My favorite offshoot of landscape photography is flower photography. It is a bit easier to pursue than landscape, since you needn’t travel very far to get unique and beautiful images. All you have to do is step into your own garden or visit a public garden to find a world of beautiful flowers to photograph. But it takes skill – plus a little something extra – to be able to make really beautiful flower portraits. In this essay, I’d like to share some of my methods with those who are interested in photographing flowers.
Table of Contents
Lenses
The lens you choose for flower photography has to capture good levels of detail, which is true for many options on the market. I have successfully shot flowers using a 50mm lens, but have also used focal lengths up to 300mm with success. Of course, the best lens is the one that you have. You can always make adaptations to get the results you want.
One lens I have tried in the past for flower photography is the Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 manual focus lens. To capture flowers with that tantalizing f/1.2 is almost impossible to resist. I first used it on my D300s and then tried it on my D800. My experience was, at f/1.2, it is an extremely difficult lens to use for flower photography. The depth of field is very shallow – almost as shallow as using a macro lens and focusing at extreme magnifications. Although I have gotten some lovely flower portraits from the 50mm f/1.2, with an ethereal misty feel to them, my conclusion was that the effort and frustration involved make it a poor choice for a general flower lens.
Depending on your goal, dedicated macro lenses certainly will work. I have used my 105mm macro to shoot flowers. You can get very close up and detailed photos of your flower’s anthers, stamens and pollen with a macro. You can capture bugs on flowers with great detail, highlighting every hair on the bug and every notch on its legs. I sometimes jokingly refer to this level of detail as a flower colonoscopy. I don’t consider my macro as my best choice of flower lens.
Now I come to the type of lens that I think works best for flowers. That is the zoom lens. I’ve worked with 16-85mm, 24-70mm, 24-120mm and 28-300mm. You can get very good results with any of these ranges of zoom. My favorite by far is my Nikkor 28-300, which happens to be my go-to lens that I use for practically everything. I like zooms because they give you a lot of freedom when making your composition. You can zoom out and capture more than the flower, or zoom in and capture only the flower, while standing in one place and seeing what looks best in the viewfinder.
Aperture
The intuitive choice for aperture is usually going to be a wide open aperture. People generally start off with the largest aperture that their lens has, and it yields great results, too. But one must be careful. Wide apertures have a rather narrow depth of field, and it is tricky to learn how much of your flower will be in focus at your largest setting. Sometimes you have a great composition, but only the front of your flower is in focus. You can compensate for this by backing up a bit and reshooting your picture. More of the flower will be within your depth of field, but often the picture will no longer be as detailed as you wanted it to be.
The next thing to try would be to close down your aperture by a stop or two. Remember my f/1.2 that I spoke of earlier? That aperture caused a lot of deletes, so I tried f/1.4 or f/1.8 and got better results. You still get plenty of detail and bokeh with these apertures, and you get much more of your flower in focus. Now, if your biggest aperture is something like f/3.5 or f/4, as it is on many zoom lenses, just use its widest aperture for the same results.
Some testing is required here. You need to find out how your lens handles, and how your images look at various settings. As with most things, one develops favorite apertures when shooting flowers. If you persevere in this genre, you will eventually develop an instinct for what will work with your chosen lens.
Shutter Speed
For great detail, you need fast shutter speeds. As most people know, this is where ISO comes in. If your lens is wide open, but you still can’t get a fast enough shutter speed, increase your ISO to give yourself some leeway.
In general for flower photography, a shutter speed of 1/250 will give you the detail you want. A fast speed is always preferable, although there is no use in going to extreme values like 1/5000. Now, that is a bit of hyperbole. I think you’d seldom see one that high, but realistically if your shutter speed is 1/1000 for flower photography you can afford to go slower. A good range is 1/200-1/800. Any shutter speed in that range will give you good detail.
Of course, there are other considerations that will affect how you want to employ your shutter speed, too: your intended brightness for the picture, the potential for blowing out highlights, an ugly background that you don’t particularly want to capture, and so on. All of these things help determine how you want to set your shutter speed. Ditto for aperture, by the way. You must juggle your settings to get the effect you want.
Handheld vs Tripod
I am a handheld person. This cuts me out of the discussion of when to use a tripod. You the reader must decide whether or not to use a tripod; I can offer no advice here. But I will say that tripods work very well for shooting flowers, especially with a macro lens or a big zoom lens that is hard to hold.
Composition
Composition is everything. Without good composition, your flower photos will be bad. Good composition is a learned skill. You want to frame your flower pleasantly. If your flower is on a bush, it is usually a good idea to avoid all the other branches that may get in your way. Sometimes, your only option is to clone them out in post processing.
If you have steady hands, you can hold extra branches aside with one hand while you take your picture with the other. But beware of your own shadow! You also want to avoid bright sunlight that peeks through spaces in your branches. These will invariably result in blown highlights, and more often than not ruin your entire photo. A small shift in perspective can often eliminate those bright areas so you don’t have to deal with them at all, which is the best solution.
