April 2, 2024 Lauren Orcinolo

How to take beautiful pictures of flowers

So you want to focus your photography on flower photography, you will want to improve your photography skills while photographing flowers. Even for beginners, there are a plethora of photography tips and tutorials to get stunning photos which we will explore. Whether you are facing harsh lighting conditions like an overcast day with a lack of natural light or a windy day, shooting with a wide aperture will allow for more light to enter the sensor on your DSLR camera lens. Having a great lens to accompany your camera will allow for the camera settings to focus on different angles of view when shooting photos of flowers or video recordings.

Tips and Tutorials

Let’s take a deeper look at some photography tips and tutorials that will take your flower photos to the next level.

Try shooting with a macro lens to get great close up shots of your main subject. Macro flower photography should preferably be done with a macro lens with a focal length range of 80-120mm range. In essence if you want tremendous close ups when shooting flowers than you want to approach this with macro photography. You can literally see intricate parts of the flower and focus in tightly on a single flower even getting sharp clear photos of the flowers stamen.
Use a tripod which will assist tremendously with camera shake often associated with handheld photography. The use of a tripod will depend on how you are approaching your flower photography.
Shoot in manual mode. This gives you more control over the camera settings than autofocus would. For example you easily set your focal point, aperture, shutter speed and ISO.
Make sure that your aperture is set for the type of flower photos you are trying to take. Wide aperture with a small f-stop number are great for shallow depth of field shooting. A smaller aperture will give you a wide angle view.
Your shutter speed should be set to a fast and speedy setting when shooting with a higher magnification.
Take your flower photos in soft light that you would typically find on an overcast day. Shadows should not be a problem when shooting in this environment.
Be careful when attempting to photograph flowers on a windy day. We recommend in this type of shooting environment to place a reflector next to your flower to get the best photo.
When using a backlight, try and shoot your flower photos later in the day for the best quality shots. This is also great to use during the golden hour when its just prior to sunrise and sunset.
If you are having problems getting enough natural light into your flower photos, you should use a diffuser. Just attach the diffuser to your lens and you’ll get that soft light you want, as this will spread out the light source and it will hit your main subject at more angles to shoot at.
Let’s say your area just had a rain storm and it’s over now and you want to explore the outside to take flower photos. In the early morning with cloudy skies and diffused light, you will be able to see the water droplets on your beautiful flower and its flower petals. Interestingly enough many flower photographers will keep a water spray bottle with them to get this effect even if there was no rain.
Shooting in rule of thirds is a very simple way to make your photos structured properly and and will look great uploaded to your social media site of choice. This will surely up your subscribers as they see the amazingly beautiful photos of every single flower you take.
As we previously mentioned regarding getting close ups you want to get as close to your main subject as possible. Using a telephoto lens will allow you to zoom in and get a good close up shot. Try using an extension tube for your lens as it is one of the great lens accessories to get even further focal length. Still for extreme close ups we do recommend a macro lens.
Also as we previously discussed shooting your flower photos in a shallow depth of field, you need to use a wide aperture. This also will get you a great Bokeh effect by creating a gorgeous creamy blurred background.
If you are focus on landscape photography try using focus stacking which combines several images that you take into one single image with your flower photos focused at different distances in the exposure.
Use photoshop, Adobe Lightroom or other photo editing tools for post processing. This will allow you to make any changes and adjustments to your exposure. There are many apps that will assist you in this regard.

Cameras

To begin with you want a great DSLR camera for your flower photography. We have several suggestions which will get you flower photos showing up with a sharp, vibrant and vivid final image. Let’s take a look at some of the great cameras.

