Six ways to shoot… Natural spring colour
1 Saturated colour
Frame tightly on a clump of bright spring flowers, like crocuses, pop on a polariser and take a shot that’s full of deeply saturated colour.
2 Colour blur
Long stemmed flowers such as daffodils move a lot in the breeze, so capture a bed of moving flowers with a slower shutter speed of 1/15 sec. Flowers growing around a tree work well: the tree’s trunk will remain sharp while the flowers blur.
3 Carpet colours
As petals fall from fruit trees like a cherry tree, they can form a carpet of colour underneath. Shoot directly down for an abstract composition, but remember to remove any twigs or dirt that distracts from the colour.
4 Background wash
A shallow depth of field works well with colour. Focus on one subject at f/2.8 – wider if possible – and allow the flowers in the background to become diffuse, almost washing the frame with colour.
5 Pink riot
Clifftops can be very colourful in spring when pink sea thrift comes into bloom. Try taking some wideangle landscapes using the sea thrift as a riot of foreground interest.
6 Blue-sky abstracts
The coming of spring can also bring some beautiful blue-sky days, with broken white clouds acting as contrast against the intense colour. Try shooting a series of blue-sky abstracts, capturing fragments of clouds against bold sky backdrops; then pick your three favourite shots and use Photoshop to combine them into a triptych arrangement.