Sometimes, I will abandon perfect flowers without shooting them, just because of too much sun unavoidably peeking through small spaces in the branches. Those bright areas are picture killers. But if you are photographing flowers that are not on bushes, you won’t run into these issues, since the lighting on your flower will be relatively even.
Another thing to think about is anything behind your flower. An ugly wall, fence, sidewalk or flower pot rim can ruin your beautiful flower photo. So can a busy background. Zooming in helps a lot in these situations. Sometimes, you just have to live with that ugly area of your photo.
The sky while you’re taking pictures is another thing to think about. If the sky is too bright, it can ruin a picture. The same goes for too much sun, which can lead to poor colors and flowers that look too harsh. The opposite is also true – too much shadow can make your photos look dull, without enough contrast.
So, there are about two hours a day in which you can get great flower photos. Okay, I am kidding! But you do need to watch out for the sun when composing a flower picture. High noon is not the best time of day to photograph garden flowers, and neither is a day with too much cloud coverage.
Also, when shooting flowers you want to watch out for dead leaves, drooping petals, dirt on the flower, ants in the flower, black or brown spots, and other unsightly flaws. Many of these flaws can be removed in editing using a clone stamp, but it is always best not to include them in the first place. Learning to use a clone stamp so that the flower looks perfect is another whole area of study. If you don’t do a good job of it, don’t bother at all; ugly editing is as bad as taking bad pictures in the first place.
Artistry
There is another element to flower photography: artistry. It is that “little something more” that makes the difference between a snapshot of a flower and a portrait of a flower. You should remember that flowers are living things – things that the photographer can interact with and relate to. Without this interaction, you get a snapshot. With it, you capture the essence of the flower.
A more scientific word would be intent. I think that all good photographers interact with whatever they are photographing. That is shooting with intent. I know that this is a necessary element to flower photography. The way I word it to myself is that the flower has to let you in. Some days they just don’t open themselves to you; that’s when you get a snapshot. The next day, a flower will open itself to you, and your picture will take your breath away. Feeling is a big part of flower photography.
Final Thoughts
It takes time to become really good at flower photography. It can take years to develop the eye for good composition and technique. But the journey is fun! I hope these tips are helpful to anybody who wants to be successful at capturing the beauty of flowers.
Love your tips. I have been shooting flowers in our extensive home flower gardens for around ten years. I am totally self-taught, and have internalized many of your suggestion just from personal experience. I use Pentax equipment exclusively partly because I like their reasonably priced larger format cameras such as the medium format 645D and 645Z. I like the medium format FA 120 lens and also the Pentax 67 55mm f 4.0 lens which has a very short MFD. In more standard format I use the full-frame Pentax K-1 with several different high resolution Zeiss lenses, especially the Zeiss 100mm f 2.0 Makro Planar. Some of my lenses have the automatic focus feature, but I never use it for flower photography because I just cannot control the focal plane as well as I can with manual focus. One tip I can offer to others involves planting, arranging flowers. In planting and maintaining our flower gardens, I try to consider the photographic implications of location, position relative to other flowers, backgrounds, etc. I have over 100 lenses, and often try out different lenses in order to experiment and see what different results may be possible. Using soft focus lenses and zoom lenses is one example. One other point is that I like to use various landscape features–split rail fences, statuary, etc., to add more interest value to photos. One final point is that I do not always remove imperfections (bugs, bees, wilted petals, leaves partially obscuring the blossom), but sometimes deliberately include these features to create interest value; I am not trying to create a perfect blossom for a seed catalog! However, I always carry a small set of plant snippers to to quickly remove unwanted elements.
I am glad that you enjoyed my article and found it to be of some help. Flower photography is a lot of fun, though it has some unique challenges. Over time, we all learn what works in order to create artistry in capturing the images of these unique creatures. Have fun in your pursuit of your own flower photography. Best, Elaine
I was drawn to your article from the photo of the day Lilly. I actually thought it was mine! Lol! I have an identical photo. I’ve been shooting flowers for almost 7 years. I’ve used many camera’s but I started with the Canon T3I and the 24mm pancake lens. I then moved on to Nikon,Fuji,Sony,etc.but back to Canon now.I often wonder how people become popular or their work becomes popular. I have never sold one photo but I think my work is good. Anyway, great article. Thanks!
Thank you Mildred. Most of my day lily pictures look remarkably similar, too. They are not that easy to photograph and make them look special. I’m not sure it will ever be easy for people to become popular as photographers anymore. The field is way too crowded today. So we must just do this for our own enjoyment and the best we can hope for is that sometimes we get to show off some of our work and gain a little appreciation along the way.
