Bernskiold Media

It is late spring, almost getting into summer in most parts of the world. This means that flowers are blooming and that pretty much everything in the nature looks gorgeous. This is a perfect time to do flower photography, with close-ups and macros as well and I’m going to today share some flower photography tips and tricks.

1. Don’t Shoot Down on the Flower

Something that many people tend to do when they approach a flower they want to shoot is to just bend over it and take a photo—shooting down on the flower. It tends to not only produce a rather flat and lifeless image but also include a messy background. The trick is to get down to the level of the flower and shoot it from the same height or from below, which will produce much more pleasing results and allow for better backgrounds. Now, there is a very good exception to the rule which is when you have only got a single color, out of focus, background that takes care of the depth of field for us. Then, if you compose wisely, shooting down on the flower won’t matter as much.

2. Be Wary of the Background

The most common mistake done when shooting flowers is to be all caught up in the lower itself as to not think about the background behind. The two most common mistakes are; to either have very little depth of field so that pretty much everything remains in focus in the frame; with the second having a deliberately out of focus background with far too many distracting objects, color-shifts and light objects that draw your attention away.

3. Use Depth of Field to Your Advantage

You want to try and shoot at a large aperture (like f/2.8) to get as much depth of field as possible and still a sharp image. Try shooting in Aperture Priority mode to leave the camera to worry about the shutter speed. By using a small depth of field, you can really make flowers or parts of flowers pop out.

4. Manually Focus Your Lens

To allow spot-on focus with the chosen depth of field, set your lens to manual focus and find the exact spot for your focus. This way you don’t have to worry about refocusing if you were to slightly change your composition (as long as you don’t change your distance to the flower).

5. Use a Tripod

With depth of field being so incredibly tiny and the combination with using manual focus, you will need to set up on a sturdy tripod to help you out in getting that spot-on focused photo.

6. Lighting: Overcast or Shadow

Most of the time, flowers and close-ups will be best photographed in overcast weather or if they are in the shadow. It produces a more even and pleasing light with not as harsh shadows. Sometimes backlit flowers work nicely as you get a nice, golden, light from behind the flower itself, but still without the harsh light on the flower itself. 

7. Time of the Day

Experiment with the times of the day that you shoot in. The morning produces really wonderful golden light while you have a good chance of seeing some natural dew drops left on the flowers. Plus, it won’t be as hot in the morning if it is a sunny day.

8. Bring a Water Bottle

If you don’t happen to be shooting in the direct morning and you want to have dew drops, simply bring a water sprayer bottle and spray gently on the flower. You’ll get instant dew drops right where you want!

Finally, get out there and have fun shooting!