Spring is certainly here! Although the weather has not been great in the north, we have had a taste of summer in the south and Mother Nature has been romping away! At last the trees are turning green and there are splashes of colour in the hedgerows and in our gardens. Share some of your flower pictures with us!
Those of us lucky enough to have a macro lens will be making sure that the focus is on the centre of the flower (the stamens are a bit like eyes on people, that is where the main focus should be). Turn your cameras into ‘macro’ mode and get up close to take full advantage of clear crisp flowers against a creamy background. If you are shooting and abundance of flowers think about composition to make the most of the scene.
Megan
In my view, there is only one way to take photos of flowers – in macro! I use the smallest f stop possible, and then shoot. I am not a professional photographer, unlike the others, so I use AV mode, so the ISOs and speed get set for me. I love this bluebell picture, as the bluebell is in focus (due to f stop of 5.4) and the background is all blurry, and the light provides good bokeh!
Vix
I love to set my outside table with, you guessed it, flowers! Think outside the box though, or vase in this case, and see what you can find to display your chosen blooms. For this image of a Germini (baby Gerbera) I have placed it on a log and adore the way they complement each other. I have then put a texture overlay on using Photoshop and voila! (f3.2, 200th second, iso 100, Canon 5d, 50mm lens)
Rosie
If there is one thing that means spring to me it is blossom. From my earliest days walking to school down streets lined with blossom heavy trees in the douce suburbs of Edinburgh to this week in Barcelona where blossom is just fading from the shady squares and boulevards I cannot get enough of it’s tender heralding of spring. In this image Flora, the girl photographer, has clambered into just the right spot to shoot the blossom at it’s best.
Penny
I really didn’t know what to choose! I have lots of neighbours with the most gorgeous magnolia trees that are flowering at the moment so I used a Lensbaby lens to give a tilt shift effect to these gorgeous dark pink blooms.
Nat
Spring is so wonderful. All the new emerging life and colours appearing really lift the gloom of winter. Experimenting with focus and blur is part of the fun when working with macro lenses. Here’s an example I shot whilst experimenting for an abstract feel. I love the fluid energy you can create by trial and error.
Melissa
You don’t always have to have the flowers in focus. Shooting through flowers or foliage is a great way to frame a picture and get beautiful soft bokeh (blurry bits) at the edges of the frame. In this case, I got someone to hold some sprays of blossom up in front of the models I was shooting. But you could easily do this by getting up close to some foliage and focusing on your subject passing behind the flowers / tree / branches / whatever! Try it – it’s fun!
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