How to Take Great Flower Pictures
Ahhh, spring. The flowers are blooming, my Early Girl Tomato has a giant tomato hanging heavy on the vine, and the Jasmine outside our kitchen window has exploded with fragrance. It’s the perfect time of year to showcase your flowers and garden in photographs. Here are some easy tips for making your flower pics leap off the page…
1) Shoot in full sun or dappled sunlight. Flowers shot in the shade often look dull.
2) Try sprinkling the flowers with a little water to add some dimension and sparkle to the petals.
3) Frame your shot so the flower fills the frame. Wide shots of flowers often look lost in a sea of foliage or the composition can look confused by too many flowers in the frame.
4) For point-and-shoot photographers, one of the best tools for shooting flowers is the macro button. It’s the button on your camera that looks like a flower. The macro button allows you to focus the camera very close to the flower. The two shots below were taken with the camera only 2 inches from the plants.
5) Be aware of the background. Is there a chainlink fence or a funky-looking plant behind the shot? If you really want to shoot that particular flower but the background doesn’t look great, simply place a white, black or maybe sky blue card behind it. You can get really creative by placing an orange card behind a purple flower or even something metalic for some freaky contrast.
Responses and Conversations
I like the water-on-the-flowers tip. I’ve often wanted to grab a spray bottle and mist a flower before shooting it. Haven’t done it yet — I need to get out and do this before everything dies off this summer.
Comment by Brian Auer on May 28th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Seriously! It gets so hot at my house in the summer, I’m sure all my pretty flowers will dry up. For this droplet shot, I used the sprayer on my hose to sprinkle the flowers and then let it dry a bit before shooting.
Comment by Stephanie Simpson on May 28th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Occasionally bright sunlight is a bit too much – it can create a lot of harsh shadows. Last time I went out to find flowers around sunset and loved the lighting (gallery). The other alternative is waking up at dawn, but that’s much less likely to happen for me.
Comment by wingerz on May 28th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
I recently discovered your blog and wanted you to know that I have really enjoyed your great tips.:)
Comment by Mrs. C on May 28th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Really? 2 inches from the flower? Hmmm… I’m going to have to try that.
I’m new to your site, as well. Thank you for the helpful tips.
Comment by Melinda on May 28th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
Awesome! Love these. I absolutely love taking pictures of plants and flowers. The colors are so vibrant (as you already know).
Comment by Amy on May 29th, 2007 at 5:57 am
You’re right, Wingerz, bright sunlight can be overwhelming to the poor flower. The best thing flower photographers can do, I think, is to take pictures of their garden at different times of day and see which variety of light looks best. With practice, you can learn to see the light and know when the flowers will look their most beautiful.
Comment by Stephanie Simpson on May 29th, 2007 at 7:44 am
Thank you to everyone for your nice comments! I’m so glad you like the site!
Comment by Stephanie Simpson on May 29th, 2007 at 7:46 am
Great article. Looking forward to seeing the site develop.
Comment by Paul @ www.photographyvoter.com on May 29th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
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Comment by Raj Gorai on May 30th, 2007 at 4:35 am
Dear Stephanie,
I am interested in purchasing 2-3 large digital photographs of flowers. Do you have a studio in Los Angeles that I can visit to view your work? My number is 310-260-2412.
Thank you, Carole Warren
Comment by Carole Warren on January 10th, 2009 at 1:52 pm