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This
is just a quick guide to taking flower photographs.
Sharpness
considerations
-
Use a tripod
-
Use aperture priority and select a small aperture (large f-value)
for better depth of field.
-
Try to shoot when the wind is not too strong. Preferably no wind
at all.
- Focusing.
You may need to manually focus though autofocusing is possible.
Focus about 0.5-1.0 cm in front of the most important part of
the picture.
It is difficult
for a person to give comments on an unsharp flower picture because
there could be many reasons why the picture is not sharp. The best
advice I can give you is to follow all 4 guidelines listed above
and you are guaranteed a sharp flower picture. I can't guarantee
good flower pictures because I'm still figuring that one out ;)
The first, most
basic piece of advice is: USE A TRIPOD.
A tripod is essential as flower photography shutter speeds are generally
slow. Also, if you are manually focusing, then moving the camera
a bit will cause the focus point to change.
For flower photographs,
you generally want all parts of the flower to be sharp and that
usually means a small aperture to maximise
depth of field. In Coolpix terms, small aperture is f/8-f/10.6 and
in SLR terms, f/16-f/22.
Of course, there
may be times where you would like to narrow down the depth of field
in order to emphasise a particular aspect of a flower: feel free
to experiment - film is either cheap or free (digital) so you can
take several and see which you like.
I took this shot with a smaller and larger aperture.
I liked this one with less depth of field, but opinions vary ;)
Nikon F70 Sigma 105EX
As for wind,
nothing much you can do about it: you need a lot of patience. You
can try to do some impressionistic shots of flowers swaying in the
wind I suppose :)
Regarding
the focusing 0.5-1.0 cm in front of the most important part of the
picture, this is just a preference. I like what comes before the
most important part to be sharp so that it can 'lead' me into the
picture. An alternative rule of thumb is to just focus on the part
of the flower that is nearest to the camera and assume that there
is sufficient depth of field to keep the whole flower sharp - for
non-macro shots, this should be ok.
Exposure
considerations
-
When
photographing extremely bright or dark flowers, it is possible
that the exposure will be off. Simply take a photo at the recommended
setting, then check your LCD/histogram and adjust the exposure
by adding or subtracting 1 stop.
-
When
photographing bright and dark flowers together, I am not sure
whether a digicam has sufficient range to capture both properly.
Conventional
wisdom says to add exposure compensation (eg: +1.0 EV) if photographing
a light coloured flower. However, digicams are succeptible to blown
out highlights, so always check the LCD viewfinder/histogram. In
any event, I am glad to say that I haven't seen an incorrectly exposed
flower shot on clubsnap for a very long time, indicating that exposure
is not an issue. Based on my limited experience with a Coolpix,
I think the exposure is not that much of a problem in generally
- incorrect exposures usually remain in the 'correctable by photoshop'
range. As for the light and dark flowers problem, I guess you have
to underexpose and use photoshop to brighten the dark flowers.
Aesthetic
considerations.
- Make
sure the background is not distracting.
- Make
sure the light is not too contrasty unless effect is deliberate.
- Decide
on whether you are shooting a single flower, a bunch of flowers,
or the whole plant and compose accordingly. Alternatively, shoot
and crop in photoshop. But photoshop cannot alter the choice of
camera angle.
A distracting
background is a major problem with flower photographs. To
assess the background, ask whether the shot will look better if
you simply draped a black cloth behind the flower. If the answer
is 'Yes', it means that your background is not 'adding value' to
the photograph. Personally, I think natural surrounding have the
potential to add value to any flower photograph. Otherwise you might
as well photograph cut flowers in a studio setup and get maximum
sharpness.
Using a larger
aperture to cut down the depth of field is not really a solution
in most cases as distracting background elements, even if blurred,
can still appear distracting. For example, a white plastic chair
will always look out of place, no matter how blur it is.
Easy
solutions to the distracting background problem are:
- Zoom in on
the flower and take a macro shot of the flower.
- Use a piece
of black cloth as a background
Ok, who put that plastic chair in the photo? Obviously,
moving yourself to the left will enable you to compose to exclude
the chair. Coolpix 995
The next thing
is contrasty light. Simply put: if the
sun is shining on the flower, the pic is generally going to be ugly
(though' not in all cases). On the other hand, if the light is overly
diffuse, you may lose some dimensionality in the flower. Some directionality
in the light may be useful for 'modelling'. Fortunately, morning/late
afternoon 'sun in clouds' is great. Related to this is to beware
of any 'hotspots' in the photograph.
Always watch out for hotspots. Nikon F70 Sigma 105EX
Finally, we
come to what you're actually trying to photograph.
The photographer really has to decide what he's shooting. Are you
shooting the whole plant, a bunch (or branch) of flowers, or just
a single flower. If you're shooting a single flower, make sure that
the single flower grabs the attention and is not crowded out by
other parts of the plant. If you're shooting a bunch of flowers,
make sure they're not chopped off and in focus.
Beyond these
general compositional tips, there are really no hard and fast rules
about composing flower photographs (and even if there were, rules
are meant to be broken).
Single flower. Coolpix 995
A bunch of flowers. Nikon F70, Sigma 105EX
A field of flowers. Nikon F70, Sigma 105EX
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