Unique Flower Photography

OK so you think that flowers have been photographed so many times by so many people that there is nothing you can do to show viewers a different perspective thus making your flower images stand out from the rest.

The majority of pictures that have flowers as their main central point of interest are usually taken when the photographer faces them and usually at a standing position.

There are many other ways to add interest and infuse creativity to your flower photography and it is much easier than you may think to accomplish.

By getting low to the ground and focusing on the flowers at eye level, you can offer viewers a different perspective which is seldom observed since most of us will simply look at pretty flowers by standing and looking at them from our taller perspective.

Photographing flowers when low to the ground makes the images seem more realistic and you can often see more details than if simply looking at them from above.

Also by capturing images from below the flower head you can now get more interesting looks that can also offer other more unusual views of a commonplace photo subject.

Another good technique is to use back-light in order to show the petal's translucency and this in turn reveals more details about the petal's composition which then tends to enhance the very same translucency that makes these image interesting and pleasant to look at.

Note that if using back-light to capture your images you need to keep the Sun or light source at an angle to the subject or risk doing silhouettes if the light faces the lens.

Getting close, and I mean macro close, to your flower subjects you allow a viewer see things and details that are not possible with the naked eye.

When doing macro the emphasis should be the flower's texture and its interesting color palette. Keeping the Sun or light source at a low angle helps show texture better.

Macro photography of flowers not only serves to reveal more views of a particular subject but can also make for very intriguing abstract images.

Also do not stick with one main type of light like during the morning hours. Try various time settings to capture other variations in color that can be revealed when the flowers face different light conditions that do change during different times of the day as it winds down.

Be aware of how different lights can affect how we see color. Different lights, and different positions of the light source in relation to the subject will all change how bright, dull, or vibrant the color is seen to be.

The best times if using ambient light are during the early morning and late afternoon hours as the Sun's light is typically more diffused by various factors in the atmosphere.

Pay attention to the background even if doing macro . A cluttered backdrop can sometimes cause a distraction to the eye.

A very shallow dept of field i.e a large f stop number, can help by throwing any element that falls behind the main focus point into out of focus non recognizable elements and can often show everything behind the flower in darkness depending on the shutter speed and how far these other background elements are from the main subject in the first place.

The idea is to make the flower the main center of attention and the backdrop to become secondary to it.

There are many places where you can find suitable subjects like your local garden shop.

They will probably be more than happy to let you take as many photos as you can, even better if you offer them copies of the images that they can use for their advertisement.

If your local shop does not feature subjects that you find appealing then a good source are public gardens or even private ones.

One good source near where I live is Fairchild Tropical Gardens which is an 83-acre botanical garden, with extensive collections of rare tropical plants including palms, cycads, flowering trees and vines.

It is located in metropolitan Miami, just south of Coral Gables, Florida close to the Coconut Grove section of Miami.

It features hundreds of rare and exotic plant life as well as many other varieties that are native to the region.

Not to forget is that like Fairchild, many of these gardens have several butterfly areas and some even feature hummingbird feeding stations.

This photo adventure is well suited for a book printing, calendars, personal prints and for use by photo oriented publications.

Remember that your images really need to be unique and the shots technically perfect since you are competing with thousands of other flower photos.

Being creative and following some tips can lead you to make your ordinary flower photos become extraordinary ones!