cluster of flowers, move through them, and focus on a flower farther away. This creates a halo-like blur of color around the subject, while only the subject is clear.