How to photograph winter jasmine flowers

(1) Recommended equipment for shooting flowers

Lens selection

In fact, you can use wide-angle, mid-range or telephoto to shoot flowers, because there are various lenses You can also shoot different effects, but if you have the following lenses and accessories, remember to bring them!

Telephoto lenses: lenses such as 70-200mm, 100-400mm, etc., used to eliminate cluttered backgrounds and facilitate composition;

Macro lenses: when shooting close-ups of flowers It will be used, and the recommended focal length is 100mm;

Close-up ring or close-up tube: If you don’t have a macro lens or telephoto, you can also buy a close-up ring or close-up tube and put it on other The lens can then shorten the minimum focusing distance, allowing you to zoom in on the flowers.

If you are shooting outdoors, flash and tripod are not necessary. Of course, you can also use them for creation. If necessary, you can also bring a reflector for fill-in light.

(2) Control your depth of field well

When taking pictures, the flowers may be enlarged. Please pay careful attention to the depth of field. If the depth of field is too shallow, a small part of the flower will be clear and the rest will fall out. Areas outside the depth of field result in blur. Remember that a large aperture will lead to a shallow depth of field (the other is the distance between the focus and the background, see here for details), so if you find that only the middle part of the flower is clear, please shoot with a smaller aperture.

(3) Be careful of the breeze!

Especially when shooting outdoors, in addition to being stable yourself, you must also be careful that the breeze may cause the flowers to move, resulting in blurry photos. Pay attention to your shutter speed not being too slow. If possible, use shutter priority or manual mode to ensure that the shutter speed is maintained above 1/100s - 1/250s. Increase the ISO if necessary. If you are holding a telephoto lens, be sure to pay attention to the "safety shutter" to avoid hand shake.

But you might as well try slowing down the shutter and letting the flowers move slightly in the wind. You will find that the photos you take will become very dreamy!

(4) Be careful that white flowers and yellow flowers will affect the metering and lead to underexposure

If you use semi-automatic modes such as aperture priority or shutter priority, please pay attention to the camera's metering when shooting white flowers. There is a chance of misjudgment, resulting in underexposure. At this time, you should correct the EV according to the formula: "When it encounters light, it becomes light (increase), when it encounters darkness, it becomes dark (decrease)." Therefore, you need +EV to compensate for the underexposure problem. .

(5) Be careful about the loss of details in red flowers

When photographing red flowers, be careful not to overexpose and cause the flowers to lose details, and do not increase the saturation too much.

(6) Set your own white balance to avoid affecting the color of the flowers

When you shoot in the morning, sunset and other times when the light color changes greatly, you can choose whether to choose the white balance yourself. Correct the color of the flowers. If you don’t set the white balance yourself, the flowers taken at sunset may lose their warm colors. In addition, you can also fully restore the color of flowers by setting your own white balance.

(7) Use a CPL polarizer to remove reflections

When the light is sufficient, the flowers may reflect light, making the photo contrast insufficient. In this case, you can try adding a CPL polarizer to remove the flowers. and the reflection of the leaves, improving contrast and saturation.

Selection of light

(8) Make good use of soft light, side light and backlight, and avoid shooting at noon

Light is very important for shooting flowers, it is best to When there are clouds in the sky, forming a natural soft box, or when the sun has just risen or is about to sunset, the light is soft and it is easy to take beautiful photos of flowers. When the sun is overhead at noon or the sun is very strong, we should avoid shooting at these times.

After sunrise and sunset, the shadow will become side light. At this time, flowers and shadows can be photographed to create a dramatic effect; and backlight means that the camera is shot towards the sun, which can bring out the texture of flowers, leaves, etc. Clearly presented is another common shooting method.

Keys to composition when photographing flowers

(9) Photograph at the level of the flower

When photographing flowers, please lower your height and photograph at the level of the flower, which will make it more convenient. You can enter the world of flowers; sometimes you will stick to the ground and shoot upwards, making you look like you are placed among the flowers, creating a special perspective effect.

(10) Photograph close-ups of flowers and small insects

Don’t just photograph the whole flower! Try using a macro or telephoto lens to shoot a small part of the flower, such as stamens, petals, etc.; or add common insects such as bees and butterflies to create an embellishment effect.

(11) Make the flowers stand out

Don’t be greedy and take pictures of a lot of flowers (of course, sometimes you can), it is best to find the most beautiful ones among the flowers. For the most distinctive one or two flowers, use telephoto and a larger aperture to shoot, so that the background will be blurred due to the shallow depth of field, making the main flower stand out in the photo and avoid being affected by the cluttered background.

(12) Choose a high-contrast background

Although using a shallow depth of field can remove cluttered backgrounds, you can also pay careful attention to the color of the background and try to find a background that matches the flowers. There is obvious contrast (for example, red flowers on a color background), so that the flowers can stand out even more!

(13) Use a variety of composition methods to shoot flowers

In addition to the most basic golden section, filled composition, diagonal, and S-shaped composition, we can also make good use of "frames" "Block Diagram" to shoot. The shooting method is very simple. First find the target flower to be photographed, and then use the stems, leaves, etc. in front of it to create a "frame" and shoot in the gap. This will not only bring a sense of mystery, but also allow the reader to focus more on the flower. superior.

Creative Photography

(14) Take special photos - double exposure

Use the "double exposure" function in the camera to take photos of the same flower A few times, you can change the focus, shape, or deliberately lose focus, you can also bring interesting photos, in short, try more.

(15) Abstract effect

Use a telephoto or macro lens to focus on shooting only a small part of the flower and fill the frame, with appropriate light (such as side light, backlight) , you can often take photos with an abstract meaning, adding more artistic touch to your flower photo collection.