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With the publication of my new ebook 52 Flower, Garden & Nature Photography Assignments I thought it would be interesting to share five of my favorite flower photography assignments. Most photographers enjoy photographing flowers. They’re an easy, accessible subject. You can photograph flowers in your own garden, a friend’s garden, a public garden, a park or out in the landscape.
The only thing that’s lacking is a direction – a way of making your photos different. Whether it’s down to the composition, the light, or simply seeing, there’s always a way to lift your flower photos above the ordinary. These assignments will get you started on your own flower photography journey. It’s summer – aka flower season – so why not go out and give them a try?
Flower photography assignment 7: Keep it clean
Your brief for this assignment is to make a photo with a clean background that creates negative space behind the subject. This makes the subject stand out. It also emphasizes the subject’s shape and color.
The key to making this brief work is to move around. You’re looking for an angle that shows the subject off at its best, and also gives a clean background. You may not find it all the time, but when you do it helps you create bold, graphic compositions. You don’t want detailed backgrounds for these photos. Use wide apertures to blur them and create negative space behind your subject.
The idea isn’t to get so close to your subject that it fills the frame, but to move back so that there’s plenty of breathing space around it. You can experiment with distance and decide what result you like best afterwards. Start by moving in close and filling the frame with your subject. Then move back and make another photo, then move back again and make another. This will give you a good selection of photos to choose from. With experience you’ll get a good feel for how much space to leave around your subject.
Tips
- Keep the composition as simple as possible. You’re looking for dark, plain backgrounds that don’t distract from your subject.
- This composition technique works best on cloudy days or in the shade, with no light shining on the background to create distracting highlights.
- Real life isn’t perfect. Don’t be afraid to use Lightroom’s healing brush or AI powered generative remove tools to remove distracting elements from the background.
Why these photos work
Both these photos use the technique of photographing something against a blurred background with minimal detail. This is the sort of thing you can do on a cloudy day as it’s easier to frame flowers and berries against a dark background. You can then darken the background further when you develop the photo, if it improves the composition.
With both photos I also used a wide aperture to blur the background, removing detail and creating negative space behind the subject.
Flower photography assignment 10. Shoot through stuff
One of my favorite techniques for flower photography is shooting through something else, using a wide aperture to make it go out of focus. It’s a great technique for adding interesting to your compositions, and your brief for this assignment.
The idea is to make compositions that are more complex than the simplest style of flower composition you see in this book – a single flower against a dark green background. By shooting through other flowers, grass or foliage you add texture and interest to the composition. But as it’s out of focus, it doesn’t distract from your main subject.
The longer the focal length of your lens, the easier it is to find something to shoot through. Shorter focal lengths (like 50mm on a full-frame camera) mean you need to get closer to the flower, and are less likely to find something to shoot through. Focal lengths of 100mm plus (full-frame) are better, the longer the focal length the more fun you can have with this technique. I use a 100m macro lens (APS-C) and it’s great for this.
Play around with framing. For example, if you’re shooting a flower through other flowers, make some photos where you can see the entire subject flower, and others where the out of focus flowers overlap the subject flower. It adds variety and interest to your compositions, and you can decide which are your favorites afterwards.
You can also try this technique for garden photography. Prime lenses are ideal for this as you can use the wide aperture settings to whatever’s in the foreground out of focus. If you have a zoom use the widest aperture setting you have and get close to your subject to make it work.
Tips
- Experiment with juxtaposing flowers of different colors, for example, shooting an orange flower through a blue flower.
- Watch the light. If the sun’s shining on whatever you’re shooting through, then it’s going to be too bright. Shoot through things that are in shade instead.
- When photographing flowers get down low to find more things to shoot through. Bring something to kneel on (a gardener’s kneeling pad is ideal).
Why these photos work
These photos show three different ways of shooting through stuff. In the first (left) I shot through other flowers, turning them into out of focus blobs at the bottom of the photo.
