Unveilthebeautyofbotanicalsby
capturingthebestperspectives
Capture plant
portraits
You’dthinkitwouldbeeasytocapture
attractiveimagesofplantsandflowers.
Whencomparedtotheothersubjectsa
photographermayencounterthroughouttheir
career,theassumptionisthatastationary
flowerposeslittledifficulty.However,the
colourfulnatureofflowersmeansthat
accuratereproductioniscritical,especially
undermixedlightingconditionssuchasyou’ll
encounterinthefield.Compositionisalso
oftenunexpectedlycomplex,asfindingthe
bestfocallength,angleandshootingposition
iscomplicatedbyaconstrictedworking
environment.
Lenschoiceplaysanimportantpartinthe
stylingofashotandneedstobecarefully
consideredbeforeaselectionismade.Althoughthereisfreedomtotryoutmultiple
approacheswhenshootingflowers–unlike
whenyou’reshootingskittishsubjectssuch
asinsects–thiscanactuallyplacemore
pressureonyourcreativity.Chooseawider
macroopticsuchasa35mmtoenableclose
focusingbutintroduceastretchedperspective,
separatingthesubjectfrombackground
elements.Conversely,atelephotomacro,such
asa150mmor200mmmodel,willcompress
elementsandmakeeachzoneoftheframe
seemclosertogetherspatially.Ifyouusea
longerlens,payextraattentiontothecolours
inthebackground,astheseareaswill‘bleed’
acrossmoreoftheimageareaandimpact
significantlyontheoverallchromaticbalance
oftheshot.How toshoot inwind
CONTINUOUS SHOOTING
Capture multiple frames of
the subject in burst mode to
increase your sharpness ‘hit rate’.© Peter Fenech© Peter FenechTECHNIQUES