How to photograph flowers

It is possible to take good flower photographs with a compact camera also and not just with a SLR.

Compact cameras often do not have interchangeable lenses like SLRs, but the macro and zoom facilities on most compact cameras will allow photographing subjects in close-up as well as distant.

The first step is to know your camera; it is your greatest tool in creating your master piece. It is also advisable to read the camera manual to familiarise yourself with its basic and advanced functions.

I have often been told by novice/beginner photographers that the manuals tend to be complicated with terminology that tends to be alien to them. My advice to them is to start with the basic controls such as ‘Program Mode’, then move to the advanced features as ‘Aperture/Shutter Priority’, bracketing and others that may be unique to their camera.

Every compact camera should enable you to have some control over the aperture, shutter speed, the ISO, exposure compensation (+/-) and finally focusing. Some compact cameras will allow the user to take full control over the focusing using the ‘manual’ mode.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when photographing flowers.

The main control on a compact camera for close-up photography is the “Macro” button (often with the symbol of a flower). This enables you to focus closer to the subject and also blurs the background, keeping the flower sharp. The camera automatically sets the aperture and the shutter for you, so you don’t have to worry about the exposure, allowing you to just focus and press the shutter release.

Now I will briefly touch on the Aperture Priority (AV) mode. When in this mode, the camera will set the shutter speed to give you the right exposure. This mode is very useful as it allows the user to determine what part of the subject and background to keep in focus and what to blur by choosing the desired aperture. In close-up photography, it if often advisable to blur the background, as it draws the eye on the main subject when viewing the final photograph, therefore having an out of focus background is not considered bad.

When the camera is set to Aperture Priority, if the lowest ‘f’ number is selected, then the area nearest to the focus point will be in focus and the remaining picture will be out of focus. When the highest ‘f’ number is selected, the focus point and the area before and after the point is all in focus. If ‘f’ numbers between the lowest and highest is selected, then through practice and experience you can determine what to keep in focus and what to blur.

As well as the aperture mode, the Shutter mode (TV) is also important. This mode can be used when you are unsure of what aperture to choose and its great for capturing movement in the flowers caused by any wind.

Selecting a slow shutter speed of 1/30 or 1/15 will capture the movement in the leaves on the trees and flowers creating a ‘ghostly’ effect, whilst shutter speed of 1/60 or above will freeze the movement without blur.

I hope this very brief insight into flower photography assists you in your photography. 

Bhupinder Ghatahora

Ghatahora Photography

www.ghatahora.co.uk

info@ghatahora.co.uk

https://twitter.com/Ghatahora

https://www.facebook.com/GhatahoraPhotography

https://www.pinterest.com/ghatahoraphotog/

Understanding Apertures

What is Aperture?

Aperture is one of the three main functions in photography along with the shutter and the ISO.

The aperture is a ‘circular hole’ within the lens and is known as the ‘diaphragm’. To create an image, light passes through the ‘diaphragm’ and travels into the camera image sensor/film creating the image. The amount the ‘diaphragm’ is open to allow light through is measured in f-stops, i.e. f2.8, f4, f5.6, f11, f16, etc.

Beginners often get confused on what ‘f’ numbers mean and how they work. As a general rule: the smaller the ‘f’ number, the larger the opening of the aperture. The larger ‘f’ number, the smaller the opening of the aperture.

Therefore, f2.8 is considered as a large aperture. At f2.8 the diaphragm of the lens is larger and allows more light to come through and fall on the image sensor/film.

At f16, the aperture is small. The diaphragm of the lens is small limiting the amount of light passing through the lens and falling on the image sensor/film.

The below diagram shows the aperture in relation to its ‘f’ numbers: (not to scale)

                       

 How does the aperture work?

Just think about the human eye; the pupil controls the amount of light passing further into the eye by shrinking or expanding.

The aperture works exactly the same way. The amount of light is controlled by changing the f-stops on the camera. As you can see from the diagram, f2.8 allows much more light in than f32.

If the aperture is changed from one ‘f’ stop ‘either way’, it doubles or halves the size of aperture as well as the amount of light passing through.

Moving from f2.8 to f4 the amount of light is halved.