For the second (center) I shot through green foliage, which became an out of focus blur filling much of the frame.
In the third (right) I shot the garden ornament through white flowers, framing the rabbit and adding something interesting to look at in the foreground. In each case I used a wide aperture to throw whatever I was shooting through out of focus.
Flower photography assignment 14: Beautiful backgrounds
Your brief for this assignment is to use a wide aperture to create flower photos with beautifully blurred backgrounds. But we’re not going to be content with any old blur. You need to look for elements that make the background as beautiful as possible. Plain, dark green backgrounds are out – instead you need things like colorful flowers, interesting plants or weathered materials like wood and stone.
If you have the gear this is a good brief to get experimental with. For example, you can try vintage lenses like the Helios 58mm f2, known for the swirly bokeh effect you get with the aperture wide open. Manual focus lenses like these work well with mirrorless cameras as you can use tools like focus peaking to focus accurately.
Another option is to use a Lensbaby optic. You can have lots of fun with these, combined with an extension tube or close-up lens to get up nice and close to your subject.
But exotic optics aren’t necessary. You can still get great effects with regular lenses. If you haven’t done it before you try different lenses at their widest apertures to see if there’s a noticeable difference in the bokeh.
Don’t forget that aperture isn’t the only factor affecting depth of field. You can reduce depth of field (and create more background blur) by moving closer to the flower. The further the flower is from the background, the more blur you’ll get at any given aperture. Experiment with all these factors, but most of all look for colorful and interesting flowers, plants or materials to include in your backgrounds.
Tips
- Think color. Look for flowers with other colorful flowers and plants in the background.
- Experiment with the widest aperture settings of your lens, but also the next three full stop settings down. If you have an f2 prime lens, for example, then make photos at f2.8, f4 and f5.6 so you can compare the difference.
- If you have the patience, feel free to experiment with the lens blur effects in apps like Lightroom, to see if you like the effect.
Why these photos work
Both these photos use wide apertures to blur the background. I made both with a Helios 58mm f2 lens fitted with a Canon 500D close-up lens.
This lens is known for its swirly bokeh. To get that effect your background needs to a certain distance from your subject, and it helps if it has some bright highlights, so it doesn’t happen all the time. But the lens still gives an unusual bokeh effect that you don’t get with regular lenses.
The first photo (left) juxtaposes the seed pods with an out of focus flower in the background. This is a different approach to making a photo with a dark green background, and makes the composition more interesting.
The second photo (right) uses warm colors and blur to create a beautiful background. The red and yellow colors in the background work together to add warmth to the photo.
Flower photography assignment 20. Bees and butterflies
Gardens attract wildlife and two of the easiest insects to photograph are butterflies and bees. This is an assignment you can do nearly anywhere, from public gardens to parks to your own backyard.
If you have your own garden then you can grow flowers with photography in mind. That might be flowers you like to photograph, but it can also be flowers that attract wildlife like bees and butterflies. It’s a wonderful experience to sit in your own garden on a warm, cloudy day, listening to bees buzzing as they visit flowers, ready with your camera to make photos.
Bees are easy to photograph. They tend to ignore people and stay still long enough while they’re gathering pollen for you to make photos. Keep shooting as the bee wanders over the flower. You can pick the best result when you look at the photos afterwards.
Butterflies are more difficult to photograph because they’re constantly in motion. But every now and then you’ll get lucky, and spot a butterfly that stays still. When this happens, start off by keeping your distance and making photos that show the flowers the butterfly is on. This way you get some images to start with. Then you can gradually move closer, making more photos until the butterfly decides it’s time to leave.
You need patience to get good photos of insects, especially butterflies. But don’t forget the basics of photography. Pay attention to the background and think about the aperture you want to use. A wide one to blur the background, or a smaller aperture that shows more detail. Go for a shutter speed of 1/250 or faster to freeze any movement. Use whatever ISO you need to at your chosen aperture and shutter speed combination. If it’s high enough to give visible noise you can remove it when you develop your photos.