Beginning with the Sony a6400 Mirrorless APS-C Interchangeable-Lens Camera with 18-135mm Lens ILCE-6400M, this camera comes stacked with tremendous specs and features including the following:

This camera is currently discounted and is a great purchase at this price point for a DSLR camera with such features.
24.2 effective megapixel CMOS sensor for high quality images. So you flower photos will show intricate details of each single flower.
Easy to use as a webcam for livestreaming. So get your social media site ready to upload some great flower photos that your subscribers will love.
This is an interchangeable lens camera, which means compatibility with so many lenses from Sony, even the Sony EPZ lenses. This 18-135mm lens uses a power zoom design and is made for Sony’s APS-C mirrorless cameras. If you are getting a lens from a different manufacturer than you will need a mounting adapter to ensure compatibility of the lens with your camera.
With the all new advanced Real Time Auto Focus this camera is great for beginners. Just touch the EVF or LCD screen to indicate the subject or object on which you want to focus on. With the world’s fastest 0.02 seconds Autofocus acquisition speed plus 425 phase-detection, you are sure to get great flower photos as your main subject should be fully seen in the exposure.
Image recording can save files in jpeg format or even RAW format, which is used on many smartphones and video cameras for more detailed post processing and editing.
The Sony Alpha a6400 offers in-camera 4K recording by oversampling at 2.4x the image. It uses the HLG and the S-Log3/2 standard for obtaining images and videos in HDR at up to 30FPS and FHD or Full HD at 1920x1080p in 60 FPS.

The Sony Alpha a6400 will help keep things smooth taking shots images and stills on the move. It’s electronic image stabilization delivers stable flower photos and videos with minimal to no camera shake and blur during hand-held recording.
The touchpad allows you to maneuver the focus position while you examine the scene and your subject through the EVF or Electronic View Finder.
The Sony a6400 powerful back illuminated CMOS sensor is made to maximize light, producing breathtaking 4K HDR movies with high-quality images and less noise. This is true even when shooting in difficult lighting conditions such as a overcast day or windy day.

The next camera we would like you to take a look at is the Sony a6600 APS-C Mirrorless Interchangeable-Lens Camera + 18-135mm Lens ILCE-6600MB. This is a nice upgrade over the a6400, with many of the same features with improvements in some areas. Let’s take a look,

As on on the Sony a6400 this camera has a built in 24.2 effective megapixel CMOS sensor for high quality images.
There is an Enhanced BIONZ X image processing engine for quick processing of your photos and videos.
Unrivaled autofocus with with the new 4D Focus system. You get an amazing 425 point phase detection so focusing in on a single flower will be that much easier.
Real time auto tracking so if you are taking flower photos on a windy day where the breeze is making the flower move quite a bit, the auto tracking on this camera will make sure that your final exposure is clear and beautiful.
There is a 5 axis image stabilization built in to remove any camera shake that is commonly found when shooting handheld.
Can record in 4K HDR and Full HD so getting those amazing clear, sharp and vivid exposures of your beautiful flower is a shutter depress away.
Can record in RAW footage which is great for editing in post processing.
There is a multi memory card slot for for Memory Stick Duo/SD memory cards which allow for immense onboard storage. We highly recommend purchasing a spare memory card for additional storage and in case there is a failure with your main storage card.
Wi-Fi on the 2.6 ghz network is included as is Bluetooth 4.2 for tremendous connectivity to apps and social media.

Lens

Now that you have some great DSLR cameras to choose from, its time to take a look at a fantastic lens from Sony to compliment your camera. The Sony SEL90M28G - FE 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS Full-frame E-mount Macro Lens.

This is a great telephoto macro lens with a the ability to get a bright wide aperture.
With the great nano AR coating you remove any unwanted flare and ghosting of your image.
There is internal focusing a focus hold button a focus range limiter and a focus ring. These are great items to have on a lens especially for beginners.
There is lens based optical stabilization which will assist tremendously in removing camera shake.
With a dust and moisture resistant build, you can feel confident shooting in harsh conditions and having the lens properly protected.
Over all this is a Sony G higher end lens that will get your beautiful flower photos to shine with extreme clarity.

Let’s shoot some beautiful photos of flowers

Now you have a good sense of what flower photography is like, thanks to the photography tips and tutorials provided. However, remember, your flower photos will only come out with a beautiful exposure with the right camera and lens. Therefore, coupling either the Sony a6400 or the Sony a6600 with the recommended macro lens will get your beautiful flower in a close up setting to really show off your skills with flower photographs. Enjoy your flower photography journey.