Shooting Tips And Advice*
For Those Shooting Digitally
By Bob Bauer
Advice, Opinions and Rules From Someone Who Has Spent Way Too Much Time With An Eye Glued To A ViewFinder
| Rose Photography and Flower Photography Shooting Tips And Advice* For Those Shooting Digitally By Bob Bauer Advice, Opinions and Rules From Someone Who Has Spent Way Too Much Time With An Eye Glued To A ViewFinder |
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| Rose and Flower Shooting Tips | Equipment Issues (nerd stuff) | Rose Photography Myths |
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1) USE A TRIPOD!!! Oh, and by the way,
use a tripod...
UNLESS!...you are able to set the shutter speed at 1/125 second or higher AND the aperture at f/ll or above.
You usually need the extra depth of focus that a slower shutter speed and a higher f/stop number can give you.
Even if you have Nerves Of Steel, is very difficult to hold your camera without shaking at a shutter speed below 1/125
second. Any shaking at all will seriously degrade your digital images.
2) COMPOSE THE PICTURE. DON'T just put the rose in the center of the frame, look at the overall composition inside of the viewfinder. Always look at the edges of the frame and compose within it. Get Artsy. Don't just put the flowerhead in the center of the frame. Also, FILL THE FRAME UP WITH THE PICTURE! Remember that you yourself may be looking at the flower in the middle but your camera is seeing and recording all the space around it as well clear to the edges of your viewfinder. Look at the edges of the viewfinder to see where the edges of the picture will be. Think 'Art' not just 'picture'. Artists think about design using the 'Rule Of Thirds': this means that you mentally divide the screen up into thirds either vertically or horizontally or both and balance strong and weak elements in a ratio of 1/3 to 2/3. This simple technique is the key to good design. 3) VERICALITY. Hey... the camera can actually be turned 90 degrees once in a while. Quit shooting everything horizontally already! Half of the world is horizontal and half is vertical. Very, very little is square, (...but some is... The third half of the world is square...heh heh...). The mark of the rank amateur is shooting EVERYTHING horizontally. 4) WIND IS BAD. Wind is public enemy number one. Shoot in the morning, because there is usually less wind at this time. If wind levels are HIGH, it is pointless to try shooting anymore. Give it up. That said, if the wind level is LOW, you can usually get your shot by keeping your eye in the viewfinder and waiting for the moment the rose is still. It might take 5 minutes or more, but it usually WILL happen. Be ready with your trigger finger and don't give up too soon. 5) SHOOT NOW NOT LATER. This cannot be emphasized enough! Keep an eye on your blooms. When they are just at the right stage, they will NOT wait for you. So go get the camera right NOW! I mean it! This is the real key to the best rose and flower photos. Have your camera by the door and ready to go. I know it's a hassle, but go have got to go back inside and get the camera right now when you see the bloom. I repeat again They Will NOT Wait For You!!! 6) LOOK BEFORE YOU SHOOT. Don't just point the camera and instantly fire away from wherever you happen to have randomly stopped in front of the bloom. Stop a second. Look around a bit, take a breath or two and think..., move branches out of the way, prune off ugly stuff and deadhead old blooms and diseased leaves that might be in the picture. Move yourself around the flower or bush and look at it from all angles: High, Low and Side to Side. Personally, I find it more interesting not to snap a shot of just one bloom, but look to see all the stages of a bloom at once. I try to find a close grouping of blooms on the bush that show the bud, the partially opened and the fully opened bloom or even the older finished bloom. Getting all of these in one shot is the ideal for me. 7) LOOK FOR SHADOWS. Take a close look through the viewfinder for shadows and dark places on the rose bloom. Anything you see will be exaggerated. Dark areas will appear black. Make sure that the bloom is evenly lit. No mottled shadows. This looks horrible. If you see a shadow on the bloom, look to see if you can hold back the branch that is causing it when you shoot. A little attention here makes a huge difference. 