In this article, I’m going to share some of the best and very useful Flower Photography tips.
Flowers is a beautiful creation and I believe it is one of the best creations of god with a paradox that it doesn’t stay alive forever but here is a cheat code in 21st century
And maybe you’re here because that’s your favorite thing called “photography.”
“Flowers are the proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities in the world.”
A photographer has the power to capture everything permanently and keep it alive, always and forever.
Capturing flowers is the most common type of shooting.
and it is considered a part of amateur photography but it’s difficult to excel in it.
Most of the flower photography doesn’t look professional and they have this delusion that makes them believe that what they captured is perfect and professionals find that obnoxious.
If you just started with photography or need to excel in flower photography then you need to change the wrong notion about bloom capturing and start working hard.
“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever, It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything” – Aaron Siskind.
just remember that and get back to work.
so after reading this good intro, I’m pretty sure now you’re waiting for some easy Flower Photography tips.
which you can use and apply to capture better flower photos using your smartphone or camera, whatever you have.
Flower Photography Tips To Remember
now let me share some of the best and very important Flower Photography tips.
Say no to prejudices
First of all, before starting you need to give up all the prejudices you have about flower photography and think out of the box.
and you need to focus on actually how you are going to make your effort count.
Rather than questioning this branch of photography.
Despite its usual sense of excelling in this field, it remains unusual and difficult.
Be creative
As you already know photography is all about creating art by testing your level of creativity.
For flower photography, you need to try unusual things, for instance, try capturing at different angles and do a lot of experiments while capturing.
because common things are nice but different makes everything countable, special, and rare.
Make sure you have dumped all the prenotions and prejudices regarding flower photography because that is essential to meet the perfect you.
You need to decide how you wanna shoot and what results, you desire (don’t be reluctant to rest your body on the surface and then struggling with a perfect click).
select the perfect background, suitable light, make sure you know what angle works best, and prefer clicking natural flowers out there in the world.
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Nature can give you end up giving you amazing results but don’t underestimate the power of man-made things.
Studio and artificial flowers work nicely sometimes but prefer Nature.
among all other Flower Photography tips, this one is my favorite and every time helps to get something new.
just use a different perspective to get better shots.
wear clothes you wouldn’t mind getting wasted
- For Nature Lover: 71+ Nature Photography quotes for Photographers | captions with Images
Avoid distractions
Sometimes we overlook basic things and just focus on the major parts.
but remember that small things matter the most.
we have seen clumsy images with flowers, bees, birds, and whatnot in a single image which certainly diverts the focus of the capturing and it just creates chaos.
A uniform background will draw the eye and prevent distraction.
Isolate your subject and avoid distractions.
Flowers are enough to attract people and you should not capture more than 2 objects for instance flower and bee in an image that will help to avoid cluttered background and mess.
Having too many images in focus, uncomplimentary patterns or colors, areas that are too bright all will cause viewers’ eyes to wander and possibly lose interest in the star of the photo.
just make sure things are neutral and appealing to the image.
Location
If you want to improve your overall Flower photography performance then these types of little things matters a lot.
so make sure the location which you’re going to choose for shooting is natural.
because that can give you mind-blowing results but that doesn’t mean you need to travel to Switzerland or Japan for their flower richness.
and of course, you don’t need to go to the place where the rarest of rarest flowers are found to do something different.
The best fact about flower photography is flowers are easy to access even your home’s little garden can be a miracle for that purpose.
If you are not able to access a natural environment then even an artificial one can be created easily.
as I told you flowers are easy to access no matter if you wanna create a setup with real flowers or by purchasing it from a flower vendor.
or even if you’re getting an artificial one both can work in your favor.
Soft light
Avoid harsh light, multiple colors, and bright spots.
The soft light of an overcast day compliments the delicate petals resulting in a real and bewitching effect.
Overcast Skies are perfect for photography.
