Flowers are one of the most interesting and beautiful things to take pictures off and at this time of year, with the longer nights, warmer temperatures and flowers beginning to bloom it’s the perfect time for photograph flowers. Even if you’re not a photographer, flowers are a great way to practice and hone some basic skills and that can also be used to add to your home décor. Flowers can be found in near abundance in nearly every part of the globe so you will never be short of subjects and differing environments to shoot them in.
First off, invest in a tripod. A tripod will help steady the camera and produce a much sharper image and make you think more about the shots your taking instead of just pointing and shooting.
Get up early – Before the temperature rises there is generally less wind reducing the risk of blur. Depending on the time of year, an early start can mean the flowers will have morning dew on them, which can produce some stunning images.
Wind – Even a slight breeze can make getting that perfect flower shot a nightmare. One easy way to get that perfect shot is to use a large square poster board to block the wind on the side it is blowing from and there is no risk of damaging the flowers.
Sunlight - Avoid, as much as possible, taking pictures of flowers under direct sunlight. The reason being is that even though they look great when we look at them, the sensors in the camera cant handle the contrast. Cloudy or overcast conditions work best to achieve beautifully bright images
Achieving that blurred background look with a sharp focused flower at the centre is possible on nearly all digital cameras. By going into the manual settings or the aperture control settings (usually donated by an M or an A on the settings wheel) you can use a large aperture size, which is a small number like f5.0. This is a good technique when you have a busy or moving background.
Example of aperature size
F16 F5
Angles - Photograph your flowers from different angles, from above, the side, below which leads onto the last point.
HAVE FUN, experiment and overall just enjoy capturing some of nature’s beauty.
