Wide-ANGLEFLOWERS

1 Go wide

A wide-angle lens fits in more of the scene and therefore more flowers. They naturally have some pincushion distortion, and that distortion can evoke a sense of being a small amongst the undergrowth, looking up at the flowers. Anything wider than 35mm will be perfect.

3 Get a better view

Engage Live View to see better without having to peer awkwardly through the viewfinder. A Nikon with an articulated screen (such as the D750, D7500 or D5600) makes things much easier. Don’t have an articulated screen? We’re afraid it’s lying in the mud for you!

5 Meter to zero

To correctly balance the light in your image, engage Matrix metering; this takes an average reading across the whole frame, from bright highlights to dark shadows. You don’t want to blow out the sky so aim to hit 0 on the light meter; our resultant shutter speed was 1/25 sec.

2 Stay steady

A great bit of kit to keep your Nikon steady while low to the ground is to use a mini-tripod. The Joby DSLR Gorillapod can hold a Nikon along with a small lens with ease, and the legs can be bent into any kind of shape, making it easy to get a low angle shooting upwards.

4 Blur the background

A wide aperture, such as f/4, decreases your depth of field, which means when you focus on that closest flower, more of the flowers behind it will be blurred out. It was bright on the day we shot, so we kept our ISO at 100 and set Manual exposure mode.

6 Set the AF point

Choose single AF point or group mode autofocus in the custom setting menu, then move the AF point on the LCD screen until you’re focused on your nearest flower. If it’s windy, take the shot immediately after focusing or your flower may move and become out of focus.