Flower/Plant Photographs



I zoomed in on three of these flowers to provide a balance
(one on each side and one in the middle).

Photographs of flowers are very common but at the same time can make for beautiful pictures. There is so much you can do with these photos to make them a breathtaking masterpiece and distract the viewers from the genericness of the subject. Anyone can take a picture of a tulip, and though they are lovely and beautiful on their own, the photograph will need something more to make it stand out. A great way to start off is playing around with the zoom and the macro (that little flower button). Other ways to enhance your flower pictures is by using editing software to crop, contrast, and so on.

One of the best things about flower photographs is that they are outside (unless they are in a vase or pot inside, of course). When you have a very sunny day, that natural light will benefit your pictures better than anything else. And remember: flowers aren't the only pretty plant! Weeds, leaves, and so on can make wonderful pictures as well.



When you take a picture, you don't have to take it of the entire subject. You can zoom in on something that you really want to emphasize on. For instance, I zoomed in on this one section of purple flowers when there actually was an entire tree of them.

 

A deflated cactus. This is an example of how it doesn't need to be beautiful to make a beautiful picture. Notice, also, the dead cactus is not in the center of the picture; though it is the subject I wanted the viewers to notice first, I alligned it more to the right. This is a helpful hint: the subject doesn't have to be dead center!

The vibrant greens and yellows really make this picture pop. Notice the darkness between the green blades. Playing around with the brightness and darkness of a picture can make a big difference.



Photography has some of the same concepts as art --one of them being line. In this photograph, the limb of this bush is an example of line; it directs your eyes from one area of the picture to another area. While your eyes are following the limb, they also take in the other aspects of the picture.



Zooming in on this flower allows you to see the little details in it such as the yellow pattern. The darkness of the shadows (which can be darkened through editing) really makes the lightness of the flower stick out. This flower wouldn't pop out as much if it were against something light blue or pink.







This photograph is like a collage of plants and there is a lot going on and there is hardly a single negative space. To be honest, I'm not quite sure if I like this one much. I think it works because all the components in the picture are harmonous. There are different types and colors of plants, but they clash together nicely.




Again, darkening the shadows around the flower make it stick out drastically.



Notice the water droplets? That's fresh morning dew. While sunny days are ideal for taking plant pictures, sunny MORNINGS are even better! And, if for some reason you can't do mornings, here's a little cheat code: sprinkle just a tiny bit of water to create that dew look.

 

These are rose pedals that I had in a bowl and sprinkled water on. I wasn't necessarily going for the fake dew look, but I wanted to water droplets to be there.



Would you have ever known that behind this flower there were other flowers and grass? I didn't remove the flower and put it on a black background, I just played with the darkness setting!


So what did you think?

I briefly mentioned the elements of art and that they are key in photographs as well. For further information about the elements of art, check out Art Elements
Also, I mentioned indirectly a few principles of art. These can also be applied to photographs. For more information, check out Art Principles
Most of my photo editing is done in Picasa which is made by Google. It is simple and FREE. Download it here: Picasa