6 strategies for flower photography
There are too many people shooting flowers, and there are not many kinds of flowers that can be photographed. Here we suggest that you try to avoid environmental interference and try to find a place you really like to shoot.
Microlens, blurring the background and strengthening details
This is a macro shot of hay. What’s more interesting is that there is a small bee flying in the air in this work. It is difficult to shoot with a macro lens, because the depth of field of the macro lens is very narrow in the case of large aperture, and when shooting in the wild, everything dances with the wind, so the shooting speed is required to be fast.
For example, in macro shooting, take more than 1/1000S of shooting time, and open the aperture to the maximum, so as to ensure the maximum of the background virtualization.
So far, I don’t know what the name of the flower in this picture is. Here I recommend a mobile app for photographing flowers and plants: Flower Companion. When shooting at plants, this software can automatically identify the name, family and genus of flowers.
When I shoot flowers, I prefer black and white. However, not all flowers are suitable for black and white, because some flowers do not have so rich brightness changes. The edge of the flower is not so unique.
And in the process of shooting flowers, I prefer to observe its light and shadow changes. One of the pictures taken in this group uses a 100 macro lens to focus on the tip of the stamen, so its focus range is very narrow. At this time, the photographer’s choice of focus is tested. When shooting, make sure that the flowers do not vibrate greatly in the wind.
If you carefully observe the center of the stamen, you will find that there are flowers in the flowers, and there are many filaments, pollen, etc. In the macro lens, you will find a world that is quite different from usual.
Highlight the foreground and detail
This work was shot indoors, but using outdoor light. The light requirement for shooting indoor flowers is not very high. It is perfect to have a relatively spacious window and natural light to enter the room. The lighting method for photographing flowers is similar to that for photographing portraits. One is backlighting, which shows the largest range of shapes and contours. Backlighting can fully highlight the small hairy edges of flowers.
With a little change in the backlight, it will become a side backlight. The vase itself has a certain form of beauty. In addition to the wild flowers, the flowers, vases and tables can all be expressed. But only in the backlight, the color of the petals will be rendered best; It is difficult for the petal part to have a transparent feeling when it is smooth.
The same bunch of flowers, this work uses a black background, but does not use black cloth, but is determined by the relative brightness. If there is enough light shining on the flowers and vases, it will naturally become dark color or dark gray compared with the dark background at a far place.
Moreover, the background will not cause any interference to the foreground, and can also set off the content of the foreground. Therefore, I will use highlights for light measurement. Highlights may appear on the far right. If I catch them, they will not be exposed, and the color and shape of flowers will be perfectly presented. Basically, I don’t need to worry about the exposure of this photo. Try to understand the relationship between light and the object you need to photograph.
This work consists of several petals and a banana leaf. The biggest advantage of this work I took at home is that there is no wind. It doesn’t need to consider the picture shake caused by the wind, and you can also use a tripod. Window light and artificial light are the most common light sources for exposure.
Use the advantages of lens to find space in details
The ability to look for details is very important. Most people do not pay attention to details when they look at flowers, but produce a batch form. For example, within five kilometers, all of them are the same kind of flowers at a glance, but the real personality can only be reflected in the details.
Everything with real personality is completed in the telephoto section. If you want to make your work more recognizable, you need to gradually transition from wide angle to the telephoto range, which is a process of looking at growth.
When shooting details, you need to observe the shape of flowers. When I shoot flowers myself, I prefer to limit myself to a limited range, and I don’t need too much content. What I need to do is to pay attention to the same flower, and then analyze and observe its shape and characteristics.
Shoot flowers like a portrait
If such a single flower is photographed under a clean background, it can be found that the light is coming from its top right to expose the surface of the petals. At the same time, only the central area of the background is a little bright, which is a clean background. In this case, it is the same way as shooting people.
If you change your perspective and try to photograph flowers with reference to human figures, you will start to consider whether to photograph the half, small or whole body of flowers.
In addition, you can also take photos of dead branches that have already blossomed, or even a small tip. When you use macro or micro photography, some small details like skin can be photographed, which will feel like opening a new world door.
Combination of scenery and flowers
When shooting the flower sea, I will bring two lenses, one of which is a wide-angle lens. In order to capture the whole scene, I adopted a shooting method combining environment and flowers, so that flowers can play a good role in the picture.
At this time, the works can also be appreciated as landscape films, and can also be appreciated as flower works.
Each flower has its own line
The golden bells and flowers hang upside down. I hope to place the stamens on the bright part so that the bright background can set off the stamens. The bright part of the flower happens to be in the area of round light, and the dark part is a cold color alternating with the warm color of the flower. Therefore, in a piece of work, brightness, color and shape interact with each other.
The impact of shooting a flower alone must be much better than shooting a pile of disordered flowers, so try to find a clean background when shooting. The use of large aperture background virtualization can naturally make the shooting background concise, but if you want to pursue the ultimate simplicity, you need to find a more concise background.
How can I find a concise background?
Make your own clean background. You can bring a solid color dress or find a clean wall.
To find the sky as the shooting background, the sky will not show too many colors.
My work is a magnolia hanging branch found by the wall. It has a relatively clean shape and is in the horizontal picture. There are some changes of light and shade behind the wall, which constitute changes in the background. The light and shadow, together with the flowers in the foreground, achieve a certain degree of integration, and also present a certain sense of painting in it.
