Shoot fabulous florals

Shoot fabulous florals

Use the bright, sunny outlook of a summer afternoon to create and shoot a portfolio of colourful flower photographs

While the afternoon light in the middle of summer can be harsh, its high but relatively even illumination means that we can tackle floral subjects with a good amount of confidence. Colours are going to be rich and vibrant, and the flowers themselves will be fully open, so creative compositions are perfectly possible. With plenty of light, we can get fast shutter speeds if needed and there is a lot of contrast to make autofocusing much easier –especially if you’re using a macro lens for big close-ups.

There are several things you need to consider when you shoot in strong sunlight. The powerful overhead lighting means it’s easy to overexpose lighter petal details, so exposure compensation may play an important role in preserving your highlights.

If you use Live View to compose, focus and check your Histogram for exposure errors, seeing the screen will be much harder. You can use a loupe that sits over the LCD to allow you to continue to use Live View. Alternatively, simply switch to the viewfinder – but if you are a DSLR user, remember what you’re seeing through an optical viewfinder won’t match the depth of field achieved.