Flowers - an alternative approach

Words and pictures Peter Bargh

The obvious thing to do when taking flower pictures is to point your camera at the bloom, fill the frame and fire, but there's much more that can be done to add creativity to your pictures.

First lets look at what you need
Any camera with a close up mode will be fine. Many 35mm, APS and digital cameras often have a macro setting that appears in the menu as a flower symbol. Setting this ensures the camera performs best at close range. Check your book of instructions for how close you can go. The normal range is between 30 and 60cm, but digital cameras, such as the Nikon Coolpix and Ricoh series can go as close as 2cm.

Most cameras with an automatic focus will indicate when the camera is within range and a flashing light will warn you not to take a photograph or step back. SLR users are dependent on the lens you have attached. Most zooms will allow close range, but it's only the true macro lenses such as the 105mm Micro Nikkor or 105mm Sigma that let you get really close. If you find you can't fill the frame with a flower at the lens' closest setting, buy a close up lens - a filter that screws into the front of the existing lens. A +3 is a versatile option.

A tripod will be necessary if you are taking pictures in low light to prevent camera shake also to allow a smaller aperture to be used. A tripod, while being a sturdy partner, can restrict the position of the camera, especially with a few of the techniques I will cover here. The ideal choice would be the flexible Benbo that allows the camera to be positioned a few centimetres from the ground as well as at eye level. These tend to be expensive, but you can often achieve similar flexibility using a tripod that has legs that splay wide out or one that has a reversible head so the camera can be mounted at the base of the centre column. The other thing you have to avoid is subject movement. Flowers tend to sway around even in the gentlest wind so try and make a barrier so it stays calm. A sheet of card is useful for this and convenient if you're shooting in the garden. Alternatively use a friend to shield the wind when out in the field.

Use slow speed film for high definition and fine grain. Any ISO 100 print film or ISO 50 slide will give superb results. Digital camera users make sure the ISO is set at 100 and select the camera's highest resolution if you intend printing out the pictures.

Sharp shooting
Focusing on a flower at close range needs careful. If you focus on the tip of the front petal and shoot using a wide aperture everything towards the back petal will gradually go out of focus. If you focus in the middle, the back and front will become progressively out of focus. If your camera has a depth-of-field preview you can check the focusing depth also if you use digital you can preview the photo just taken and check to see if you're happy with the sharpness. Otherwise shoot using as small an aperture as you can to prevent a blurred subject.

Techniques to try

The obvious options when photographing a flower is to shoot the whole bed of flowers or move in closer and fill the frame with just one flower head. But there are many alternatives that you may not have considered. To give you a few ideas I picked one plant in my garden and created a series of images. Here's a small selection that I feel worked well.

The most obvious flower pictures are of single heads but normally you'd be tempted to shoot from more of an overhead angle. Shoot from this angle gives a portrait style result and you can use a wider angle to throw the background out of focus.

An alternative approach to shooting with a close up lens is to use a wide angle which also lets you get close but allows excellent depth-of-field. The flower heads will be smaller in the frame but you get an unusual sense of perspective as the outer flowers bend outwards from the bed to the heads.

Use the macro setting and crop really tightly on the flower head and petals for dramatic shapes and colours. Using a wider aperture can now be used to throw the rest of the scene out of focus.

Hold a piece of white card behind the flower on a bright day and move it around so that the flower's shadow projects onto the card. Then photograph the card ensuring the flower is out of view. This can produce some lovely abstract effects. Try different angles and positions to change the shapes created on the card. Take a meter reading and open up one stop to prevent the white card going grey.

A more unusual approach is to shoot from below the flower head which would normally create a silhouette, but if exposed correctly will deliver results like this. This flower works well because the petals are translucent. Moving around allows you to change the background in this case from a blue sky to a dark conifer. Allow at least one stop extra exposure when shooting against a sky to avoid the flower appearing as a silhouette. The meter should get shots against a dark background correctly exposed.