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Wildflower Photography
By Doug Locke and Skip Moody
West Oakland Camera Club
May 27, 2004

To photograph fields of flowers wide-angle lenses in the 24 to 35 mm range are good. Make sure you use the hyper focal focusing technique to get everything sharp. If you have Tilt/Shift lenses they can greatly aid you in getting a very deep depth of field.

Clumps of flowers can be best photographed with a short lens in the 50mm range. This lens is not good for portraits of wildflowers due to the larger angle of view which will pick up too much background.

Portraits of wildflowers are best done with a longer lens in the 200mm or possibly 100mm. They provide a larger working distance and a narrow angle of view. This will allow the background to be thrown out of focus. The longer the better. Lens collars offer a convenient means of switching between horizontals and verticals.

A zoom lens in the 100 to 200mm range will also work well if you use automatic extension tubes so the lens will focus closer to allow the frame to be filled.

Use high quality (multi element) diopters to further reduce your camera to subject distance thereby increasing the size (magnification) of your subject.

A tripod that goes low to the ground is definitely required to do the portraits and some of the wide angle field shots. A cable release should also be used. Perhaps the most convenient feature you can use for macro photography is an adjustable head to allow fine tuning the position of the camera.

Fine grain Fuji Velvia ISO 50 or 1OOF, Kodak or whatever brand you like -or maybe no film at all (digital).

One of the most important things is to find a good specimen. When you find the flowers, don't just photograph the first one you see. Take some time and look around and find the best looking specimen that is not faded, chewed by bugs, or all the pollen gone. Also look at the settings and surrounding areas.

We prefer to photograph wildflowers in natural diffused light. Usually bright sunlight is terrible for photographing wildflowers. Bright overcast is best. Early morning or late evening light can also be used successfully.

If you don't have the bright overcast light, you can carry your own with you. The use of a diffuser to soften the light works well in bright sunlight. Reflectors can also be used to reflect light into the shadowed areas.

The diffusers can also be used to block wind. Wind is probably one of the worst enemies of a wildflower photographer. The diffusers can block some wind. Prop rods or sticks can also be used to steady a subject from wind.

Photographing early and late in the day is not only better for the light, but also the wind is usually much less of a problem.

Photographing wildflowers after a rain is good because the colors tend to be more saturated, the flowers are cleaner and the raindrops will give you an added freshness to the photograph.

DO NOT DISTURB. Many flowers are very fragile and can't tolerate much disturbance. Do not pick flowers to add to your composition. Use Photoshop instead. Try not to step or lay on neighboring flowers to your subject. Try to keep your impact to a minimum.