Saturday, December 13, 2008

Tips On Making Better Flower Photos

By Jeff Johnson

When making pictures of a flower garden, learn some tricks from the professionals. This article shows you some simple things you can do to enhance the quality of your flower photos a great deal.

When it comes to flowers in a garden, taking good pictures of them is easy if you pay attention to the light. One thing you should usually not do is to have bright sunlight when taking pictures of flowers. Bright sunlight can cause the photos to have shadows and unflattering contrasts.

A digital camera can only do so much. It has difficulties handling a subject with very strong contrast between light and dark. Therefore, the picture may turn out not showing your subject at its best.

Overcast days may be less pleasing for you, but they do produce a type of light which tends to give pleasing results for your flower photographs. Therefore, try shooting flowers on such days, and notice the result.

You can use various other techniques to get the right background and the right type of lighting for pictures of flowers and gardens.

Digital cameras nowadays always have a zoom lens. By zooming in, you get a smaller portion of the background; while if you use a wide angle setting, you get more of the background. Therefore, you can eliminate distracting details by zooming in - ie. using a telephoto setting.

The professionals have a knack for making pictures at special times of day, such as early in the morning or near sunset. This is because the light is very special then, and the pictures are likely to be more pleasing. You can try this technique also, and add new qualities to your photos.

Finally, if you don't have enough light on the subject, like in case of a flower in a very shady spot, you can use a mirror or a piece of aluminum foil. Hold it so that it reflects extra light on the subject, to make it stand out better. This will help focus the attention on the flower that you are trying to capture. - 16003

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