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Be a Great Garden Photographer! A Primer for Taking Good Pictures by judywhite Tips for Photographers with Cameras that have Manual Settings Congratulations. You're 75% of the way toward taking better photos. A camera with manual overrides gives you great control over how your pictures ultimately look. Don't shoot at noon, or any time the sun is shining brightly. Bright sun just bleaches out your pictures and makes them too contrasty, with little detail visible. Shoot on overcast days, or early in the morning, or late in the afternoon, when the sun's rays are much more slanted and inviting. The results will be richer in color and detail. Carefully choose the time you shoot. Of course, there will be times when you absolutely want a bright blue sky in the picture; in which case you generally shoot with your back to the sun, unless you are trying to achieve a backlit effect of the sun shining through plant foliage. Shoot when there is no wind blowing at all. This will enable you to shoot at very slow shutter speeds without blurring the image. Use a tripod. This is essential. A tripod will enable you to shoot at slower speeds. Slower speeds mean that the film is able to take longer in putting the color saturation into your photos, and the results turn blah pictures into professional ones. A tripod is one of the greatest tricks of the professional trade. Use it. A tiltable head is also a good option with a tripod, as is a "quick-release" mount that lets you snap the camera off and on the tripod without having to unscrew and screw it on and off each time you need to reload film. Some tripods also come with screw-in holes for a carrying strap (Bogen, for example), which aids in lugging the tripod around. Use good, branded low-ISO film, preferably with an ISO of 100 or less. High-speed film is pretty awful for flower photography; the colors just bleach right out. Low-speed film, such as 50 or 64 or 100, takes longer in letting colors saturate your photos, which is good. Slide film is essential if you intend to sell your photos for publication, but if you just want prints of your photos, then use print film. Making prints from slides is very costly. Tips on slide film. Choose the f-stop first, then choose the shutter speed, not the other way around, if possible. Most of the time you will want sharp images, so shoot at the smallest-open lens opening, which is actually the largest number of the f-stop, the numbers on the lens ring. This will give the greatest depth-of-field, which is the sharpness of the photo from the front of the picture all the way to the back. A small lens opening f-stop is the largest number on your lens, such as 22, 32. This actually means 1/22 and 1/32, and is the measure of the diameter of the lens opening. Tips on choosing lenses. Measure the shutter speed needed to shoot at your preferred f-stop. Use your in-camera metering once you've set the f-stop, and see what it recommends as the shutter speed. And here's the best trick on metering I can give you: Don't automatically meter at the place you plan to shoot, especially if it's a white flower or a dark red one. Choose something nearby that is a standard green, like the lawn or a medium-green leaf, and meter off that. Then set your speed based on that reading. Then go back and compose your shot and shoot at that metered reading. In order to shoot at f-stops of 22 or 32, you'll need to shoot at a shutter speed that gives the right exposure for that f-stop. On an overcast day with film of 100 ISO, shooting at an f-stop of 22 might result in needing a shutter speed of 1/4 second, or 4 on your speed dial. Compose the shot carefully, especially in close-ups. Look to make sure there are no distracting objects (sticks and stakes, discolored leaves, debris, etc.) in the shot, and avoid patches of plain dirt. Before you shoot, check the depth-of-field with the preview button. Make sure the image is clear all the way to the front of the picture (unless you're shooting an "arty" shot that fuzzes out the front and back, but make sure that's your choice, not happening by accident). Focus about 1/3 of the way into the shot, and change your focus while holding down the depth-of-field preview so you can see where you might change the focus to get more clarity throughout the image. The depth-of-field button is also very useful in letting you see distracting elements in your composition. Use a shutter cord to depress the button. This will eliminate camera shake that often happens at slow shutter speeds if you press the button with your finger. If you don't have a shutter cord with you, use the camera's timer to automatically release the shutter without pressing it. Bracket on either side of your metered reading. This means to change either the f-stop or the shutter speed by 1/2 stop down or 1/2 stop up, and take a shot at each setting. 1/2 stop up means giving the film more light, by turning the f-stop halfway to the next lower number, or by turning the shutter speed halfway to the next lower number (and vice versa for 1/2 stop down, which gives the film less light). You may also have a separate exposure compensation dial on your camera that lets you bracket by using this dial instead of having to actually move the f-stop or shutter speed dial. Bracketing will help enhance the chances that the exposure will be perfect. This is less essential when shooting print film, but slide film is very unforgiving, and it will help immeasureably in giving you excellent exposures. Keep the developed film out of heat and light, and develop as soon as possible at a reputable developer who uses brand-name paper and chemicals. Undeveloped film should also be kept protected from heat and light; if it's professional film such as Velvia, keep it refrigerated, otherwise the colors can "shift" and change to odd tones. Tips on Buying a Manual Camera Garden Photography Tips Index Garden Photos home copyright 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000-2004 judywhite/GardenPhotos.com. All rights reserved. Feel free to post these tips elsewhere, but make sure to include the byline and copyright information. You may find more info by checking: PhotoLinks - The Photography Network