Best optic for poppies

How slow can you go when shooting without a tripod?

Which White Balance setting is best for shooting lavender fields?

I want to get some good landscape shots with poppies, but I’m not sure what lens would be best to use. Can you advise?

As a general rule, I tend to opt for a medium telephoto lens. This gives me the option of shooting at around 70mm for a wider vista, or zooming in on flowers at around 200mm. That said, a wide-angle lens is also worth having because if you can fill the foreground with poppies and have other elements within the environment then you can create an interesting composition.

With a wide-angle lens you need to get low and right over the poppies with the camera so they dominate the foreground. If you only have a few scattered patches of flowers, this approach won’t work, as the foreground won’t be interesting enough. That’s when you reach for the telephoto, because you can get great shots by narrowing your field of view.

Backlighting also works brilliantly with poppies. The one thing to avoid is wind, since poppies are fragile and easily moved.

Taking it slow

QRoger Adams

AThere are all sorts of recommendations, such as taking the focal length as your slowest shutter speed, that can help out. For example, when you shoot with a 200mm, 1/200 sec should be the slowest shutter speed you use.

There’s no doubt that the longer the lens, the faster you need to shoot at. Big lenses are heavy and uncomfortable, and we all wobble a bit, especially at the end of a long day’s photography. With a wider lens, you can almost certainly get away with shutter speeds slower than the focal length – you just need to be careful with your technique.

I’d always recommend the use of a tripod, but sometimes it’s not possible. As long as I am in a stable position, I squeeze the shutter rather than jabbing, and hold my breath at the moment of exposure, I’ve often dropped down lower than I should and still avoided any issues. This interior shot was taken handheld at just a 1/8 sec on a wide-angle lens without stabilisation, and it is pin-sharp; when I took it, I was leaning against the wall in a crouched position, with my elbow tucked in. Be sensible with your technique and you’ll be OK.

Lots of lovely lavender

QTracy Broomhead

AWhen I go to Provence to shoot lavender, I set Daylight White Balance because I find it gives a more natural-looking blue/ purple to the lavender. Lavender can look very different, depending on the intensity and direction of the sunlight, so having that consistency of white balance means that I have the same starting point for each shot when it comes to processing. For early or late shoots, when there is some warm lighting, I will nudge colour temperature to the right to warm it up a bit. Ultimately you need to use your eye to get a result that reflects your memory of the colours at the time, so it’s important to shoot raw files and have as much flexibility as possible.

A slow shutter speed can be useful if you don’t have a tripod.

Daylight: 5,200K This photo was taken with the Daylight White Balance setting.

It’s evident from the above pictures just how pronounced a difference the type of lens you choose can make.