Taking Pictures of Wildflowers

Today’s Photo Tips: As springtime approaches, I thought it might be appropriate to look at how best to capture images of wildflowers. As spring wildflowers are so dependent on winter rains, it is important to keep and eye on rainfall patterns in the locations where you plan on shooting. Know your flowers and plan your shooting time accordingly - some open only under direct sunlight and the right air temperature, some bloom at night. Wildflower locations generally remain consistent from year to year due to seed distribution and a variety of other factors.  If you are lucky enough to find a good flower hotspot, record its location for future visits. Here are a few tips that should help you capture better wildflower pictures. Find a Flower in Good Shape: Ensure it’s not missing petals or has poor color. Some individual flowers of the same species will be more saturated in color than other individuals, so take some time to find that “perfect flower.” When shooting slightly downwards, remove dead blossoms, petals or miscellaneous debris surrounding the flower. Keeping a very narrow depth of field will also help achieving this. Look For a Good Background: A good background will help your image by drawing more attention to your subject. Look for flowers in unique groupings with dissimilar elements such as wildflowers intertwined with a prickly pear cactus or growing between large rocks, fallen trees or cactus. Try to emphasize color contrast - such as magenta against yellow, blue/purple against orange. Find the Best Light: Move all around the subject in an effort to find the best light - usually to a position where it's front-lit by the sun. Sometimes using a fill flash is a great to capture more detail. Use a Tripod: Using a tripod will not only help you obtain sharper pictures, it will help to force you to think more about composition. Use a Telephoto Lens: A long lens will help you isolate a sharp flower against an out-of-focus background. But, make sure you use one with a short minimum focus distance (5 ft. or less) Use a Shutter Speed of 1/200 or Greater: One of the biggest problems you’ll face when photographing wildflowers is battling the wind. To help freeze the action of wildflowers use a fast shutter of at least 1/200 sec. NOTE: You may need to increase your ISO to 200 or 400 to get this fast of a shutter. Use a Large Aperture: Use large apertures (f/1.4-f/2.0) to create a small depth of field (blur around the subject flower). Use small apertures (f/16-f/22) to keep everything sharp. Use Burst Mode: Shooting in burst mode will increase your chances of getting a sharp photo (that moment when everything stood still for a microsecond). Diffuse the Light: The ideal time to photograph wildflowers is on an overcast day when the clouds can act as a light diffuser giving you a more balanced light. If you can't photograph on an overcast or cloudy day, place a diffuser between the sun and the subject, varying the distance from the subject, when shooting close-ups. This will help to turn harsh sunlight into a more attractive glow. Shoot Parallel to the Flower: Maximize sharpness in your wildflower photos by making sure your sensor is parallel to the flower’s most important plane, and then carefully focus your lens on this plane. Get down on your knees or even flat on the ground; that’s where the flowers are. Use a Histogram to Check Exposure: When you’re outside, images on your camera’s LCD will appear much brighter than they actually are. So, to ensure you have a good exposure, rely on the RGB histogram. Use the histogram to ensure you’re not overexposing any of the color channels in your photo.