Photographing Lavender

Lavender's medicinal, smells nice and it also makes a great photographic subject. You can visit a Lavender Farm where there's guided tours that take you round the fields or you could buy your own plant and focus your attentions on just a couple of flowers.


Gear
A macro lens is great for focusing on one flower or getting in between the raised beds some Lavender Farms have. A wide-angle lens is perfect for sweeping shots of purple lavender fields but if you don't own one, take your telezoom along instead as you can just stand a little further back for wider shots. The compressing effect can also be used to isolate areas of the purple and white fields too. Check to see if you can take your tripod along to the lavender farm as you'll need it if it's a breezy day. It also means you can get creative with some deliberate blur by slowing the shutter speed.

Technique
Don't go marching through the plants, stick to paths and if you need to, bring the rows of flowers to you with your telephoto lens.

Cloudy, bright days are great for flower photography as your plants will have more definition and your images of fields won't look like a sea of purple.

As lavender plants grow closer together it can be difficult to single out strands. You may have to gently move a flower out of the way if you want to photograph just one but there's nothing wrong with photographing a few lavender heads and really throwing the background out of focus so they're framed by a streak of purple. If you want to leave a little detail in the background just use a slightly smaller aperture. Take it even smaller and your image will be sharp from back to front.

Some farms grow lavender in planters but for those that don't, get down low to the ground or as they're often grown in rows, see if you can find a hill that will give you shots with great patterns and perspective as the rows disappear to vanishing point.


You've read the article, now go take some fantastic images. You can then upload the pictures, plus any advice and suggestions you have into the dedicated Photo Month forum for everyone at ePHOTOzine to enjoy.