Tip #3: (Watch Your Back...Background That Is!)
I heard the sound of quick footsteps first. When they
stopped I heard a click. Seconds later, the footsteps started again followed by
another click. This pattern repeated itself another three or four times. When I
finally looked up, I saw a man briskly walking through a cluster of daffodils.
He would stop just for a moment to take a quick photo, then walk a few feet
away and take another. This kind of "rapid-fire photography" can only
result in mediocre snapshots...creative photographs, however, take time.
Unless you're taking pictures in a controlled studio
environment, your background is something you will have to deal with. It can
either work for you or against you. This is especially true when photographing
flower portraits. So often, very little (if any) thought is given to what's lurking in the
background, i.e., twigs, fences, people, you name it. I've actually past up
many perfect specimens simply because the background was either too boring or
too distracting. However, this is a problem that can usually be fixed. In most
cases, your subject is going to be fairly close. As such, your background will
probably comprise a relatively small area that can be relatively easy to
control.
I usually prefer the even lighting of a cloudy day, but
sometimes direct sunlight can work wonders. The white Peruvian lilies were in
full shade when I began shooting them. As the morning wore on and the sun began
to rise above a distant tree line behind me, various parts of the background
were slowly becoming bathed in direct sunlight. I feared my photo shoot was
about to come to an abrupt end, until I noticed that the sun was lighting up
the bark of a light brown tree a few feet behind the flowers like a beacon. The
flowers themselves, thankfully, remained in the shade. I quickly repositioned
my tripod to place the light coming off the tree in the middle of the small
opening between the lilies. The focal length of my long lens rendered it as a
soft amber highlight adding a little more color to the shot. This perfect
condition only lasted for a few minutes, until the sun eventually coated
everything in ugly, harsh lighting.
A busy background can be a blessing or a curse. The single
red rose was about 20 feet away from the large rose bush behind it. I adjusted
the height of my tripod to show the rose at an angle that almost mirrored the
natural slope of the bush. Using my depth of field preview, I selected an
aperture that rendered the bush sufficiently out of focus to separate it from
the foreground, but not to the point where you could no longer tell what it
was.
The yellow tulips are
an example of the "less is more" philosophy. Rather than shoot the
typical, wide angle view of the entire field, I thought it would make a bigger
impact to feature just a few blooms up close in the foreground with the rest in
the background. By placing the three yellow tulips on the dividing line between
the red ones above and the purple ones below (I really would have preferred
more contrasting colors, but sometimes you just have to take what you can get
in the field), I was still able to show the diversity of the tulips, but in a
much more interesting way. Once again, I used my depth of field preview to get
the optimum amount of separation I needed.
These are just a few
of the many ways in which the background can be used to your advantage. If done
correctly, it should look like everything just seamlessly "fell into
place." The reality is that creative compositions take time to visualize.
In fact, I find it to be the most time-consuming aspect of photography. It's
not at all uncommon for me to spend hours composing shots in one small area. In
the short time it took that "rapid-fire photographer" to shoot five
or six pictures of the daffodils, I hadn't even finished setting up my tripod.
Article Submitted by:
F.M. Kearney is a fine art nature photographer, specializing
in unique floral and landscape images. To see more of his work, please visit
www.starlitecollection.com.
