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TO SEE A GALLERY OF FLORA & FAUNA IMAGES, CLICK HERE

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How Do You Do © Harjono Djoyobisono

We thank all the talented individuals who "took time to smell the flowers" and submitted outstanding images of the natural world to our latest DE Challenge. There are always hundreds of awesome photos from which to choose, and it’s difficult to narrow them down. We congratulate those whose images were selected to illustrate this how-to story.

Besides photographing people, nature is a very popular subject. Much of this appeal comes from the fact that there’s a sense of wonder and mystery at the beauty of flora and fauna. Through our photography, we can express our fascination with the natural world and share it with others. Whether you enjoy shooting close-ups of buds unfolding, mountain wildflowers in bloom, or creating a work of art with a simple image of greenery and Adobe Photoshop, there are many ways to approach nature photography. It may mean a trip to a botanical garden, setting up a still life of cut flowers, or even going no further than your own backyard. Another advantage to photographing flowers and plants is that they don’t move around, nor are they sometimes uncooperative like people and animals.

Illumination
Lighting makes a great deal of difference between an ordinary nature snapshot and a great photograph. When taking pictures on a sunny day, shoot early in the morning and late in the afternoon for best results. Sidelight will bring out the unique texture of a flower petal, and backlighting often imparts a warm glow, revealing its translucence.

Sunflower Field No. 3 © Carol Watson

Possibly the best lighting for photographing nature close-ups is the soft, diffuse light of open shade or a lightly cloudy day. If you want to photograph a beautiful flower that happens to be in the harsh, contrasty light of midday, you can duplicate soft light by using a diffusing panel, which you can purchase at most camera stores. You can also use sailcloth or a semi-sheer sheet of white cotton and position this fabric between the sun and your floral subject. The shadows created by too-bright sunlight usually cause colors in nature to appear washed-out and contrasty. This is true whether you’re photographing a petal close-up or a field of greenery.

You can use flash creatively to light a flower and reveal fine details. This will also render the background dark, as light falls off quickly from flash illumination. The brief duration of electronic flash also serves to freeze motion, which helps in situations like photographing delicate flowers swaying in the breeze (unless you choose to render them blurred). A small flash unit held a few feet off-camera can simulate the low light of early morning or late afternoon.

Revealed © Lucia De Giovanni

Move Closer
An old adage in photography states, “If you want to improve your images 100%, get closer.” This is especially true of flowers and other small objects in nature. Close-up photography offers a fascinating world of its own. It’s amazing what wonderful details open up when looking through a macro or close-up lens. If you’re shooting with a digital camera or 35mm SLR, you can purchase lenses with true 1:1 macro capability. And most of the compact point-and-shoot cameras on the market today offer a close-up option—just look for the flower icon on your camera’s shooting mode dial. Once you adjust your camera to its close-up setting, you’re ready for a more intimate view of the natural world. Check your manual for your camera’s minimum focusing distance.

Use your lens’s close-up capability to fill the frame with your subject. Because depth of field is very limited in a close-up image, it’s imperative that you render the main subject in sharp focus. For this reason, a tripod is also recommended. A flower that appears very sharp against a blurred background is very striking, but if both subject and background are slightly out of focus, you’ll just have a throwaway snapshot that you’ll want to delete in-camera. Decide what area you want to render sharply, and center the viewfinder there. Press the shutter button down halfway to lock in the focus, and then recompose the shot while keeping the button depressed partway. When you get a desirable composition, click the shutter.

If you have a telephoto zoom lens, you’ll have a lot of versatility in composing

Blue Mounds Tree © C K Sandberg

your shot and find the best background. Move around to see the various possibilities while looking through the viewfinder. Right before shooting, take a final look around the frame to see if there are any extraneous objects you can eliminate. Yes, cropping is always an option in Photoshop, but it’s still best to try to get an image right at the time you shoot it.
      

The Big Picture
You don’t need to limit yourself to tight shots of a single flower. Formal gardens and fields of wildflowers provide great opportunities to create some exciting nature photos. Many of these areas are reflections of their locale, such as the plantation gardens of the American south, or the exotic floral gardens of Hawaii. If you’re visiting a location with formalized rows of flowerbeds, a high vantage point will reveal their patterns. At ground level, you can show the perspective of the long rows of flowers. Either way, a relatively wide-angle lens (in the 17–35mm range) will allow you to take in a wide view. Peak seasons like springtime are obvious times to visit a botanical garden, but many of these locations may feature seasonal foliage and flowers that bloom at differing times of the year.

Like gardening, photographing flora and fauna can be a peaceful and introspective communion with nature. Take your time and think about the elements that need to come together to make a great image.



Take our next Double Exposure Challenge—look for details in our Call for Entries in this issue.

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TO SEE A GALLERY OF FLORA & FAUNA IMAGES, CLICK HERE

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Let us know if you found this article useful, and tell us what kinds of articles you'd like to see in upcoming issues. Send your comments and ideas to Lynne Eodice.