Yesterday our blog was about “Making your Yard a Photo Opportunity” by planting flowers that you can take photos of to turn into scrapbooking supplies or for use in your scrapbooking pages or photo editing projects.
So, today’s blog is about getting better flower photos.
4 Tips for Pretty Flower Photos:
(originally posted 8/15/09 by Cheri Barlow)
Try these four photography tips below to take great “anytime” pics of pretty flowers- whether you use them in your digital scrapbooking pages, supplies – or not!
Tip 1: Take photos in early morning or evening when the sun doesn’t wash out the flower colors or create harsh shadows.
Sometimes the harsh sun rays can make the colors look less vibrant.
Use the early hours when the sun is coming up or the later mid to evening hours. I took this image at 6:15 am in August! The sun was up, but I live in San Diego and the marine fog hadn’t cleared yet. So it really made for ideal flower photo-taking conditions!
Tip 2: Cloudy days (or even foggy days, or after a rain) are also nice times for taking flower photos (and for the same reason morning and evening shots are better). Another nice thing about taking a flower photo after it rains (beside better lighting) is the rain drops give a pretty effect on flower petals.
Again, I live in San Diego, so we don’t get many cloudy/rainy days! That said, I have to cheat a bit to get a “freshly-rained” look: I have learned that taking my flower photos after the sprinklers have turned off in the morning is a great way for me to capture that “just rained” effect on flowers! Also, you can use a misting or spray bottle!
This is a handy tip to know when your weather doesn’t call for rain, or you don’t have control of the sprinkler settings- like at the park or other places you want to photograph a beautiful flower with rain drops!
Tip 3: Make the flower stand out by blurring the background with your zoom lens. If you have a digital SLR Camera that has great zoom lens, you can easily blur the background and make the flower be the star of the picture!
If you don’t have one of these lens or you didn’t take the picture this way, then you can always blur the background in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements after the fact, but it saves a lot of time to just do it when you are shooting the photo!
Tip 4: Watch out for distracting backgrounds. Even if the flower is interesting, a backgrounds that is too busy drowns out any pretty flower face! Yes, you can try to edit the photo later in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, but still, when you start out with a good photo, you can do even more to improve a great photo in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements later!
Take a look at the example below. No matter how great I think this flower is, this busy background is taking away any beauty in this flower!
The sky, fence, trees, other plants… all of it is distracting and compromises the beauty of the flower!
So what do you do? Look at the flower from another angle! Just changing your view can often times fix the problem!
Below is the very same flower just photographed from a different angle!
This flower was rather tall for me so to get this different angle I used a small ladder. But shooting into the flower at this angle gave me a better background that highlighted the flower and make it stand out more. Also, focusing in on the flower made less background that could be distracting! I also blurred slightly with my lens focus… all giving me a better photo of the same flower!!!
If you have found a lovely flower that you want to photograph, look around and take note of the background. Take a few photos and check them; see if the background is going to ruin the photo or if it helps it. If it doesn’t help, then move around and see if you can get the shot you want by changing your angle!
Well that does it for today! I hope that gives you a few more ideas to taking lovely photos of flowers!
Enjoy, Cheri
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Also, after the photo is taken you can edit it for more dramatic and lovely affects! Learn more about photo editing using Photoshop and Photoshop Elements
Check out these Photo Editing Tutorials:
Airbrushing Portrait Photos in Photoshop Elements 7
Removing Shadows and Lightening Photos in Photoshop Elements
Convert Photos to Black and White in Photoshop Elements
Removing Demon-Looking Red-Eye in Photoshop
Removing Demon-Looking Red-Eye in Photoshop Elements
Getting Rid of Wrinkles, Zits, or Moles in Photoshop Elements
Whitening Teeth within Photoshop Elements
Adjusting Skin Tones and Digi Tanning in Photoshop Elements
Removing Wrinkles, Lines, and Bags in Photoshop Elements
Also see these baby editing tutorials:
Happy Scrapping and Photo Editing!
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See these other Kits to use with your Flower Garden Scrapbooking Projects:
The Flower Garden Digital Scrapbooking Kit 1 (12×12″) is a gorgeous kit filled with flowers!The kit has pretty pastel papers that are decorated with colorful flowers. Use the Flower Garden Digital Scrapbooking Kit to create unforgettable Digital Scrapbooking Projects of an afternoon in your flower garden, a beautiful walk at the park, or for other special life moments! The large 12×12″ size is great for any traditional size digital scrapbooking project.
The Flower Garden Digital Scrapbooking Kit 2 (12×12″) is a gorgeous kit filled with lots of blooming flowers! Don’t wait to start scrapping your flower garden and writing notes about it too! The Flower Garden Digital Scrapbooking Kit 2 is filled with soft-colored green, yellow, and 
pink backgrounds and sprinkled with beautiful roses, lilies, and more! Write notes and save special memories using the seriously pretty Flower Garden Digital Scrapbooking Kit 2; a kit sprinkled with beautiful blooming flowers and includes flower-designed notepad digi-paper to write down all your special memories!
Use the Flower Garden Digital Scrapbooking Kit 2 to create unforgettable Digital Scrapbooking Projects of an afternoon in your flower garden, a beautiful walk at the park, or for other special life moments that could use some pretty pastel papers and flowers: a new baby, a new romance, spring and summer-fun, or the “Big Day.” However you decide to use this pretty little digi-kit; it’s always nice to remember special moments with a stunning Digital Scrapbooking Kit! Include text and add special memories using the digi notepad paper and pen embellishment!