Focus on the light and be aware of it at the cloudy and the beginning of the day.
and in the evening as the light gets quite limited and can give you unwanted blurry and obnoxious results, prefer a sunny mid-day rather than a gloomy sky.
If you are doing the artificial setup, you can adjust the light according to you and make sure you are not making a very dull effect.
Backlight
Try using a backlight, it will make your flowers grow.
for this you need to wait for the sun to directly come in front of you, lighting your flower from behind.
This will surely make the flowers glow.
You can also shoot in at the time when the sun is close to the horizon.
This will make the petals glow in warm light giving it an aesthetic look.
beware of wind, it can surely destroy your photography 😀
Stay close
Use a telephoto lens or extension tubes or close-up filters and zoom in on the flower.
You have to use minimum focusing distance of the lens as few lenses can’t focus close.
In case you can’t invest, you can always buy cheap attachments to replace those macro lenses. bellows, extension tubes, and reversing rings are all useful and cheap.
Preferably use a telephoto lens or macro lens as extension tubes are mostly inconvenient but somehow they work whereas close-up filters deteriorate image quality.
Reflector
if you like to shoot indoor always then this one is very important and needed Flower Photography tips which you need to know and remember.
Try combining a shaded subject with a well-lit background and I swear that can do miracles. Thank me later 😉
Make sure you keep your flower considerably bright but not soo bright and if your subject is in the shade, use a reflector to bounce some light.
this will make your image vibrant also.
Desirable depth
Use a shallow depth of field so that the flower stays clear sharp and focused whereas the background is blurred
Preferably use an aperture of f/2.8 or f/4.
Get as close to the subject as much as you can so that you can increase the distance between the subject and the background.
which would certainly reduce clumsy and bad effects on the image and it will surely give you a perfect click.
Focus
To keep your subject in focus your lens allows you to change the depth to improve focusing.
You can control how deep or shallow the focus is by choosing the appropriate aperture.
Select a smaller aperture of f/5.6 or f/8, so it’ll create a deeper depth of the field but remember to keep the background blur is of utmost importance.
Don’t select a wide aperture such as f/1.8 or f/2.8 because then you will have a hard time keeping the image sharp and get desirable results.
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Use single point focus for sharper photos
Use single point focusing while capturing flowers to get a clear focus of the part you want.
and avoid slow movements and shallow depth of field by your macro lens
Whereas there will be times when you will struggle for focusing especially when you are capturing when your flower is moving due to wind.
In this case switch to manual. The lens won’t be struggling anymore.
you can even use photoshop later to combine multiple images and get a sharper result.
- Check out this article for in-depth information: Tips to capture sharp photos | 4 ways to get clear images using photoshop
My Favourite Flower Photography tips for mobile users
here are some important and very useful flower photography tips, which every mobile user can apply to get better results…
Focus stacking for flower capturing
Sometimes despite using a small aperture.
your lens will still produce considerably shallow depth as a result of close capturing, it can also give blurry side effects
In case you require your whole image to be fully focused then you will require a focus stack for sure.
this technique is all about capturing images from different focus distances and stack all the images together to create a single sharp image.
Few photo stacking software is helicon focus or zerene stacker.
This is a great way to show incredible detail in your image.
There is a second way to do that, by capturing multiple images from a single angle and mostly few images are desirable focusing effects but this one can be time, memory, and energy-consuming.
How to avoid shaking
Shallow depth has its advantages and disadvantages and one of them is moving and shaking.
It is not suggestible to shoot in wind using shallow depth as a low breeze alone can result in a low-quality image.
If you have shaky hands then preferably use a tripod and trigger your shutter using a remote or a timer.
Use a high shutter speed to avoid motion blur. This will help you to get those close-up images such as water droplets.
Composition
The most complicated thing about flower photography is its composition ( most important flower photography tips ).
and you can only get through it if you imagine your image as a portrait and not flower photographs and use your best level of knowledge and intelligence to look for unique features.