Tips
- When you see a butterfly in a garden you need to act quickly as it might not be around for long. Have your camera and lens set up ready to make photos so you don’t lose time.
- You can extend this assignment to include other insects and wildlife.
- Think about the working distance – the distance between the front of your lens and the subject? Which of your lens / accessory combinations gives you the largest working distance?
Why these photos work
These photos work because I didn’t try to get too close to the bees, which might have scared them away. The 100mm macro lens I used help me do this.
I kept my distance so I could include the flowers in the composition. This gave me more time to observe the bees, make several photos and pick my favorites.
Why these photos work
These photos show two different ways of making photos of butterflies. I made the first (left) in a butterfly farm. These are good places to see lots of butterflies, but you need patience to wait for one to keep still long enough to make some decent photos.
I made the second (right) in a public garden. The photo works because I kept my distance, which not only meant the butterfly didn’t fly away, but let me include the flowers. They’re the same color as the butterfly, which simplifies the color palette and shows how the butterfly can use camouflage to blend in with its surroundings.
Flower photography assignment 22. Happy couples
You learned how to photograph single flowers in an earlier assignment (18. Flying solo). This brief encourages you to take things up a notch by photographing two flowers (and two flowers only) in the same frame. It’s another test of your observation skills, because finding two flowers that look good together in the same photo isn’t always easy. But when it works it helps you create dramatic compositions with more going on in the frame than your single flower photos. The viewer’s eye moves between the two flowers, creating a more dynamic composition with lots of visual interest.
You can photograph two flowers of the same species, but you can also look for two different species growing close together. The contrast between the different shapes and colors makes your composition more unusual and interesting.
If both flowers are the same distance from the camera you can make a photo with both in focus. But it’s more likely that they are at different distances, which means you have to focus on one and let the other go out of focus. Focusing on the flower closest to the camera often gives the best result. But you can experiment with making more photos focused on the most distant flower, and make up your mind which you like best afterwards. The second flower doesn’t have to be close to your main subject. It can be further back, where it helps make the background look more interesting. It might even be so far out of focus it’s little more than a colorful blob. Play around with the possibilities and see what happens.
Tips
- Look for ways to make your composition as interesting as possible. Pay attention to aperture choice, the background and placement. Go for dynamic compositions with lots of intriguing detail in the frame.
- Spend half an hour or so walking around a garden looking for interesting flower photos. The more you look, the more you’ll see.
- Where possible, look for separation between the flowers. This means that they don’t overlap and there’s clear space between them. This makes the flowers easier to see in the photo (see the second and third photos on the next page for examples).
Why these photos work
These photos show three different ways of photographing pairs of flowers. The first (left) shows two flowers of the same type, close together. I focused on the one closest to the camera, letting the other flower go out of focus.
The second (center) shows two large flowers from the same plant together. Including two flowers in the photo, rather than one, creates a more dynamic and interesting composition that encourages the eye to move from one flower to the other, taking in the similarities and differences between them.
For the third photo (right) I included another flower in the background, as a way of livening up the dark green background and making it more interesting to look at. A wide aperture blurred the background flower so it didn’t compete for attention with the sharp flower in the foreground.
Further reading: 52 Flower, Garden & Nature Photography Assignments
Assignments are a great way to improve your flower photography. Whether you get them from my new book, or create your own mini-briefs that encourage you go to out and put what you’ve learned into practice, they are not as easy as to come up with as you might think.
You need inspiration, and lots of example photos that show you how it’s done. That’s why I wrote my new book 52 Flower, Garden & Nature Photography Assignments. It has an entire section of flower photography assignments, with briefs designed to spark your creativity and motivate you go to out and make beautiful photos.
You can take advantage of the early bird special and buy it today for just $10. Click here for the details.
Just curious? Click here to download a free 20 page sample.