8) NO FORMULAS PLEASE! Don't JUST shoot single blooms. Boring, Boring, Boring. Don't shoot all of your photos the same way. UGH! A slideshow of that will really put people in a coma! Shoot groups of blooms. Shoot the whole plant. Get CREATIVE. Come at it from below or from the side. Hold the bloom with your hand or fingers. No Rules. And especially no formulas. Get it? 9) DEPTH OF FOCUS. Or Depth Of Field, is EXTREMELY important! Shoot at f/11 to f/16 or higher in order to get the depth of focus you need with a micro lens. I can't count the number of blurry edged rose pictures I have seen in my life. Get with the program! That said, when you want to isolate a single bloom and get the background looking less busy, that is the time to shoot with a wider open aperture. Somewhere around f/ 2.8 to f/5.6 should do the trick. Be very careful in this situation though, because you want the actual bloom itself to be in focus, so focusing on the center of the flower is your best bet when trying this technique. 10) LIGHT COLOR BALANCING. Use the camera Menu to balance for the light you are shooting with. This is known as 'White Balance'. Most digital cameras have several settings for different light conditions (direct sun, shade, overcast, flash etc.) Try NOT to use auto white balance unless the light you are in is unusual in some way. This is particularly important when you are using the jpeg instead of the RAW settings. If you are shooting RAW images, it is only a matter of convenience in the editing process to use the exact white balance you are shooting in because the settings you apply are not actually what the RAW image is composed of. You can change to any light balance you would like in the RAW conversion process. (So Auto will work here just fine). There is a major real advantage with digital, and that is: No Filters needed. The exception to this is the use of a cross polarizing filter which is useful to remove glare from reflective surfaces such as metal or water. 11) SHOOT RAW FORMAT FILES. if you have a camera that will allow you this option. You can only get the most from your pics by shooting RAW. Period. Remember we are after Quality here. (By The Way, there is no need to shoot BOTH RAW and JPEG at the same time, even though many of the higher end cameras allow this. What is the point of shooting crappy JPEGs along with your great RAWs? Beats me... You can make great jpegs with the click of a button with your RAW file conversion program.) For Cameras Without RAW File Option,ALWAYS use the HIGHEST quality JPEG that your camera allows you to choose. You can usually find this setting somewhere in the menu screens. 12) Check your VIEW SCREEN AND HISTOGRAM regularly always after your first shot and at the beginning of every series of shots witht he same subject. Realize that even the most perfectly computerized matrtix meter can't always get the correct exposure. One of the major advantages with shooting digital: you can see what you have right on the site, and if you have a camera with a histogram (the histogram is the little graph looking thing) on the menu, you can see exactly if you have obtained all of the information available simply by looking at it. Correct on the spot as needed. A good histogram will have the whole curve within the confines of the box, and NOT have most of the date scrunched up on one side or the other of the box. Especially avoid going over the edge of the right side of the box. That means you have lost the data in the lighter parts of your subject and you can NEVER get it back. Pay attention to this! |
1) WHAT CAMERA? I recommend at the extreme minimum a 4 megapixel camera. The higher the better 6, 8 10 or more. Six, however, is probably going to be adequate for most average person garden purposes, unless you are an advanced amateur or a professional OR are going to be making Large prints bigger than 8x10 inches. Image quality is the issue here. A camera using a RAW file Format is highly preferred. An SLR (Single Lens Reflex) interchaneable lens camera is preferred as well , though not necessary. The higher quality digital camera that you can afford, the better quality photos you will take. Nikon and Canon are the best brands here, they are the technology leaders of the industry. Although Sony, Olympus and Panasonic are making some good cameras these days. 2) WHAT LENS? For Flower photography, if you have an interchangeable lens camera, try to find a FIXED Focal Length Close Focusing Lens. These lenses are correctly called 'Micro' lenses. (Even Though some companies call them 