I haven’t really spent a great deal of time in our back yard this summer. Probably because it’s too wet this year even to mow the lawn. We didn’t really plant much this year, but rather just let the beds grow up wild, and I just realized how lush and beautiful it is back there. Have you ever noticed how much more colorful things tend to look after the rain? I thought it was time for a few photos back there. Let me share a few tips.
1. Getting in close is a great way to photograph flowers or plants. This allows you to eliminate other competing elements in your composition and focus attention on the details of a plant’s structure. Getting this close will probably require a macro lens or a macro setting on a compact camera. These features allow you to achieve focus at very close distances (sometimes focus can be obtained on the front element of the lens). If you can’t afford a good macro lens, try picking up a set of Kenko® extension tubes for your SLR system. This set of three tubes can turn any lens into a macro lens for extreme close-up.
2. Wide apertures will allow you to isolate your subject against a blurring background. But at close range, sometimes this “depth-of-field” can be TOO shallow and you may have to close down your aperture to gain a little more. In the shots I’ve included, I was going for a more abstract look and so I wasn’t very concerned about sharpness.
3. Overcast skies provide better lighting than direct sunlight. It tends to be more even and lower in contrast, and color will be easier to manipulate in post-processing. On sunny days, look for areas of open shade to provide shelter from direct sunlight.
4. Using a tripod can help to get the shot, although I rarely even bother. I shot handheld for all of the images below (but then they aren’t particularly sharp, are they?). If sharpness and precise composition are your goals, mount your camera on a tripod. This is especially critical if you are stopping down your aperture for more depth-of-field, since this will result in slower shutter speeds. You may also need to shelter your subject from the wind to prevent it moving while the shutter is open.
Most people prefer to represent nature a little more realistically, while I like to take a more abstract and artsy approach. I used the shallowest depth-of-field that I possibly could, and composed for more abstract representations of my subjects. A heavy addition of grain in Lightroom helped to create more of a ‘fine art’ style. Muting some of the colors also helped me to soften a few of the images. -m