Despite this week’s wicked winds and freezing cold temperatures, we’ve experienced a very mild autumn. When you live in northern Wisconsin you never take for granted a rare 12-day stretch of 80 degree days in late September/early October.
As a result of the unseasonably high temperatures many of the flowers that frame our home are still in bloom. We’ve only had one night that dipped below freezing, so many of the blossoms are still sturdy and bright. The unusual occurrence has inspired me to get outside to document the pretty sights.
While my photo specialty is not floral and fauna, as a native of Hawaii, I’ve had quite a lot of practice shooting tropical blooms. Some of the most important lessons I learned (as a result of making many mistakes) is that it is critical to increase the size of your camera’s aperture. When you are taking close-up shots of flowers, you want to allow in as much light as possible. Remember: The larger the aperture, the smaller the F-stop number. In addition, when the aperture is larger, you can focus on a specific subject and blur the background. If you are shooting an entire field of flowers and you want the whole shot in focus, then decrease the size of the aperture and increase the exposure time.
Another factor to keep in mind is color. I’ve never felt the need to shoot flowers in black-and-white unless I am planning to create color splash photos. People expect to see vibrant colors when they view flower photos, so why not give them what they want? Start by adjusting the white balance settings so that they utilize your lighting source. If your lighting options are compromised, but the flower is too gorgeous to pass up, simply snap the picture and increase the color saturation via a photo-editing program such as Photoshop.