'Macro' lenses). This lens will be MUCH sharper and therefore highly superior to a zoom lens for digital photography. Don't worry though, a Macro ZOOM lens will work OK if that's what you have. 50-60mm is a good focal length for Small Sensor Chip cameras (which the majority of digital cameras are). (Small Sensor chips are smaller than a 35mm film frame size so a focal length of 60mm 'Acts' just like a 90mm lens on a 35mm film camera). For Full Frame Sensor Chip Cameras Such as the high end Canon and Nikon Cameras, an ideal fixed focal length for flower photography is around 90 to 100 millimeters. This slightly longer focal length will give you a better working distance from the flower than the 50mm lenses will. These lenses work well for whole single rose shots AND super extreme close-ups of the inside of the flower head. Remember, with digital, the Sharper and Higher Contrast your lens is, the better your pictures will be. Fortunately for us, most fixed focal length micro lenses are extremely sharp. That said, Don't be afraid shoot super close with wide angle lenses either. The good ones are made for shooting very close. 3) TRIPOD: Sturdiness required, don't get a flimsy one. Bogen imports a good one (actually made by Manfrotto of Italy) for around $150 US. There are several good chinese import tripods now these days at lower costs as well. The lighter weight (Carbon Fiber) tripods, though expensive, will make it more likely that you will actually use your tripod. (Don't forget that if you are shooting in bright sunshine with the sun at your back, you don't necessarily need your tripod.) 4) DIGITAL 'FILM': This consists of CF (CompactFlash) or the smaller SD (Secure Digital) cards. These can be used over and over again indefinitely. After you upload your full card to your computer you should 'ReFormat' the card INSIDE the camera for the next batch as opposed to just moving the files. Reformating leads to less storage errors in the future. CompactFlash cards are the standard for professionals, and they are basically faster and larger capacity than SD cards. If you have a choice in your camera choose CompactFlash. They are priced based on write speed the faster, the more expensive. Write speed isn't all that important for flower photography. As to the size of card that works best for your camera, here are my recommendations": 3-4 Megapixel cameras = 1-2 Gigabye Cards , 6-8 Megapixel Cameras = 2-4 GB cards, 10 Megapixel or greater = 4 GB cards. Any bigger cards such as 8 to 32 or even 64 GB cards are useful if you are traveling and want to have less to carry around with you. In general however, you DON'T want to use a 4 GB card for a 3 megapixel camera, because you don't want all of your eggs in one basket, right? 200 full RAW images per card is a good standard to use. 5) DIGITAL WORKFLOW: One has to create a repeatable and organized 'Digital Workflow' in order to keep your soon to be substantial numbers of files organized. Here is what I do. After shooting, I first upload my RAW files to an internal computer hard drive from the CompactFlash card. Then I use a file browser program (such as Adobe Bridge) to rename and rotate the images. I next move the files into my preconstructed database file folder trees where they will stay forever. No Moving ever again is the goal. (organize these folders anyway that makes the best sense to you). The database folders are already named and so they can be automatically keyworded through my databasing and raw conversion program (Adobe Lightroom). Finally, I open the Raw files in my Raw file converter, and manipulate and convert the files ONLY AS NEEDED over time. Every so often, I back up the entire internal Hard Drive with another external one of the same size. I use mirroring or synchronizing (the same stuff that computer server farms use to back up your website data) software NOT backup software. Backup software has proprietary file types and trust me, that company is going to go out of business someday, so just don't bother with that stuff. It is good to keep this drive in a different location. In my case I send it with my wife to her workplace. 