| SHOOTING FLOWERS by Nerine Dorman |
| At some point whilst growing African violets, your plants will have an “Oh Wow!” moment. Of course, as in the nature of flowers, they are ephemeral, and you will wish to somehow preserve that image with a photograph. There can be nothing more frustrating than trying to take that perfect picture, only to have it too light… too blurry or just too far away. Hopefully you’ll find some helpful hints in the following paragraphs that will give you some great ideas, and will hopefully at the very least assist you in taking better photographs of those really special blooms. |
 YOUR CAMERAThere are more kinds of camera out there than would be practical to go into at this point. All you need to concern yourself with is whether you’re to shoot digitally or with a 35mm camera that uses film. For the most professional results, try to lay your hands on a decent manual 35mm SLR camera (Single Lens Reflex) with a built-in light meter. A manual camera also allows you maximum control over various settings such as the amount of light you need or how fast you’d like the shutter to open and close. These cameras usually have the facilities to allow close-up work (usually in the form of various interchangable lenses). With violets you’ll need to get pretty close, and an ordinary point-and-click camera will usually not have those facilities for its lens (think of it as getting reading glasses for your camera). Also SLR cameras have larger lenses that will consequently produce crisper images than ordinary point & click cameras. There are a variety of lenses that fit SLR cameras that will achieve the same results of allowing you to extend your camera’s range by getting closer to the subject. |
| In my own experience I’ve used a Tamron 28-70mm
zoom lens that has semi-macro capabilities. I’ve found it very satisfying
for my botanical studies and will probably continue using that system for
all my violet shots. One is also able to compose shots allowing for
selective focus (i.e. having foreground in focus and blurring background).
You don’t have that kind of control with an auto-focus camera. What’s
really nice about a 28-70mm zoom is the fact that you can do relative
close-ups as well as shots from a distance. If budget constraints catch you, you can go for a cheaper point-and-click camera with a set focus, but then it is advisable to practice until you find the camera’s best range. In this case see how close you can get without blurring. But do look around. Speak to as many people in the know as possible and find the camera that suits you. In general, digital cameras don’t produce the kind of image that can be reproduced in print media. Many photographers are still stubbornly clinging to their SLR’s. However, if your only aim is to shoot for your website, try to find a digital camera that has zoom capabilities so that you can get quite close-up. The kind of digital cameras that the professionals use tend to be prohibitively expensive and not worthwhile all the fuss. |
 HOW YOUR CAMERA WORKSWhen you take a photograph, your camera lets a portion of light expose onto light-sensitive film. The duration of this light is controlled by a shutter and the amount of light is controlled by an aperture (which can be a small as a pinhole or as large as a dime). Once you understand how those two factors work together, you have the basics of photography under control. Example 1: I’m taking a photograph of an African violet in a dim room without using a flash. I will open my aperture as wide as possible (think like an eye’s pupil widening at night) and I’ll try and open the shutter as long as possible without letting too much light in. The reverse may happen in brighter conditions. Just bear in mind that your camera functions like an eye, and the film acts as the memory… |
| FILM There are different kinds of colour film for different kinds of light conditions. Normal film (C-41 process) creates a negative which the relevant people then use to create a set of positive prints. This is the everyday film we all use. Another kind is slide film (E-6 process) which creates a tiny positive image which you can then use in a projector. For really good botanical photography, you want to use slide film. This is what the professionals use. It is superior because it is the image in it’s purest form. Every time you reproduce an image, some of the definition is lost (think of a photocopy of a photocopy…). Scanning off a print introduces elements such as the grain of the paper the photo was printed on and also the fact that the light is reflected off the image. When scanning in a slide, the light is transmitted directly, allowing for the sharpest image imaginable. Of course your more expensive digital cameras bypass all this technology. If you’ve taken photographs indoors, you may have noticed that there is a yellowish cast to your picture. This is because the light thrown off by normal indoor lighting is actually on the yellow side. If you’re shooting indoors with available lighting, you can counteract this by either getting a filter for your lens, or getting special tungsten-balanced film, which has been adapted to counteract the yellow glow. It is more expensive, but will make your photos appear as if they were taken in natural light. Film speed is also something to consider. Film has progressive ASA or ISO ratings. Slow film absorbs light slowly and is perfect for bright conditions. It would have an ISO rating of 100 and this is generally the film that gets sold to everyday users. If you’re shooting in really dim conditions you may decided to use film that has an ISO rating of up to 800. Bear in mind that this faster film will also produce a more grainy image. I’ve had my best results with 200 ISO film, it’s very versatile, but the best is to experiment until you find the film you prefer. (for very interesting results, see what happens when you process slide film as if it were normal film. This is known as cross-processing and the results can be quite psychedelic!) |
