Photographing Flowers

Different climates around the world mean you will come across many different types and species of plants and flowers. Flowers are often over looked by people, but vibrant colours and strange shapes make flowers very photogenic. Flowers give your photographs context and help to build the feeling of far away exotic lands.

Here are some simply steps to consider when photographing flowers on your travels.

1.Get up close

Get really close to the flower and fill your frame. Capture the intensity of the colours and the textures. Using flash and being so close up may mean your photography will look washed out and over exposed, experiment with the flash on and off.

2.Consider the back ground

If your photographing wild flowers try and get the blue sky in as part of the background, this will give instant contrast to the image. If your photographing picked flowers use contrasting or clashing coloured backgrounds.

3.Depth of field

Play with the depth of field. If your just photographing a single flower use a really shallow depth of felid so just part of the flower in in focus. A shallow depth of felid can also give a lot of interest to a field of flowers. Focus on a single flower and allow the others to form a colourful background. Alternatively use a large depth of felid so that the whole flower, or felid of flowers, is in focus. A large depth of field works really well if you have a point of interest, for example mountains, in the back ground.

4.Lens

A wide angle or macro lens is perfect for filling the frame with the whole flower. If your using a point and shoot camera use the marco setting, this will allow you to focus much more closely on the flower.

5.Groups of Flowers

Look for groups of flowers and fill your frame with the different colours and shapes. Focus on a single flower with the others in the background or focus on the whole group. Play around with the focus to get a wide range of different looking shots.

6.Go With the Wind

Flowers will blow around on windy days, if your using a shutter speed of 1/60 they will blur. This blur may give your photographs a great look, especially if something in the background in still. If you don’t want the blur movement then use a shutter speed that is higher than 1/125. Alternatively, a shutter speed of 1/60 should give you a good blur to the image. If your camera does not allow you to select the shutter speed then use the sports mode, this will give you a faster shutter.