CRASH COURSE
ESSENTIAL PHOTO SKILLS MADE EASY
Mike Harris shows you how to pot a brilliant flower close-up using a telephoto lens and natural light
Spring is here, and that means it’s time to head outside and and enjoy some outdoor flower photography. If you don’t have access to a blossoming garden you can head to a local park or shoot wildflowers, or simply buy some flowers to photograph and set up your shoot in a suitable location.
You don’t need any special kit to capture close-up flower photographs. While a macro lens can certainly produce stunning results, you can also shoot beautiful flower portraits with a telephoto lens – and it doesn’t have to be a particularly fast one either.
We photographed our black-eyed Susan with a Nikon Z 5 and Nikkor Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens. The optic’s 0.7m minimum focus distance enabled us to get close enough to our subject so that it filled a good portion of the frame, while the lengthy distance between subject and background allowed us to capture large discs of bokeh, despite the modest aperture.
Harsh midday sunlight isn’t ideal for photographing flowers, so you’re always better off choosing an overcast day, or periods when the sun is lower in the sky – and while natural light doesn’t offer the absolute control of studio lighting, you can still manipulate it. Here’s how to capture a floral closeup, and realise the budding flower photographer in you.
HOW TO SHOOT A FLOWER CLOSE-UP
A tripod will allow you to refine your framing, and free up your hands so you can hold a reflector and/or diffuser should you need them. Don’t be afraid to tilt your camera if it improves your composition – there’s no reason why your frame needs to be perfectly level.
A clean background will direct attention to your subject. You may have to carefully reposition the main flower, or nudge nearby blooms aside, to achieve this (you can purchase specialist clamps to help). Don’t risk damaging any plants though, and if necessary search for a more suitable subject.
We’d recommend photographing flowers on an overcast day, or when the sun is lower in the sky, so the light isn
