Garden photographs

Those who are new to garden photography may find the following notes useful.

1. Take pictures when the light conditions are 'luminous'. Dull gray skies produce dull grey pictures. Bright sun and blue sky produce pictures which are too contrasty (white for the sky, black for the shadow, only a few greens in the vegetation). You will often see portrait photographers using reflectors and flash to soften the light. Since garden-sized reflectors are impractical, outdoor photographers wait for 'cloudy-bright' conditions - preferably when the sun has just gone behind a cloud, or when the sun is pushing through a morning mist. The light is luminous.
   2. If you let an automatic camera decide on your exposure, be careful not to have too much sky or too much water in the view. The camera will expose for the sky or water and the vegetation will be too dark. If you can set the camera to manual, take an exposure reading from the most important area of vegetation in your picture.
3. If the exposure conditions look difficult, take 3, 6 or even 12 photographs at different exposures
4. With new models being released all the time it is difficult to make a specific recommendation (although we believe it is always worth checking the Canon range!) - but here are some points to bear in mind when choosing a digital camera for garden photography. Make sure:
- it has a viewfinder, because LCD screens are difficult to see in bright sunlight
- it has a ‘compensation’ dial to let you adjust the exposure. The aim is to give a longer exposure for a bright subject and a shorter exposure for a dark subject.
- the wide end of the zoom is as wide as you can get it, because wide-angle is more likely to be useful than telephoto for garden photographs
- to remember that good lenses produce better photographs than cheap ordinary consumer lenses

Garden Photography Tour

Brightwater Holidays run a 3 night Garden Photography Break in Scotland with Ray Cox, who specialises in photographing Scotland's gardens and plants.

The following article on flower photography is reprinted with permission from the NewYork Institute of Photography website. The comment on taking pictures in dull light conditions apply to other types of close-up pictures taken in gardens.

How to Photograph Flowers

 It's spring in many parts of the world. For those of us who spent the winter trapped inside, spring means, among other things, an irresistible chance to grab the camera and start capturing the first blooms of the season. Yet, how do you turn those shots of your favorite blooms into something special? Here are some tips on how to take better flower pictures from the world's largest photography school, New York Institute of Photography (NYI).

First, walk around the flower to see how it looks with light coming from different directions. Watch carefully when the light (usually, the sun) is behind the flower, coming toward the camera. Often, the petals will glow with beautiful iridescence. This is called "backlighting" because the light is coming from the back of the subject (in this case, the flower). Backlighting is often the best type of lighting for translucent subjects like petals.

However, don't despair if there is no sun. Gray and overcast days provide great opportunities for flower photography. The lighting is more even and there are no shadows. Rain turns colors more intense. You can even carry a spray bottle to create rain droplets on the sunniest of days. Even night photography is an option. You'll be surprised at how attractive a flower photo can be when illuminated by flash.

Second, to make a flower picture come alive, wait until something adds life to the flower - for example, a bee alights, or a spider crawls into it, or a hummingbird pays a visit. It takes patience, but it pays off if, for example, after you wait a few minutes, a butterfly lands on your flower. Shoot! The picture you get will be great.

Three, try interesting angles and backgrounds. Consider getting down low on the ground or shooting with the wide angle setting on your lens. Don't despair if the background behind the flower is unattractive. Try replacing it with a colored piece of paper or fabric. There are lots of different ways you can experiment when photographing flowers!

For the complete article on photographing flowers plus some great flower photos, visit the New York Institute of Photography website at http://www.nyip.com.

Garden Photographs for our Garden Finder

If you have photographs of gardens featured in our Garden Finder that  you would be happy for us to publish, we'd love to hear from you. In particular, we are interested in photographs of gardens of which we don't currently have an image (or only a small image). On these pages, you will see a "Do you have an image of this garden?" link to the right of the garden editorial.