4 How to shoot high-key blooms
Capture simple and bright images of beautiful blossom, framed against a bleached-out sky background
Spring is a great time for shooting high-key images, where there are more light tones than shadows, and the perfect subject is the delicate blossom on the trees.
To shoot blossom on location, look out for a bright but overcast day so the sky provides a clean, white backdrop. Shooting like this can trick the meter into underexposing (like our silhouetted image, opposite), so to ensure the blossom is exposed correctly, you will need to use positive Exposure Compensation. Depending on the sky brightness, start at an Exposure Value of +1.0 and review using your histogram. Nudge the tones as far to the right as you can go without totally overexposing them.
Your other option is to set up a shot indoors with a single sprig of blossom, using a white card as a background and soft lighting from a north-facing window.