Monday, September 17, 2007
welcome from me ..my first entry
‘Flowers, Natural Light and Beautiful lmages.
Flower photography is more than taking pictures. I feel it is the art of creating beautiful images from nature and I am often asked by other photographers and flower lovers “how do you get that glow, that warmth to your flowers?”
I shall try and explain.
When I set out to work with a flower, I am very aware of what the light is doing before I leave the house, and more or less have an idea of how I am going to work with it. As most of you will know, when creating an image, early morning and late afternoon are usually the best times to work. This second image is in the last of the early evening sun.
I always find the morning sun works better if I am looking for a sharp image, or a crisp image. The evening sun is best when I am looking for something a bit softer or warmer. I love creating dream-like images so for those I would do most of my work in the late afternoon when the sun is on its way out, very special light the last light of the day.
After working with natural light for quite a while I began to wonder what I could do to tone it down a bit on a bright day. Now if you were going to use sun as the illuminating source, we have been taught that it is far too bright in the middle of the day to do any decent work. I know quite a few photographers who consider from around 10 to 4 as a non work time because of the brightness.
BUT, there is an answer here and it is called defused light. I use it rather a lot. What do I mean by defused light?... well it is just what it implies, sunlight with some of the strength taken from it. How you go about finding some of this defused light is quite simple. Go behind a shrub or a tree or some foliage. Just make sure you are on the backside from the sun. Look around you carefully and you should see lots of different little sun beams filtering through.
I should back up a step here. I have been working with flowers now for 5 plus years. When I started I used to go to the garden and get myself in all sorts of awkward positions trying for different compositions and different lighting, then one day I got hit by a lightening bolt of insight!! It said “pick the flower you fool”.
Since that day my creativity and also my back have improved immensely. To really work with a flower it is essential you have the ability to move it to the environment you choose. So now you have that sorted out, it is back to the light. You are now behind what ever you have chosen and there are all these little beams of light shining through.
Take the flower (say a rose, as I love working with roses), so take the rose and just hold it in one of those little rays of lights. Maybe the sunbeam you have chosen is too bright so just experiment and move it around to another pool of light and keep doing so until you find what you are looking for. Sometimes you have to use your imagination and move to another bush or tree or part of the garden or whatever. This can take practice to learn but once you see the benefits you will see how wonderful it is. Just a wee bit of light here and there can make all the difference.
Another good way to use it might be as backlighting. I use backlighting a lot. That is what gives my images their glow especially as it is natural light. Backlighting and floral photography go hand in hand for me. Take your rose and put the sun behind it. Set your rose in a sunbeam or even try direct sunlight,( be sure the sun is behind your rose) and you will see your rose come alive. The trick is to figure out which strength of sun beam suits you best.
These experiments might not work the first time for you but I promise if you persist it will all come together. Overtime you will develop your own tricks and methods and when you find something that really rocks perhaps you will share it with me.
A nice trick I use sometimes is to hold the rose or put the rose in a position where the sun is coming in from behind on a cloudy day preferably with a bit of wind so the clouds are scooting across the sky, the light is changing faster than you can click the camera but for finding a unique light that you will probably never be able to recreate, this is the way. There are lots of other tricks you can do using mother nature. Below is an image that I thought would be gorgeous using a narrow beam of light. I got this effect by holding the flower on the backside of a picket fence and placing the flower in the path of the sun shining through the crack in the fence.
This probably will be the most valuable piece of information I will share!
I hope this is of some help to even just one other person. If you just give it a chance and have a bit of patience you will see it start to work for you.
I am not a big fan of Photoshop. I know there are people who do absolutely wonderful things with it, just as there are people who can’t do anything without it. In the work that I do, I like to make it a point of difference. I am happy working with composition, light and color, but if there ever comes a day when I get those 3 elements figured out I may move onto Photoshop myself.
In the meantime, happy creations to anyone who has taken the time to read this.
cheers
Roger
Flower photography is more than taking pictures. I feel it is the art of creating beautiful images from nature and I am often asked by other photographers and flower lovers “how do you get that glow, that warmth to your flowers?”
I shall try and explain.
When I set out to work with a flower, I am very aware of what the light is doing before I leave the house, and more or less have an idea of how I am going to work with it. As most of you will know, when creating an image, early morning and late afternoon are usually the best times to work. This second image is in the last of the early evening sun.
I always find the morning sun works better if I am looking for a sharp image, or a crisp image. The evening sun is best when I am looking for something a bit softer or warmer. I love creating dream-like images so for those I would do most of my work in the late afternoon when the sun is on its way out, very special light the last light of the day.
After working with natural light for quite a while I began to wonder what I could do to tone it down a bit on a bright day. Now if you were going to use sun as the illuminating source, we have been taught that it is far too bright in the middle of the day to do any decent work. I know quite a few photographers who consider from around 10 to 4 as a non work time because of the brightness.
BUT, there is an answer here and it is called defused light. I use it rather a lot. What do I mean by defused light?... well it is just what it implies, sunlight with some of the strength taken from it. How you go about finding some of this defused light is quite simple. Go behind a shrub or a tree or some foliage. Just make sure you are on the backside from the sun. Look around you carefully and you should see lots of different little sun beams filtering through.
I should back up a step here. I have been working with flowers now for 5 plus years. When I started I used to go to the garden and get myself in all sorts of awkward positions trying for different compositions and different lighting, then one day I got hit by a lightening bolt of insight!! It said “pick the flower you fool”.
Since that day my creativity and also my back have improved immensely. To really work with a flower it is essential you have the ability to move it to the environment you choose. So now you have that sorted out, it is back to the light. You are now behind what ever you have chosen and there are all these little beams of light shining through.
Take the flower (say a rose, as I love working with roses), so take the rose and just hold it in one of those little rays of lights. Maybe the sunbeam you have chosen is too bright so just experiment and move it around to another pool of light and keep doing so until you find what you are looking for. Sometimes you have to use your imagination and move to another bush or tree or part of the garden or whatever. This can take practice to learn but once you see the benefits you will see how wonderful it is. Just a wee bit of light here and there can make all the difference.
Another good way to use it might be as backlighting. I use backlighting a lot. That is what gives my images their glow especially as it is natural light. Backlighting and floral photography go hand in hand for me. Take your rose and put the sun behind it. Set your rose in a sunbeam or even try direct sunlight,( be sure the sun is behind your rose) and you will see your rose come alive. The trick is to figure out which strength of sun beam suits you best.
These experiments might not work the first time for you but I promise if you persist it will all come together. Overtime you will develop your own tricks and methods and when you find something that really rocks perhaps you will share it with me.
A nice trick I use sometimes is to hold the rose or put the rose in a position where the sun is coming in from behind on a cloudy day preferably with a bit of wind so the clouds are scooting across the sky, the light is changing faster than you can click the camera but for finding a unique light that you will probably never be able to recreate, this is the way. There are lots of other tricks you can do using mother nature. Below is an image that I thought would be gorgeous using a narrow beam of light. I got this effect by holding the flower on the backside of a picket fence and placing the flower in the path of the sun shining through the crack in the fence.
This probably will be the most valuable piece of information I will share!
I hope this is of some help to even just one other person. If you just give it a chance and have a bit of patience you will see it start to work for you.
I am not a big fan of Photoshop. I know there are people who do absolutely wonderful things with it, just as there are people who can’t do anything without it. In the work that I do, I like to make it a point of difference. I am happy working with composition, light and color, but if there ever comes a day when I get those 3 elements figured out I may move onto Photoshop myself.
In the meantime, happy creations to anyone who has taken the time to read this.
cheers
Roger
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