Concerning Photos of Flowers
That title.... well maybe I should have stuck with "Of Photos of flowers" or "Of Flower Photos"... Something does not sound right with it, oh well. I can't be bothered with changing the photo, so concerning photos of flowers.... This is another post where you can see how different my photos are now, to what they were years ago, and read my critiquing of my past self (or past photographs anyway). Although back then I did occasionally fluke onto a photo I still like now. As with the photo heading this post, I took that back in 2007.
As you can see my photography has improved dramatically. Yes I have a better camera, but it is not only the camera. There are two other main factors in what makes my more recent photos better. The two elements are lighting and positioning or composition of the photo as a whole.
Consider the two photos above. Back in 2005 and probably for a few years after that all my photos of roses looked... the same..... no wonder my dad got annoyed by how many I took! I would go out whenever I felt like it and take photos of our roses, standing over them and pointing the camera straight at the plant. Often that is not the flattering side of most roses.
In the second photo that I took around a year ago. I went out in the early morning light and captured dew drops on the petals of the rose, from side-on. Though they could possibly have not been dew drops, but just water sprayed on with a spray bottle. A spray bottle is a very useful photography hack, for water droplet photos!
But from side on you are much more likely to get a unique photo... or at least more unique than a shot that is fairly obviously just point and shoot, with no thought at all gone into it.
Again, almost the same plant. The lighting is just vastly different. The first photo is obviously taken on a cloudy day, possibly early in the morning, (I did at least try get some real dew it it). But it is a boring photo. The second is taken in the afternoon light, the beautiful golden light. The sun is to the side and almost behind the flowers, lighting them up a little, and bringing out all their vibrant colours. No doubt this shot even could improve, but it is better than the first anyway.
It is similar with these two. The positioning in the corner, and the water droplets, and than fact that the photo is taken almost from below rather than above makes it a winner. We normally see flowers from above, so that is not as interesting, it is the same as with people portraiture (especially children), you need to get down to their level. Sometimes that can mean lying down in the grass and dirt, but, a photographer's got to do what a photographer's got to do.
Lastly, these were both taken after rain. But with the later photo a bit of late light was shining on parts of the background. The side positioning also improves the photo. And one thing that really bugs me about the first is that the horizon line is not straight. Wonky photos are hardly ever good ones. (there are always exceptions, but as a rule, if you can see the horizon, keep it straight!)
I also suspect the first photo is taken almost into the sun. Sometimes that produces great results, but that shot could have been improved by taking it from the other side and a lower angle. You will get the most satisfactory shots if you go 'photo hunting' at times when the light is the best.
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4 comments
These are beautiful photos! I love flowers! :)
ReplyDelete~Katie@sparklyambitions.blogspot.com
Thanks, I am actually entering two of these in the local show, next month.
DeleteOMG THIS IS BEAUTIFUL. I love how you've done the contrasting shots like that...gawsh, someday I'm going to figure out aperture and stuff. BEFORE IT KILLS ME.
ReplyDeletePractice... use manual settings... and watch YouTube videos! I am glad you like the contrasting photos... I spent ages looking through old photographs of mine to find ones of the same flowers that I had got photos of more recently!
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