PHOTOGRAPHY

Photographing Flowers using Extension Tubes

Photographing Flowers  is full of opportunities. You can start with photographing a bunch of flowers and eventually drill down to photograph the beauty of a lonely flower. The delicacy and elegance of flowers is tenderly transmitted to the photographs as well. Either you choose to photograph the floral rows or you plan to photograph the fine details of the flowers, everything comes out to be just awesome — the flower buds, the pollen grains, the blooming flowers or the bunch of flowers; all portray the unparalleled beauty of nature.

There are a few important elements to consider when Photographing Flowers :

Lighting:

Getting Closer: While macro lenses are specially designed for extreme close-up photography they carry a heavy price tag. That is why using extension tubes is an inexpensive and yet effective alternative.
Read tutorial About : How to Shoot in Direct Sunlight

Extension Tubes:

Extension tubes allow any lens to focus closer than it can naturally do so. Extension tubes do not have any optics, they simply move the lens farther apart from the digital sensor or film plane. Tubes come in various lengths depending on the manufacturer. Focusing closer to your subject will result in a higher magnification. For example 31mm tube will produce greater magnification then an 11mm tube.

Tubes can also be combined. For example the combination of a 31mm and an 11mm will produce a 42mm extension and will allow for an even closer focusing.

See earlier tutorial: Macro Photography Lets get Started.

Depth of Field:

When photographing flowers, it is often highly effective to separate your subject from the background. Please note that when using extension tubes your Depth of Field will become really shallow. You might need to compensate by increasing your aperture to reach a desired focus effect.See our earlier tutorial: How to photograph using selective focus.
Read tutorial About : Photoshop Tutorial to Create Realistic Depth of Field

Focal Point:

Is the point of your focus that will draw the viewers’ eye to. When photographing people, a photographer would generally focus on the eyes.  When photographing a close up of a flower, simply focus on the most attractive element “the eyes of the flower”.

Note :This photography technique can be used on any subject that requires close up focusing.