                            

Moving from f8 to f5.6the amount of light is doubled.

                         

When changing the aperture either way, it also affects the shutter speed (the amount of time the shutter is open) and the ‘Depth of Field’- (DOF is what controls the image sharpness).

Aperture and Focus

Choosing a large ‘f’ number such as f22 or f32 will bring all the foreground and background in focus. This aperture setting is always best to use when you want everything to be sharp and in focus.

This photograph has been taken using f22, as you can see everything is in focus from the foreground to the background.

On the other hand, a small ‘f’ numbers such as f2.8, f4 and f5.6 will blur the background, isolating the subject. This aperture setting is useful to use when you want to have parts of your photograph blurred to add impact as well as for photographing close-ups.

The 1^st photograph has been taken using f2.8, as you can see the purple nail varnish bottle is in focus and the rest of the image is blurred. The 2^nd photograph has been taken on f5.6.

For cameras that do not have aperture mode, use  ‘Landscape’ mode  for a large DOF.

And for a small DOF use the  ‘Close-up’ or the  ‘Portrait’ mode.

The aperture adds dimension to the photograph by either blurring the background or keeping everything in focus.

                  

Bhupinder Ghatahora

Ghatahora Photography

www.ghatahora.co.uk

info@ghatahora.co.uk

https://twitter.com/Ghatahora

https://www.facebook.com/GhatahoraPhotography

Landscape Photography part 2

Landscape Photography part 1 can be found on the below link. 

http://ghatahoraphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/landscape-photography.html

Landscape photography Part 2

7) Include the Sky

Including the sky makes the photograph more interesting. Most landscapes images will have either a dominant foreground or sky. If you your image does not have one or the other, photograph can end up being boring. If the sky is bland, boring sky, overcast, do not include the sky in your image and place the horizon in the upper third of your shot. However your foreground has to interesting. On the other hand if the sky is filled lots of clouds and colours include it by placing the horizon lower third.


Clouds - horizon on lower third

Sunrise over Loach Lomond -  horizon on upper third

8)     Leading Lines

You may have asked yourself this question, ‘how can lead the viewer’s eye of into the image’?

Here is the answer; there are a number of ways of doing this.

• Include foreground
•  Blur the image to create a sense of movement
• Changing your view point
• Colours in the landscape: i.e. a field of poppies against the blue sky

Leading lines are one of the best ways into an image which lead the viewers into the photograph. Lines give an image depth, scale and can be a point of interest and create patterns in your image.

Below: Photograph taken at Lake Windmere, Lake District

The image below was taken by pointing the camera up at the top

 

9)     Capturing Movement

When most people think about landscapes they think of calm, peaceful and passive environments – however landscapes are rarely completely still and adding the movement creates the mood, drama, and create a point of interest.

Examples of movement in landscapes are:– moving trees, waves on a beach, water flowing over a waterfall, birds flying overhead, moving clouds, stars etc.

Capturing movement generally means a longer shutter speed, which means more light hitting your camera  sensor. For this reason you will need to use a small Aperture, use a Neutral Density or a Polarization filter or photograph your landscapes at the start or end of the day when there is less light.

Below: Zoomed while taking the photograph

Below: Waves, a faster shutter speed used to freeze the movement of the waves

Below: a close-up of a small waterfall by the road in Scotland. A slow shutter speed used to blur the movement of the water.

10)  Weather

A landscape can change dramatically depending on the weather conditions; choose the right time to photograph.

It’s great to get out on sunny days and photograph landscapes; however an overcast day that is threatening to rain may provide you with a much better opportunity to create an image with great atmosphere and mood.

Look out for storm clouds, mist, sun shining through dark skies, sunsets, sunrises etc. and work with the different elements rather than just waiting for the next clear blue sky day.

Sunrise over Loch Lomond

 

After the storm - Speia toned photograph of the beach after it had stopped raining

I hope this brief insight into Landscape Photography assists you in taking better Landscape photographs.

Bhupinder Ghatahora

Ghatahora Photography

www.ghatahora.co.uk

info@ghatahora.co.uk

https://twitter.com/Ghatahora

https://www.facebook.com/GhatahoraPhotography