Get that floral feeling
Capitalize on daffodils, bluebells, snowdrops and wild garlic sprouting across the country
Fill the frame
START off your spring photo sessions by taking photos of flowers in your garden or local parks. Choose a main flower and fill the frame, washing the background with the rest of the plants. Spring is a great time to get photos with bags of colour; increasing temperatures trigger the burst of activity from beneath the ground and buds begin to open. Don’t just think about the subject when you’re composing a shot, be aware of its surroundings. In some instances, you may want to include empty space (known as negative space) to enhance and give the subject some ‘grounding’. With a collection of flowers with an array of shapes and colours on display, forget negative space and get in really close. This is what I’ve done for my close-up photo below of a Pale Flax flower. I used a wide aperture of f/3.5 with my Canon EF 100mm f/2.8l Macro IS USM lens.
Golden ratio
USE THE golden ratio for flower photos to draw the eye around the image to the centre of the flower. The golden ratio, like the rule of thirds, is a great technique to implement in your florals. It’s a geometric formula used since Renaissance times by artists and architects alike to create aesthetically pleasing compositions. While the mathematical principles are complex, the concept is simple. If you’re shooting a subject such as a flower that has a distinctive central feature and focal point, don’t position it in the centre of the frame; position it to the sides where the lines intersect with each other, and think about how the eye is led on a journey around the image to the main point of focus. When cropping in Photoshop you can use overlay grids such as a Golden Ratio (shown above) and Golden Spiral.
Colour is crucial
SPRING is all about colour, so try to dominate the scene with a single bold colour. Yellow daffodils, lovely bluebells, even a sea of snowdrops can invigorate and create impactful shots. Close-up macro shots can capture incredible detail but it’s also worth including these vibrant flowers in your wider landscapes too. If you’re lucky to find a large area or even a field of flowers, you’re in for a treat with lots of options for compositions. In my daffodil field, leading lines draw the viewer’s eye through the scene to the horizon, and setting sun. Also, look for other interesting directional features, such as walls or paths going through flowerbeds.
Stand proud
YOU DON’T have to go far to find spring flora, in fact, you could bag some nice images simply by heading down to the park during your lunch hour. Public gardens are some of the best places available to visit all year round; there’s always a vast array of colours and types of flowers and they’re usually always regimentally planted, so you can really play with shapes and lines in your compositions. Look for patterns, blocks of colour and even the one that stands out, all of these can make for some interesting images. Use the composition and camera technique tips to your best advantage.
Watch the exposure
SOME plant foliage and petals on flowers reflect light stronger than others, dialling in the correct exposure can help and make sure you don’t blow out details. When shooting in semi-auto Shutter priority (Tv) or Aperture priority (Av) modes, you can brighten or darken shots with exposure compensation. This is ideal if your camera’s choice of exposure isn’t correct. Choosing between positive or negative compensation ,and keeping an eye on the exposure level indicator as you change these, will create your desired effect and help so you don’t blow out your highlights.