Focus on the most attractive parts of flowers.
for instance, its petals or the stamen, or for some flowers, it’s their leaves.
You can use diagonals as it makes an image more dynamic or you can go for the middle.
the diagonal one goes for most of them but it depends on the photographer and the results he/ she wants from the image.
you can always try and discover new compositions and you know the scope of creativity is always open in photography.
- Best photo composition technique: Rule of Third
Use surroundings
Many times showing surroundings will make your image a more attractive and engaging image.
you can focus on multiple flowers or an entire field of flowers.
sometimes trying new things and looking a wider look at beauty can do wonders for you.
Take a wider lens and try shooting the natural beauty.
“There is one thing the photo must contain – the humanity of the moment.” – Robert Frank
Fill light
It’s a rule, “best light makes the best image”.
The best light for flower photography is going to be in the morning at the time of sunrise or in the evening just before the sunset.
It’s not about perfect lighting but it’s about perfect use to the light.
The flowers you want to shoot may be in deep shadows beneath trees or other vegetation or maybe overcast skies are not giving you the contrast that you want.
For all these, you got the solution and that is to add your light to be efficient and perfect.
You can use any type of reflective material for instance a white sheet of foam core or even a piece of the whiteboard.
Try using 5 in one reflector for best results as there are lotuses for this versatile tool.
Water effect
So one of the prettiest effects in flower photography is that tiny drop of water on petals which are so attractive.
and you can also create it by sprinkling some of the water using a spray bottle.
So water can help you in 3 ways ;
- by cleaning all the dirt.
- making the flowers sparkling.
- for the crystal droplet effect.
Give it a shot. It’s an easy and quite interesting technique to get a perfect result.
The life cycle of a flower
You know photography becomes more interesting when the photograph tells a story in it.
You can try to tell a story with your flower and show its life cycle with a series of images taken throughout the growing season.
preferable use a flower that you can access often, for instance, your own backyard flower would work best for this purpose.
overtime, take an image every day or twice or thrice a week.
You can create a time-lapse of the images captured.
And I hope you might be familiar with the fact that how fond of flower time-lapse everyone around is, as they are so attractive and magical.
Dynamic
Dynamic range is too great to capture a single image.
Try high range, or HDR, photography.HDR has gotten a bad reputation but it gives fabulous results if used correctly.
Use the auto-bracketing function that allows you to take 3, 5, 7, or 9 images at different exposure values.
To get the best results use a tripod and use a self-timer.
don’t forget to use post-processing / photoshop.
Sunlight usage
The perfect time to capture is near sunrise or sunset.
when the sun is low in the sky and gives you a sweet and warm feeling that is the correct time to capture.
Select the right composition. use a tripod and use a small aperture.
- make sure you check out: Best And Cheap Tripods For Photographers Under 40$
Remember the sky is the prettiest at the time of sunrise and sunset with beautiful color effects.
Focus through another flower
It is one of the famous techniques that gives mesmerizing results.
just for example
For this, you can use a telephoto lens and zoom in on the flower.
You can place yourself in a way that you can shoot a flower using another flower and self-position is important to attribute of this technique.
keep your subject flower sharp and make the other flower a little blur and In the end, you will get a perfect click.
you can use any other subject to capture your subject & draw attention to your main subject.
Use different angle
You should just use your knowledge your experience and intelligence and always try new things.
because you are the one only who exactly knows what you expect from yourself.
Always capturing from the same angle can be boring so don’t hesitate if you wanna lie down on the ground and search for some good clicks.
or you need to climb high to get a perfect angle for a perfect click. Try everything to avoid regrets.
Conclusion
Flower photography is exotic interesting and not so difficult to excel in.
it takes hard work but end results are rewarding.
Sometimes you may not get perfect results and it may take more than 4-5 attempts but remember “practice makes a human perfect”
if you like this article on Flower Photography tips then make sure you share apply all these tips and share result with us in the comment section 🙂
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Keep capturing & sharing 🙂
