Photographing flowers and gardens

With such an abundance of subject matter to pick from it can be difficult choosing what to photograph; a wide view of the whole garden or a flower closeup.

You may want to get even closer and venture into the realms of macro photography, flowers that are the same size or larger on your digital camera sensor as they are in real life!

Garden photography tips

What catches your eye first? What would you first snap with your camera? Is the rustic bench in the shade of the overhanging tree, which looks like the ideal place to sit and rest awhile? Or the blaze of colour in the flower beds? Is the light throwing one part of the garden into shade while highlighting another area? Does the garden path invite you to walk along it and explore?

When visiting a new garden for the first time, I make it a rule that I won't take my camera out of the bag for at least 15 minutes while I just look and study, picturing the shots in my mind before I take them. I bend down or sit on the ground to see the garden from a different viewpoint. Or I might stand on something to raise me above eye level so I can look down and see any patterns that emerge.

With a garden full of interesting colours and textures in front of you, it is tempting to zoom your camera right out to its widest setting, in order to get everything in. Before you do this, stop and consider whether this will really show the garden of to its best effect. Reduced to snapshot size the splendour of your surroundings will be diminished and it will be difficult to pick out the details that attracted you in the first place. Wide angle lenses have their place when photographing flowers and gardens but don't just use them automatically, think first.

Try to find something to lead the viewers eye into your photograph. Make them want to explore the garden and see what it has to offer. Including the garden path in the shot is an obvious way to do this, as in the photograph at the top of this page, but you can also use a set of steps, as in the photo right, or even a row of flowers. Try to use the smallest aperture you can depending on the light available (click here to learn more about shutter speed and aperture) to keep everything in focus. However, in this situation the shutter on the camera will need to be open longer in order to let enough light hit the sensor, so try to support the camera, perhaps on a wall, to help avoid camera shake and blurred photos.

Flower closeups

Accurate focusing is important here and it may help to support your camera on a small tripod, but remember the flower itself can still move in the breeze! You will need lots of patience and to take lots of photographs in order to get a perfect shot!

I like to set my camera in macro mode and zoom that lens right out, then get up close to the flower. Some point and shoot digital cameras will allow focusing in macro down to a few centimetres while if you have a digital SLR camera you can attach a dedicated macro lens.

To get around the narrow depth of field it can help to hold the camera parallel to a number of blooms so that more are within those important few inches that will be in focus as in the photo, right. Wide angle lenses, by their nature, give more depth of field than telephoto lenses giving you a bit more focus to play with.

I tend to try not to interfere with what nature presents to me, but on occasion it may be necessary to do a bit of weeding or "cosmetic surgery" in order to remove deadheads or twigs that protrude into the field of view. If you have an assistant (willing or not) you could ask them to hold the offending item out of the way while you are taking pictures of flowers, rather then damaging the plant. A little care now can make for better digital photos in the long run.

Before you press the shutter look carefully. Flowers might not be the only thing in the shot! If the background is distracting you could ask that patient assistant to hold a piece of black paper or card behind the flower to obscure it. If you are alone, you can use an item from your photographers tool kit to attach the card to surrounding stems. You do have a tool kit don't you?

Also take a moment to consider the light that is hitting the flower. Is it causing ugly shadows on the lower petals? Is it so bright that you cannot see any texture? Try moving your position and see if the lighting and/or background improves. Oh and be careful not to throw your own shadow onto the flower!

Using your photographs

Share your flower photographs

If you would like a critique of your photography please add "critique please" at the bottom of your submission. Often suggestions from others help us to improve our photographic skills. If you are responding to someone else's request for a critique please be fair, helpful and consider how you would react to criticism.

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