16 DIGITAL CAMERA^
1
Find a field
This particular crop was in
Wiltshire, but poppies bloom
around the country – and the
world. Speak to other local
photographers or simply defer to
Google and sites like Shot Hotspot
(www.shothotspot.com) to hunt
for a patch near you. Poppies are
most often found on cultivated
farmland and barley fields, but
they do also pop up on roadsides.3
The golden hour
“All of these photos were taken during
the golden hour (around 8.30pm in
June),” says Kate. “I shot into the sun
to backlight each of the stems, and the
exposure compensation was stopped
down a little to ensure they weren’t
overexposed.” Even with a low ISO of
100, Kate’s shutter speeds ranged
from 1/250 to 1/400 sec, so she
was able to work without a tripod, for
more freedom with the composition.2
Lens choice
A macro lens is commonly used
to isolate one subject in close-
up. Here, Kate used a Canon
100mm macro lens to capture a
wider scene. The view – halfway
between a portrait and landscape- immerses us in the field, as does
Kate’s low shooting angle. She’s
enhanced the dreamy feeling by
setting the lens’ widest aperture
of f/2.8 to blur distant flowers.
Changing the
shot direction
We’ve already mentioned that
poppies can be captured in all lights,
but your shooting angle will affect
the look of them. While all of Kate’s
images here were captured around
sunset, in this example she chose
to photograph them from a different
side. “This image with the bright
blue sky was taken with my back
to the sun, to make the most
of the colours,” she says.
On your own shoot, move around
flowers and notice how the angle of
light changes their appearance. Are
they in shadow, or is a rim light
enhancing their outline? Turn on
Live View to see the effects of
movement more vividly, and compose
shots from extremely low angles.(^) AUGUST 2019 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com
Use a reflector
When you shoot straight into
a bright or low sun, you’ll often
need to underexpose the scene
to preserve highlight details.
This can then render the main
subjects as too dark. If you
know the sun is going to be
low on your golden hour flower
shoot, pack a mini reflector.
(A handheld mirror works too.)
Angle it towards the darkened
flower petals to fill shadowed
areas with extra light.
Le
ft:^
Jen
ny
So
uth
all
- Te
ale,^ Right^ andbelow:^ KateSouthall