The British Gladiolus Society
Photographing Gladiolus
You have grown that beautiful Gladioli and its taken all year, now spend a few moments to capture that bloom. Getting a picture suitable for this website takes time and to ensure that the webmaster gets perfect pictures of your prize winning Gladioli learn how to take pictures of flowers in this tutorial. getting your gear together and in working order, choosing the right lens, having a tripod set up and then preparing to take the image. Pause and examine your subject before pressing the shutter. Some questions to ask:
- how to crop it - get in close or take a wider angle shot?
- what is the focal point/point of interest? Insect, stem, colours, texture, shape etc?
- what angle will you shoot from to get the best perspective?
- how much depth of field do you want?
- how is the subject lit?
- which flower is the best specimen for your photo?
- what distractions are there in the background and foreground?
- which is the best format to shoot in? (horizontal or vertical)
One of the questions above is worth a little extra consideration - ‘what distractions are there in the background and foreground?’ Gardens and shows are filled with all kinds of potential distractions. They might be the tool shed, a fence, other flowers, the clothes line. at shows people and especially other flowers ( why are you taking other peoples flowers?) etc. A decision needs to be made whether you want to include these elements or remove them from your shot. Either option is legitimate but in most cases you'll probably want to remove them unless they in some way enhance your shot. There are a number of options open to you if you want to remove distractive elements:
- Use a simple background find a position that provides a plain, non-competing background. Or place a black or attractively colored sheet of cardboard or best black velvet behind the flower.
- move them - some distractions can be moved pretty easily so that they're not in your frame
- move yourself - find a new angle to shoot from that has a less distracting background
- crop them out - go for a tighter framing of the flower either by using a zoom or moving physically closer to it
- use aperture to narrow depth of field - as we highlighted in our introduction to aperture, if you choose a wider aperture (small numbers) you'll decrease the depth of field. As you do this you make elements in the foreground and background more and more out of focus.
- move your subject - I'm not a big fan of intervening in a scene too much but some photographers will move the flower to a new location for the shot. This might include getting someone to hold the stem on a different angle or could even mean picking the flower and taking it elsewhere. If you're going to do this make sure you are aware of the environmental impact of your photography.
Sharp focus is important in all forms of photography but in flower Macro photography it is crucial and even a tiny adjustment can have massive implications for your shot as the depth of field is so small. In macro photography your depth of field is a game of millimeters so attention to detail in focusing is something to be worked upon.
Lighting
Ideally your subject will be wonderfully lit without you needing to offer any assistance, however the world of outdoor macro photography is often far from ideal and there might be a need to intervene with either artificial light or some kind of reflector.
Using a flash is something to experiment with. Generally you'll find that direct flash on automatic mode might wash photos out a little so consider using a flash diffuser and/or bouncing your flash off another object. I find that the more subtle and
indirect the flash is the more natural your shots will look.
Reflectors can also be handy in shooting flowers as they give a nice, natural, diffused light into areas of your subject that might not be getting natural sunlight. Experiment with different colored reflectors as they can really impact the colors in your shot.
Point and Shoot Cameras - if you're shooting with a point and shoot camera with no interchangeable lenses you'll obviously have less options here. You will probably have the ability to switch your camera into macro mode
(which will allow you to focus a little closer and will tell the camera to use a large aperture giving you a shallow depth of field).
Some point and shoot cameras do have the option of a macro lens attachment also to allow closer focusing (see your owners manual).
Basic Techniques
The techniques that I use depend on the situation, but generally include the following:- Manual focus is almost essential so you can position the plane of critical focus at just the right spot. In close-up photography about half of the available depth of field is in front of the place of critical focus and half behind it.
- Exposure compensation with auto exposure bracketing (AEB). Not all cameras have this mode but it lets you capture a series of shots at slightly different exposures. You can often specify the difference in exposure (1/3, 1/2, 2/3 or 1 full stop) n and the number of exposures in the series.
- Sequential burst mode runs off the series of exposures as I hold down the shutter button.
- Self-timer or manual shutter release. Which I use depends on the situation. If it is calm with no breeze at all, I much prefer the self-timer. It eliminates any possibility of me introducing blur as I press the shutter button. If I want to get really sharp images, I also use mirror lockup. If there is any breeze, I keep my finger on the shutter button and when there is a pause in the breeze and the plant stabilizes, I press and hold it down to shoot the series. It takes practice but you can press the shutter button so smoothly and slowly that it doesn't shake the camera. I sometimes, hold it halfway down if I think the breeze is about to stop. This sets exposure and means I only have to press it the rest of the way to quickly take the pictures.
- To make the best use of my available depth-of-field, I compose the shot so all of the important elements fall on, or close to, the same plane.
Submitting images for this web site you should create high-quality images. The webmaster will prepare them for the web page but he requires sharp, large pictures to work with. Varieties named with division plus growers name helps him show your pictures to their best. Copy to a Cd and send to the webmaster. So following these simple rule will improve your picture taking enormously and be ready to be displayed for the album or website gallery.
