Working with light and reflectors
photo by Philip Smith
When you’re shooting gardens, your selection of lenses will enable you to cover different types of effects and features.
The 16-35mm optic will provide sweeping overviews and broad shots; a
general-purpose 24-105mm lens is ideal for capturing medium-wide shots
and telephoto views without having to change lenses; the 70-200mm
telephoto zoom will comfortably cover both tight portraits and distant
details; and the 100mm macro lens is great for floral portraits.
Just select your lens according to the effect you’re after.
It’s
a great idea to explore different focal lengths with the same shot, too
– so the main garden view, with Great Dixter Hall in the background,
would work equally well with a short wideangle zoom for front-to-back
sharpness or with a telephoto zoom for a tight crop on foreground detail
such as topiary, using a smallish aperture to give good depth of field.
‘A
telephoto zoom can enable you to isolate details in a broader garden
scene, such as an archway cut through a hedge,’ says Tom. ‘
It’s
also great for compressing features, especially a long pathway with, for
example, a bench or statue at the end – you can use a telephoto to
foreshorten everything and make the bench look bigger and more impactful
in the frame.’
photo by Gill Mullins
To
lose distracting backgrounds from tight flower portraits, Tom suggests
using a macro lens or the longer end of your telephoto zoom – but take
care not to go physically closer than the close-focus distance allows,
otherwise you’ll struggle to focus.
Be prepared to step back to get the focus spot-on. ‘A fisheye can be interesting for gardens, providing some unusual floral perspectives and angles,’ says Tom.
‘Try
shooting upwards at flowers from ground level using a burst of
fill-flash to balance the exposure of the flowers with that of the
background sky.
I’ve often photographed from a bug’s-eye view
using a fisheye or wideangle lens, setting the camera right down in the
flowers looking up to the sky – it’s great for brightly coloured petals,
especially yellow, red and orange, against the blue of the sky.’
