Just a touch of soft sunlight adds extra life and depth to your image, especially when its position is at a slight angle to the camera lens, and behind your subject. I like these best because I want to portray the flower as I usually see it in the garden.

All of these photos are still raw and untouched with digital image manipulation, and were taken early morning. One right after the other, at very slightly different angles to the light. I don't see these as perfectly focused shots, but they do help to show what a bit of natural light can add to your image.



Backlighting..............................................A bit more sunlight......................................No direct sunlight.....................................


Other tips-
Much of the time a white bloom should be photographed on a cloudy day or, if it's a close-up, in the shade of your body.

Take several shots of your subject, moving the camera the tiniest bit in another direction for each, and refocusing before snapping it.

Close-ups. Gently hold your breath between the acts of focusing and clicking. Many times a blurry shot is caused by the movement of breathing, rather than a shaky hand.

Watch the way the sunlight travels through your gardens often, then you'll have a good idea of the best time to photograph that special newly opened bloom.

great tips & shots Chelle.. the breath does really make a difference too .. I always forget I do that

I learned from yours too, Allison.

I often take late-day shots without a flash...never really noticed the color difference before you showed it. Well, other than with blue flowers , those are really, really blue!

I agree that sometimes the touch of sunlight will do wonders.
This is Plumeria obtusa 'Singapore' with the rising sun just touching it.
Another picture of the same plumeria on a cloudy day.

Gorgeous, Hetty!

I've often noticed and appreciated the brush of light in your lovely banner photos!

Those two shots show [the difference of adding] just a touch direct light perfectly! I fight tooth and nail to try to get those right.

[Edited 'cause I didn't make much sense the first time! LOL!]

I love dusk shots with the flash.. sometimes the color will just scream.. reds & blues should never be shot in full sunlight.. they never come out right .. but dusk with a flash.. yeah that works

edit -- the key to these shots is to single out a bloom.. not too much around it.. and distance means everything.. not moving yourself per say.. zoom the lens.. stand back a bit.. so the flash is not too harsh

CDsSister said:
Maybe a class at my local camera store might help too. I am a hands on learner.

While a class certainly couldn't hurt, digitals are perfect for hands-on learners, because you get instant results.

Pick ONE tip, or ONE thing you want to focus on. Get out the camera, and try it. For instance, take the same picture with and without flash. If your camera lets you set different flash settings, try each of them. My favorite is "fill flash" because it doesn't try to light the whole picture. Unfortunately, my current camera doesn't have a fill flash setting. Even if the camera has an automatic, on-board flash, there's usually a setting that will turn it off. Keep track of the sequence in which you took them (flash/no-flash/partial flash, whatever)

Then look at the pics full-size on your computer screen, and see which one you like best, or which one looks most like the subject in real life.

Thanks, I recently have been turning the flash on and off when working to get some of my shots.

I think I saw something that will let me adjust the back lighting too. More reading and work on the manual. .. Thanks for the great tips. Keep em coming....

Maybe this old dog can learn

CDsSister said: Thanks, I recently have been turning the flash on and off when working to get some of my shots.

I think I saw something that will let me adjust the back lighting too. More reading and work on the manual. .. Thanks for the great tips. Keep em coming....

Maybe this old dog can learn

Sweetheart, my first greyhound was 10 1/2 yrs old when I adopted her, and had never in her life climbed any stairs. I lived in a 3rd floor apartment. If SHE could learn how to climb stairs at the ripe old age of a-hunnert-billion-and-two (roughly converted from doggy years), then YOU can learn anything you put your mind to!

what little might be left of my mind, I will try to apply

Thanks so much for all the tips. I tried to take a picture of a plumeria that I just got and it is so pretty. Didn't turn out very good, so now must try taking pictures at different times. I always love all of Hetty's pictures and now I know the secret. Thanks for this tip!! I thought I might need a better camera (need to save up money if I do) to get such pretty pictures. Operative word today is Practice, Practice, Practice.

Pegi, the camera is only as good as the person holding it. So yeah, practice practice practice.

I love the way this thread is turning into a workshop

Dutchlady1 said:I love the way this thread is turning into a workshop

It's great to see all the interest here, isn't it, Hetty!


with Mary. Learn what to expect from your camera.

This image was taken with a child's camera. The colors of the sky were rather drastically changed from the actual colors by the camera's interpretation of the higher light levels of that part of the background.


If the photographer was aware that this might happen, he might have framed the shot this way, instead.

fiwit said:
There are lots of "dummies guides" out there on photography, digital photography, and post processing, but the book that helped me the most back when I was teaching myself photography (with my Pentax K1000 totally manual SLR) was Kodak's "How to Take Great Pictures."

/

That's what I started with, then moved up to the ME Super. That was over 30 years ago before life got in the way of my dreams of being a photographer.

Jay, I used the the K1000 from 1988 until I got an Olympus C-2100UZ digital -- it was the closest thing you could get to an affordable dSLR in 2002. The "UZ" stood for ultra-zoom -- it had an 8x optical zoom, as I recall, and image stabilisation. Before the Pentax, I had an old Kodak 110. Folks used to sneer at the Uzi (as I called her) because she was only a 2.1mp camera, but as I said earlier, it's the person, not the camera that matters. These were taken with the Uzi, in 2002 and 2005, respectively.

Callaway Gardens Butterfly Exhibit in Sept 2002



My apartment complex (GA) in Jan 2005

Guess my next goal is to take better pictures, if I'm lucky. I'm glad to hear that my Kodak Easy Share 3 pixil camera will give me good shots if I practice more. I would love to have beautiful pictures to share.

I found some really cheap tripods in Goodwill. The better-quality one was missing one part, but I mostly repaired that with duct tape (one of the leg-extender-locks).