Some of the best artwork in the world is perfectly natural. Pixar and Ghibli can animate images which bring to mind those fine natural vistas we encounter in the real world. But despite their strongest efforts, the best painting or digital rendering can’t fully recreate what is natural. The best it can do is approximate.
If you don’t believe that, find your way to some of the most beautiful places in the world and take pictures. Granted, there is a learning curve to nature photography, owing to a lack of environmental controls. You can’t make the clouds stay out of the sun’s natural light. You can acquire equipment that is able to capture low-light photos.
There’s a lot of depth to this subject. Entire courses are taught on it in photography schools. From ways to treat wildlife, to equipment, to the best hours for shooting during a given day, there are a lot of hidden factors.
In this writing, we’ll specifically focus on one thing: floral photography. There’s a lot to learn in this area. Here are some tips on flower photography composition to get you started. We’ll explore this concept in further detail here
Get the Angle Right
Some floral photography is technical in nature. You’re not trying to show the vivacious beauty of the flower, you’re trying to get an even “cross-section” from the side, or an isometric perspective from above. Factoring these things in is important. For aesthetic photography using flowers as a subject, you want to take another tactic.
Try multiple angles. Remember the rule of thirds: be sure the flower is either in the center of the picture or deliberately on one side. Sometimes it’s best to take a picture “straight on”, sometimes you want to “tilt” the camera to give the picture more character, or catch it in a different light.Coverage:
Snap Multiple Pictures
In any photographic situation, the best move is catching lots of photos. You’ve seen the archetypal model followed through a photography studio by her photographer. He’s saying stereotypical things about how beautiful and “hot” she is, all the while running around, and getting as many pictures as he can. He might snap a hundred and use five.
You want to do the same. Digital cameras make it possible to capture thousands of images without wasting resources. You simply upload everything on a given data card, chip, or hard drive to your computer, select the ones you like, and delete the rest. You can keep transferring photos to your computer almost infinitely. So don’t restrain yourself.
Prior to digital photography, you’d have 24 to 36 pictures per film roll. These days, you might take a picture from almost the same angle 24 to 36 times before you find the one you like. Lean into that convenient modern reality in floral photography.
Unless You Mean to do Otherwise, Photograph Fresh Flowers
Fresh flowers hold water differently, their organic “infrastructure” is stronger, and they tend to have more full coloration. Certainly, there’s something to be said for time-lapse photography. Set up a time-lapse camera, and you can capture the entire life cycle of a flower.
However, for most floral photography, the idea is to capture an image of a stunningly beautiful flower in the right light. Accordingly, if you’re taking pictures in a studio, get fresh flowers. If you’re capturing them in nature, find flowers that already look really good.
Flower Pictures That Tell a Story
All pictures tell a story. Even if you can’t control everything in the pictures you take, there are ways you can optimize your photography. Splashing a little water on flowers makes sense, fresh flowers are better photographic subjects, capturing multiple images helps you find the best ones, and getting the angle right can produce stunning results.
