Photographing Flowers With Sam Shelley

I'd never taken many photos of flowers before working with my sister Bec at Veggie and Flower Garden Seeds. My background is commercial, advertising, lifestyle & food photography. At first I found it quite challenging, and still do, but slowly I'm getting better at it. Recently I did a podcast with the Avant Gardeners podcast about flower photography, so I thought I would I'd thought I would share a few tips that I have learnt along the way that you might find useful.

Light

Outside

• Face into sun so the flowers are backlit making the light a bit softer.
• Can be hard because some flowers face the sun making for a very contrasty image.
• Nothing beats good light (a few hrs after sunrise and before sunset).

For inside photos

• Use natural window light and turn all the lights off in the house.
• If light is to harsh ie direct sun you could put baking paper over the window or move to a south facing window.
• You can also control the light with the curtains or blinds in the room.
• Position the flowers so the light is coming from the side.

Camera Settings

Focus

• Don't use a too low aperture otherwise close ups will be too much out of focus
• Focus in the centre for best results. Stamen focus looks a lot better than petals.

Exposure

• Automatic settings are great but you can't be manual exposure. If I can do it anyone can. Then you get to chose if your image is bright light or a moody silhouette. 
• I would err on the side of underexposed that over exposed as you lose detail in an overexposed image and you can always brighten a dark image on the computer but not the other way around. 

Equipment

• My favourite lens is 70-200mm. Its very versatile and as it is a zoom lens you don't get that distortion you do on wider angle lens.

Phone tips

• Use the 2x lens for close ups
• Try portrait mode but don't go overboard with the shallow depth of field settings.

Subject Matter

• I find the photos people engage with more are actually outside in situ.
• Bec loves getting photos of big bunches and I'd agree they often look the best. 
• Take a mix of wide and tight shots to tell the whole story.
• I also love hands and people in the shots - it definitely makes it feel more candid and engaging. 

Editing

• Don't grade the colours too much as you lose the natural colours. 
• Plus if they ever have to match in with other photos - they won't. 

Stack the Deck

• If you put things in your favour: Light, interesting subject matter then you will be halfway to good photos.

In summary

There are no rules. It's mostly digital these days so take lots and learn from what works and what doesn't.

Listen to my Avant Gardeners Podcast on flower photography