This article is a fine reminder for me to get out and take pictures of summer flowers around our house. I use Canon 5DMK2 with a choice of 28-105L, 105mm Tokina, or Canon 50mm 1.8. I am looking forward to a mindful experience yet again, but with additional reminders/ideas from this article. Thank you!
Hi Bala Prasanna, I am happy to read that you found my article to be of some help. You have a fine range of lenses with which to capture your flower photos. I always find that there is something very satisfying about capturing images of these lovely fellow creatures. Be well, stay safe. -Elaine
Hi
I just started to learn photography and got my first Nikon D5600 is this OK to get some nice Pics of Flowers?
Hi Anil,
Certainly it is! Your D5600 can take beautiful flower pictures! You don’t mention what lens you bought with your camera, but most lenses can yield lovely flower photos. My favorite lenses for flower photography are zoom lenses, in a variety of focal lengths. Wide angle lenses would not be as good. But there is much scope for whatever lens you have on your camera to take good flower pictures. Be patient and practice, and you will become proficient at flower photography. Best regards, Elaine
I use a AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G prime (fixed focus) lens with my D5600 to photograph flowers and I love it. Really elevates my photos and has a dreamy quality. It’s also an inexpensive lens and small to lug around.
Interesting! I’ll have to try shooting flowers with my 50mm prime (the closest I have to 35mm in prime) which on an FX body is roughly equivalent to your 35mm on a DX body, so they will have a similar appearance. I don’t usually go that wide when shooting flowers, I think it will be a fun experiment. Enjoy your flower photography! -Elaine
I am a keen photographer but being 80+ I do not have the ability to travel far to find subjects. I recently purchased a Sigma 105mm 2.8 macro lens as I have a garden full of flowers and insects which cuts out the traveling. As you say in you article the rules all change in the macro field with a different approach in technice.
I would just like to say thanks for this article it answers many of the problems I am having.
Thank you Keith! I am happy that you found something of value to take from my article. Shooting flowers can be so very satisfying. The more you do it, the better at it you will become. I wish you the best of luck in your flower photography. Best regards, Elaine
Thanks – a very interesting article.
For me, the quality of your backgrounds was what struck me most. Taking images of captive birds (not in flight) seems to have similar issues, and I find the processing hard work. I use Lightroom (and not Photoshop) and often end up processing for the background first and then having to process for the bird on an adjustment brush as a separate exercise. It’s quite time-consuming.
I keep meaning to get stuck into photographing flowers – it is more difficult than it looks! My combo of choice would be my D610 and 70-200/f/4, which I think could have taken most of the images you’ve displayed here – it’s a good, sharp, handleable lens.
Hi Nigel,
Your camera/lens setup sounds as if it will do very well. I think that your settings are the most important consideration once you have a good rig like yours to work with. I have been asked many times how I get my backgrounds. The answer is the settings, but in reality I can’t really say – they just come. I don’t edit very much, being a minimalist in that regard, but I have become very proficient in using the clone stamp to remove flaws in the flowers and unwanted branches or bright spots in the backgrounds. I consider this a very important part of flower photography. Other than that I only do a bit of brightening or darkening, as the case requires. I’ve done some bird photography of the at-the-feeder sort, and what I try to do is shoot against a solid background, like the bole of a tree. With some busy backgrounds, all I can do is delete as there would be no way to make them look better in a natural way. The best of luck in your flower photography pursuits. Best regards, Elaine
I use extension tubes with @70mm ,,,,A led off camera . cable release , self timer , or not /// , I still have bellows , 2sets of xtension tubes from my Minolta days , ( my led uses rechargeable /or / wall pluggable (lec from wallmart )) .
my favorite is the Zeiss Milvus 2/100M
Flowers, especially wildflowers, have been a constant of my photography for thirteen years. I agree that you can get excellent flower photographs with almost any lens, handheld or with a tripod. But I always get my best results with a Nikon 70-180 micro, tripod-mounted. I like to have as much of the blossom in focus as possible, with a nice creamy out-of-focus background. This generally requires focus stacking, which is often not possible with wildflowers in the outdoors. We have just do the best we can with what we have!
Hi Jim, How right you are. When we want to achieve something, we find a way with what we have on hand. I get huge satisfaction from photographing flowers. Most of my best flower photos were taken with my 28-300 zoom, which gives me a really nice macro look. I have a macro, but it is a PITA to use and I never like the results. It is often fun to experiment with other lenses and see what look you get. One thing I’ve never done is focus stack. I don’t know how I’d do with that method. Anyway, best of luck to you, Jim. Keep on shooting and enjoy your flower photography. Thanks for writing.
> This can, of course, be corrected with raising ISO values
I find using on or more off-camera flashes with a diffusers negates the need to increase the ISO. Also, by changing the flash position it possible to control the shadows.
Hi Eric,
Thank you for adding to the discussion. It is always fun to read about the different techniques that people use.