Which lens works best?
Wide-angle lenses (between the focal lengths of 14 and 35mm) are great for showing flowers in context, particularly if you’re limited by where you can stand in order to take the shot. But they can distort flowers that are close to the lens and, because they pull so much into the shot, it can be quite challenging to keep distracting objects out of the picture.
Longer-focal-length lenses (70mmplus, say) enable you to create ‘tidier’ compositions. Their narrow angle of view makes it easier to line up the subject with a clean backdrop, and they make it easier to achieve shallow depth-of-field effects that can make the subject stand out. They do require faster shutter speeds in order to produce sharper handheld images, although image stabilisation can help. For flower details, you will need a macro lens.