Tag Archives: #flower

PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE GARDEN:

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assorted color flowers
Photo by Leigh Patrick on Pexels.com

I am an avid gardener, as well as photographer. Photography and gardening go together. My wife loves to do the flower garden, and I usually worry about all the bushes, trees, and vegetable gardening. Between the two of us, we have an amazing yard. We feed birds from a feeder hanging from our pear tree, so we have the beauty of the birds to add to that as well. This is truly one piece of heaven here on earth.

Photographing the different gardens

As a photographer, I am mostly looking for color and the beauties of the flowers. Here are just a couple of flowers from our garden:

TIPS ON FLOWER PHOTOGRAPHY:

  • Make sure you understand your depth of field control, to get the right amount of flower in focus, and the background out of focus (if you wish). Controlling your aperture is one thing that helps all photos, not just close-up photos, with the perfect picture I think. For further information on “depth of field” go HERE
  • Most flowers are small, and you want to fill the frame with the flower. Appropriate close-up equipment will work the best. #1 lens to be recommended is the macro lens. Check your cameras’ lens catalogue for the best lens for you. Another great source is “close-up” filters. CHECK HERE For more information. Another great accessory, if you don’t have, is EXTENSION TUBES, which is a blog I did just a few days ago.
  • Next thing to watch out for is the wind! Yikes! Now you want to get this picture, and the wind is blowing the flower around. That is not a good thing if you want a sharp picture. I know the flower will be there tomorrow, so I will wait a day or two. Or, you might try a fast shutter speed, and that could be easy enough when you have your aperture set at F4. Try that and if you still have issues with the wind, WAIT ANOTHER DAY!

TIPS ON VEGETABLE PHOTOGRAPHY:

close up photography of orange carrots
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

I seem to notice that most photos of vegetables are done after the harvest. This might be good to do some experimenting on vegetable photography. Stay tuned for those photos in a few months.

As you take photos of vegetables, that you have harvested, try different ways to take the photo. Such as:

  • In someone’s hands
  • In a bucket, freshly picked or harvested
  • Arranged on the table
  • Shown boiling or cooking

Photos of your beautiful yard:

Ok, if you are a gardener like me, part of gardening is to see the whole beautiful yard, with flowers, trees, bushes, and vegetables if that looks good too. Here are some examples:

photography of table and chairs near plants
Photo by Valeria Boltneva on Pexels.com
assorted plants with trees photography
Photo by Creative Vix on Pexels.com
adult attractive beautiful brunette
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

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Ideas of how to take the best “flower photos”

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Photo by kazuend on Unsplash

Taking pictures of flowers is always a rewarding experience. Sometimes when you are on Facebook or some other website and you see other people’s photos of flowers, do you wish you could take pictures that good? I want to take a moment and explain how you too, can take beautiful photos of flowers, even to the point of people wanting a copy (maybe I could sell my flower photos).

The beauty of a flower to me comes when I can see the flower in close-up mode, similar to the photo at the top of this page. The human eye does not usually look at a flower this close. We see them in the garden, in clumps or groups of flowers, and that all looks good, but, if we had the chance to see a flower up close, you would realize that the Creator has really blessed us with amazing beauty that looks better up close.

Here is just a few ideas of how your photos of flowers can look better:

Get down to the same level of the flower:

Photo by Gabriela Popa on Unsplash

Look at the photo above, and the photo at the top of the page. The fact that the photographer got down to the same level as the flower, brings out much more of the beauty of the flower. Oh yeah, you may end up laying down on the ground to get this photo. But, it will be worth it.

Use a tripod to hold your camera steady.

Photo by Arw Zero on Unsplash

Note the photo above shows a tripod for a cell phone. Yes, they make a tripod for cell phone. I have a tripod for my regular camera and tripod for cell phone. A good photographer that uses their cell phone a lot will want to get this. And they are not that expensive. I have a tripod for cell phone that is full size, and I think I still paid less than $30.00 Click on the link: tripod for cell phone to see what you can get. But, I have found out that it is extremely hard to hold your camera still when trying to do a close-up of a flower. I think it is a must. I also think that photographers should use their tripods more than they do.

