FLORA PHOTOGRAPHY
(Not just pretty pictures of flowers)

Even in spring/summer of 2020, we can find great flowers or plants to photograph while "keeping our distance." We don't have to wear face masks in front of beautiful flowers! 

Flora, or flowers and plants, provide us with some of the most colorful, psychological, and artistic subjects to photograph. Done right, we can bring out their true palettes, make them shower us with differing degrees of feelings and sensations, and create pleasing 

compositions. This is not about masculinity or femininity. It's about art

Some of the key factors I look for when photographing flora are:

1) Lighting. I highly prefer overcast days if they're outside, or indoors with natural side  lighting from nearby windows. If I find a great specimen lit only by artificial lighting, then I change my White Balance to fit the situation. Sometimes AUTO White Balance does a better job than Incandescent/Tungsten or Florescent WB. 

I usually, not always, stay away from bright sunny days. The stark, harsh lighting from sunlight creates deep shadows and sometimes blown-out highlights that usually don't make for an acceptable image. That said, I have at times taking a negative and turned it into a positive. 

2) The specimen itself. I look for a specimen or group of specimens that are fresh and without major flaws. Some minor flaws can be "covered up" with photo editing software.

3) The environment. Sometimes, if the background is too ugly or difficult to handle photographically. I will use my 32" white diffuser as a backdrop. This gives my subject(s) a studio-like appearance, like I photographed it in my studio. Sometimes I will use my large non-reflective black material, which I carry with me when photographing flora. That too gives it a studio-like appearance. My decision to use either my diffuser or black material depends on the subject and its colors. It is strictly a personal choice. 

Sometimes, given the subject and/or how I'm feeling that day, I might go beyond creating a pretty picture of a pretty flower. I like to experiment with various in-camera techniques, like double exposures, my swirling technique, zooming, or moving my camera slightly downward, left-to-right, right-to-left, etc. I prefer these in-the-field photographic challenges to spending hours getting creative with photo editing software. The former requires photography skills; the latter requires computer skills.  

So, with this introduction, let me share a few examples.

This is one of many double exposures in my collection. You can visit my website for more examples. I provide more detail about this in my book, RIGHT BRAIN PHOTOGRAPHY. Basically, the first step is to take a slightly out of focus shot of the subject. I then take an in-focus shot of the same subject, underexposing it by about 2/3 of a stop to make sure the combined image doesn't come out over exposed. It's a really cool technique to practice on.  

For this image I applied my Swirl technique. This is hard to do for a lot of my students, but I have seen several great images created by some of them. It takes practice, persistence, and patience....and persistence. Once you master it, you can't stop! 😉 And, please, for you left brain photographers, don't let perfection be your goal--just loosen up and flow with it. As the artist Jackson Pollock once said, "I like it when I don't have total control."

It usually works better without the tripod; just hand-held. Place your right hand index finger on the shutter button. Your left hand will hold the camera from the bottom of the camera. You are going to swirl the camera without changing the position of your left hand, and just pivot/swirl around that point. You can swirl to your left or to your right, whatever feels more natural to you. I tend to swirl to my left; counter-clockwise. Be careful not to create an arch with your camera; just swirl. Again, it takes practice. Try it. You'll like it, and maybe get hooked on it! 

                                 

I'm sure you can relate to this real life scenario. You come across this beautiful specimen, but no matter where you stand or move, the background is just terrible and distracting. Sometimes, even when you use a wide open aperture (low number f/stop, like f/7.1), it still isn't good enough. What to do? Well, we have a choice of just moving on to something better, or.......

This is what I do. I either use my white diffuser or my large black piece of flannel material and use them as a backdrop. This works amazingly well. It gives my final image that studio-like look. Unless I told you, you would never guess the image was created outdoors in the middle of the day. The diffuser or black material convert my backgrounds to backdrops. 

For this beauty, I used two techniques: a double exposure, and I placed my diffuser behind the subject to eliminate a very busy, ugly, and distracting background. 

                                                             

Oh, by the way, if you just happen to find a great specimen, a great background, but an overly bright sunny day, create your own overcast sky by using your diffuser to diffuse the light hitting your subject. Just place it between the sun and your subject--voila!

White-on-white can create awesome artistic renderings. It can also be black-on-black. When I saw this iris, I knew it would look good with a white background, my diffuser. What happens is that some of the white from the subject simply blends into the background, which gives the image an ethereal feel.

This is how that same flower looked without the diffuser. Big difference, no?

Visit my website to see how images look when I use a black background. I used my black flannel material for "Peppers #1" and "Purple Majesties."  

And, yes, sometimes I do like to photography the subject "as is" However, even then I need to pay attention to the background. In this case, the background was not ugly or busy, but I didn't want it to compete for attention with my center of interest. The easy solution was to,  1) Bring out the 200 mm lens, which inherently has less depth of field, and, 2) Couple that with an f/9 f/stop, which blurred the background nicely. 

     

Plants also provide great opportunities.for photographic ventures. I was attracted to these palms. In real life, they don't seem like much to the naked eye. I was in the middle of a workshop and kept saying to my students to "tighten up" and go for those abstracts. In order to enhance the greens and yellows, I underexposed the scene by a -2/3, which is equivalent to giving the scene 75% less exposure than the camera light meter thought I needed. 

You noticed I did not mention what this subject is. If I label the subject, I confine myself to trying to photograph, in this case, the palms. For this type of subject, I am more interested in the lines, design, lighting, and shapes rather than the subject itself. I don't photograph subjects; I photograph what the subjects give me.

    

Composition applies as well to flowers and plants. Before I even take the camera out of my bag, I spend several seconds or a few minutes looking at my subject and deciding what I am going to include within those four corners and what I am going to leave out; how I am going to position the elements in the scene; whether it would be more effective and more powerful if I create a landscape image or vertical. For this scene I chose vertical. Doing so eliminated several other plants and flowers that weakened these four lilies and the lily pads, which served as the foundation for them. 

I try as much as possible to make the elements in the scene contain the viewers eye within the four corners. Can you see that? It's called composition, the #1 step in every image I create.    

So, keep your distance and go find some great specimens and experiment, explore, and be bold. Don't 'let perfection get in the way. Have fun, and be safe.