6) MY PERSONAL ROSE PHOTOGRAPHY NERD GEAR: For my rose photography I now use a Nikon D700 with a AF-S 24-70 f/2.8G ED lens or a 60mm f/2.8 AF D Micro Nikkor lens. Only the sharpest lenses will make the grade for high quality digital, so if you shoot Nikon like me I also recommend the 14-24 AF-S f/2.8G ED Zoom-Nikkor and the Nikon AF-S 105mm f/2.8G ED VR Micro. Telephoto lenses aren't really needed for most garden photography although I fill out my kit with an 80-200 Nikon Zoom. I apologize for not knowing the equivalent information for Canon cameras. I do however highly recommend that if you are into the highest quality in digital photo gear, you should stick with Canon or Nikon. The other COMPUTER GEAR includes: a bunch of 4 GB Sandisk and Transcend Compact Flash Cards (speed is not a real issue), a small inexpensive Lexar USB 2 Compact Flash Card Reader. A latest tech Ultra fast processor computer with 4 Gigabytes of high speed RAM and a several SATA-2 and 3 hard drives. And a high end graphics NVidia 9800 GT card. Digital storage for my databases are on Seagate 32 mb cache SATA 500 GB internal Hard Drives, with the same sized hot swappable USB2 and SATAe external hard drives as mirror back ups. My basic Rose PHOTO SOFTWARE is: Adobe Bridge for my simple file browser. Adobe Lightroom 2.3 for my Raw file converter and photo database. Photoshop CS4 for my photo manipulation program. AND a pro Flickr Account the best photo sharing place on the internet (get one, only 29 bux a year). Oh and one other thing: A fast bandwidth connection to the internet is becoming more and more critical as the years roll by. Get the fastest you can afford and make it a priority. |
1a) "YOU CAN'T SHOOT ROSES IN THE DIRECT BRIGHT SUNLIGHT"
Don't listen to this old saw. You can shoot in absolutely any light conditions, provided you know what you're doing.
You can't be very creative if you shoot according to a formula.
1b) "YOU HAVE TO SHOOT IN THE 'SWEET LIGHT' OF EARLY MORNING OR LATE EVENING FOR GOOD PICTURES" Bunk!!! If anything this will shift the color of your rose photos to the yellow end of the spectrum. If there is light, you can shoot. Even in the dark, you can shoot with your electronic flash. 2) "FILM RESULTS IN HIGHER QUALITY PHOTOS THAN DIGITAL CAN GIVE:" Well,... actually it does.... IF You Are Shooting 8x10 Film. But you aren't and neither am I (Although I used to). Digital photography is here all the way and it is ubiquitous. It is better in almost every conceivable way. It is less expensive, more forgiving and because of that, less skill is needed to produce great images. It is true that it is a little expensive to get good quality results. You definitely have to invest in some gear in order to achieve quality. But you can now do with $1000 what it used to take $10,000 to do a few short years ago (assuming you already have a computer). Digital photography allows you to see what you have on the spot and correct your mistakes. And there really isn't ANY visual effect that film can do that digital can't. That is the fact, Jack 3) "INCREASING THE SATURATION MAKES THINGS LOOK SO GREAT!" It may look great, but it looks NOTHING like the actual flower that you are trying to show to someone. Tone down the use of those Photoshop tools and keep with the more natural look if what you are trying to do is represent accurate varieties to others. 4) "I'M JUST NOT A GOOD PHOTOGRAPHER, ART IS NOT MY THING" Baloney! Hey, it's a simple skill that can be learned by anybody. Just like riding a bicycle, get back on and try again. But don't forget to pay attention this time. I love this oh so true aphorism by Malcolm Gladwell: "Talent is the desire to practice". And for the record: ART is everybody's thing. We are all naturally creative, we just need to LEARN how to tap into this. 5) "I DON'T NEED TO KNOW ANYTHING FOR THIS, COME ON NOW, WITH MY AUTO CAMERA IT'S JUST POINT AND SHOOT THESE DAYS." You don't have to know a whole lot, but you HAVE GOT TO to pay attention to a few details. It really pays off to think before you shoot. The less you know the worse your photos....PERIOD. 6) "THERE IS SUCH A THING AS 'THE BEST PHOTOGRAPH' OR 'THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHER'" Don't Buy into this silly stuff. In order to be a good artist, you have got to leave the competitive spirit behind. You have to believe in your own taste. You can't match it to someone else's ideas. All that you've got as an artist is your own sense of what looks good. If you lose that taste, that edge of knowing what looks good, you become truly clueless. Don't try to copy others. You know what you like......SHOOT THAT! If you are pleased with the look of your photograph, you are developing taste and style. A taste and style of your own. Follow that innate sense of what looks good to you. |