If you can, get a macro lens or close-up filters

For those of you who have a good dslr camera, close-up filters should be a must have item, in case you don’t have a true macro lens. These come in a set of 4 usually and you can have different magnifications depending on which close-up filters you use.

Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash

See what you miss when you don’t have close-up filters. The detail of flowers is amazing to see. So, please, to do it right, at least try close-up filters.

A macro lens I have seen built-in to some cell phone cameras, so try that on your phone if you are so equipped. Otherwise, try a macro lens for your dslr camera. This makes it extremely easy and even better quality than the close-up filters. With macro lenses, you can focus as close as a 1:1 ratio all the way out to infinity on your lens. Just get macro lenses for your brand of camera, and check out what is available and really enjoy it.

Be aware of flower movement. Try a higher ISO setting.

Photo by Dominik Rešek on Unsplash: Took this photo on my recent trip to Triglav lakes. Beautiful destination, lots of nice things to shoot.

I have found that there always seems to be a breeze that causes flower movement. Any way you can stop the flower from moving would involve one thing: You will need a high speed shutter, to stop camera movement. And sometimes the easiest way to get a higher speed shutter is to use a higher ISO setting.

If you are going to use your cell phone that doesn’t usually have much chance of setting a shutter speed, then make sure you have a lot of light on the flower, in hopes that the automatic settings of the camera, will be in your favor.

Carefully control your depth of field if you can.

Photo by Echo Grid on Unsplash

The purpose of having depth of field control is to be able to blur out the background of the photo, and still keep the main focus of the flowers in sharp focus. That, of course is accomplished by changing your aperture to a lower number (f2 to f4), to make that happen.

Conclusion:

The best photos that you will find and create, almost always needs to have control over the settings on a camera. The shutter speed to be fast enough to stop any movement of the flower, and the aperture to control the depth of your focus. And if you can’t get it exactly set up with the settings you want, then you can change your ISO setting. If you have further questions on how to take good flower photos, submit your questions to: http://question.123photogo.com

“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would change.” –

Buddha

DAY 8 OF 10 – LEARNING BASIC PHOTOS SKILLS: “ZOOM IN”

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Day Eight: “Treasure” — Zoom In

Objects, places, people, moments — we all cherish something or someone. Anything deeply meaningful to you can be a treasure.

A treasure can be grand, like a precious heirloom, or teeny-tiny, like the first plump blackberry of spring atop a tart:

Or perhaps it’s the vintage coat passed down from your grandmother, your once-in-a-lifetime trip through the Himalayas, a quiet space in the woods, or your children. What’s your treasure?

Today’s Tip: Get close to your subject. Use the zoom function in your camera, or physically move closer to it. Often, our goal is to capture as much of a scene as we can. This time, zoom in on your subject or a particular detail to tell a more interesting story.

Day Eight: “Treasure” — Zoom In

So far, we’ve focused on establishing shots, horizontal and vertical images, and getting comfortable with moving around and experimenting with point of view. Today, get close to your subject.

Dragonfly resting on a branch in Ubud, Bali. Photo by Brie Anne Demkiw.
Dragonfly resting on a branch in Ubud, Bali. Photo by Brie Anne Demkiw.

As you photograph your treasure, consider photographer Brie Anne Demkiw’s tips on macro photography:

  • You may need special equipment to get a great close-up shot — not every camera can do macro photography. Simple point-and-shoots and iPhones are limited to how close you can get.
  • Try going abstract. Play around with how shapes, colors, and textures change as you get closer to your subject.
  • Experiment with shooting objects outdoors — shoot on a cloudy day for better lighting. Shooting outside on a cloudy day may impede your exposure a bit, but, for the real close shots, I recommend a tripod.

If you want to get real close, you will obviously need either close-up filters, or extension tubes for cameras. (click on those links). Or, if you have a camera that will take interchangeable lenses, a macro lenses will do the job very nicely.