 LIGHT When you’re taking photos, you’re painting with light. Depending on how much control your camera allows, you can choose how much light you want in your image. Overexposure leads to images that are too light. Underexposure (like when the flash doesn’t go off) leads to images that are too dark. Unless you can create a totally controlled environment in a studio with all the fittings, the best light is always natural light. Our sun provides the proper white light to get the most natural representation of your violet’s colours. You also don’t want direct sunlight, as this will create harsh shadows. The best time to shoot will be early morning, late morning, in the shade or on an overcast day. These conditions provide the perfect “soft” diffuse light that will banish shadows. In natural light conditions you may also want to experiment with reflective devices such as mirrors or large white cardboard sheets. By reflecting light you can fill in darker areas and brighten up shadowy areas. Experiment. Also see what happens if you use a flash during the day. |
| YOUR SUBJECT Now focus on your violet. This is where you make sure that you primp and preen your plant until the specimen looks as good as possible. You may not be able to fix that hair on the leaf later! Act as your plant’s make-up artist and put as much effort as possible to neaten the plant up. Next decide if you want a neutral background or whether you want situational subjects (like your violet in sharp focus with all it’s comrades blurred in the background). Too many good photos have been ruined by a bad setting. The best colours to choose for your background (if you want to isolate the plant) would be a neutral colour like black, grey or white. A non-reflective fabric with a fine grain is perfect. Get creative. If your violet is lilac, find a piece of fabric to match or contrast with that. Go wild and create a still life. Your imagination is your limit. Go close up on petal… Zoom out and blur the background… Shoot from different angles high or low. Pretend it’s a fashion parade, but if you have a good subject go ahead and shoot of a whole spool of film. It can be the best fun. |
 AFTERWARDSMany people go ahead and shoot images without giving due consideration of where the images are going to be used. When I was designing ads for a magazine company there was nothing worse than getting the image from the client for a full page advert and finding that it’s no bigger than a postage stamp. Especially now in our digital era, many people still don’t understand a few of the basics such as size and resolution. Images on the web or for on-screen viewing only. Your image size needs to sit comfortably at 100% onscreen. It may need to be 10cm x 10cm or only a thumbnail. Whatever the size you require, your resolution need not exceed 72 dpi. Dpi stands for dots per inch and relates to the amount of dots are to be found per inch of screen. Also the best format for this to email is the .jpeg file. Your computer screen fools your eye into seeing full colour by using a combination or red, blue and green light. The 3 combined in equal portions creates white light. Red and green create yellow light. Green and blue together create cyan and red and blue together create magenta. Strange but true. So you only need to save your .jpeg file as an RGB file (red + green + blue). Images to print. Once you’ve scanned in or downloaded an image and you want to print it in a magazine, they’re going to require it as the correct size you need it to appear and usually at a resolution no lower than 240dpi. This is much higher than what is needed for the web or for emailing snapshots. You could probably get away with emailing a .jpeg of the size of a jumbo photo, but anything after that, and you’d be needing to burn it to a rewritable disc or some other format. If you’re permanently connected to the Net it won’t matter for phone bills, but do find out if the recipient can handle a file the size you’re sending. Generally your printers for magazines or newspapers will need a full colour image that has been saved as either an .eps or .tiff format that is CMYK. The CMYK refers to the four process colours of the printing process, cyan, magenta, yellow and black. These combine as tiny dots on the paper to fool your eye into thinking it’s looking at a real image. |
| Getting professional… Editing scanned images can be addictive. Really the only programme worth considering (it is industry standard worldwide) is Adobe Photoshop. It will allow you the freedom of removing blotches, touching up on colour or even making a pink violet blue… However, it is not an easy programme to learn if you are not computer literate, but is probably the best of the photo-editing programmes out there. It also allows you to open a whole new can of worms… At the end of the day, photography is all about looking at the world around you from as many angles as possible. When those first photos of your violets come back from the developing and printing, don’t be disappointed if half your shots were bungled. Just remember that for every good shot that gets chosen for something or another, there’s at least a spool full of shots lying discarded in a wastepaper bin somewhere. |
| Have fun. Go wild. Experiment and play with colour! |