Putting your plants in the limelight

Photographing a plant from above is the simplest and fastest method. But by taking a photo from a different angle, everyday things are often perceived as all the more exciting. Of course, it is more difficult to kneel on the floor in order to photograph a flower at eye level. And yet such images give us a completely new perspective. Take advantage of your creative freedom to try out different perspectives and create a particularly impressive plant photo.

In order to place the selected plant squarely in the limelight, it is important to select an appropriate image section. Here the same applies for the positioning of the blossoms as for the perspective: try different things out! Unique image impressions can be generated through different positions of the plant in the image section. To prevent the eye being drawn away from the feature you want to focus on, have as few other elements as possible on the photo. For example, you can depict only one single flower instead of the entire plant, thus making it the focus of the picture. Avoid distracting objects in the background. By trying things out with the viewfinder, houses or gardening equipment in the background can be avoided by taking photographs from different perspectives.

In order to make distracting objects in the background disappear, change the depth of focus. A low depth of focus ensures that only the object focussed on remains sharp. Other image components can be blurred, thus diverting the attention even more towards the focus of the image. For this purpose, a low aperture value must be set on the camera. If, on the other hand, the complete image should be sharp, a high depth of focus is required. This is achieved with the aid of a high aperture value. Because a high aperture value is always also connected with a long shutter speed, conditions must not be windy when taking the photograph, so that the subject does not wobble.

Of course, outdoor photography does not offer the same possibilities as a studio portrait. However, a soft light can still be created in the style favoured by professional photographers, in order to cleverly highlight your subjects. By taking the times of day into account, large qualitative differences in the lighting and more saturated plant colours can be caught on camera. One suitable time for plant photos is when the flowers open up in the morning hours. The atmosphere in the early hours gives photographs a natural, soft light. If dew drops are still present on the plants, they also offer an opportunity for very special impressions. If this is not the case, simply cheat a little by spraying the flowers with water from a spray bottle. The evening hours prior to sunset also provide an interesting opportunity for achieving impressive lighting effects.