Give a Soft Touch to Flower Shots

[Peter_S.]

To give a gentle feel and soft touch to flower shots, backgrounds and their level of defocus are important.
To increase the defocus level, set the camera to the A-mode and open the aperture as much as possible.

Creating background defocus

To capture the softness and beautiful colours of flowers, it is important to be able to render backgrounds. Following the instructions on Factors of Defocus, get very close to the subject, and shoot on the telephoto side (with longer focal lengths) of the lens. This simple process increases the amount of defocus and highlights the flowers, allowing you to shoot photographs differently than usual.

The above photographs were shot with different focal lengths: 55 mm for [1] and 210 mm for [2]. You can see that the shot with the longer focal length creates greater background defocus and emphasises the freshness of the flower. If you have a telephoto lens, use it to render backgrounds more effectively.
Also, the photograph [2] is more creative with the background colours. By using the green colours contrasting with the red for the entire background, the vividness of the flower is enhanced.
Try shooting from different angles with different backgrounds, and find your favourite shot.

Adjusting the brightness

Slightly brightening the image will enhance the softness of the flowers. In the example below, the photograph [1] was shot with the exposure automatically adjusted by the camera. As the background is bright, the flowers are rendered relatively dark. This is enough to convey the colour and shape of the flowers, but the pink looks a little dull. Slightly brightened by exposure compensation, photograph [2] has a softer and gentler atmosphere.

Also, if you shoot in your home or other places where you can control the angle of light, try to place the flowers so that they can be illuminated by back light. If possible, using the light through the curtain instead of direct sunlight or shooting on a cloudy day are the best shooting conditions to create soft lighting.

Trying macro lenses

If you are shooting flowers or small items, you may feel like getting closer to the subject and shooting the close-up details. However, a lens has a minimum focusing distance which limits how close you can get to the subject. “Macro lenses” are dedicated lenses for such scenes, which allow you to get extremely close to the subject and take close-up shots.

Focal length: 30 mm / F-number: 2.8 / Shutter speed: 1/80 sec Exposure compensation: +1.3			Focal length: 30 mm / F-number: 3.5 / Shutter speed: 1/15 sec Exposure compensation: +2.0
SAL30M28	This lens allows you to move in as close as 2 cm from your subject to capture macro images with up to 1:1 magnification. The details you focus on will be astonishingly sharp, while the out-of-focus background dissolves into a creamy blur that can really make the details stand out.		SEL30M35	This lens offers versatile, high-performance macro capabilities in a compact, lightweight body. It is a true 1:1 macro lens with a 2.4 cm minimum working distance that allows tiny subjects and details to be rendered with excellent resolution and contrast.