At the opening reception for my Petals show, several people asked me why I’ve switched from photographing flowers in gardens and in the wild, to photographing them in studio. My answers seemed to surprise them, so I thought I’d share five of the reasons I love to photograph flowers in my studio with you today.
When I’m photographing in my studio, I get to choose the flowers I want to photograph. I just head over to the local floral wholesaler and choose whatever flowers catch my fancy. If i’m in the mood for pink flowers, I can find them. If I’m looking for carnations, I’ll have many colors to choose from. If I’m photographing at a garden, I can only photograph what they have planted rather than having an almost unlimited variety of flowers to choose from. Here’s a peek at some of the flowers I had to choose from on Monday.
I can photograph in my studio any time I want to. I just have to head down to my basement and everything is ready to go. I don’t have to check the weather, or wonder how the light will be at a botanical garden. Instead, I can just head downstairs and create the light I want to use for photographing the flowers.
I can get as close to the flowers as I want to. In my studio I can put my tripod right up against the table and use multiple extension tubes to get within inches of the flowers I’m photographing. At a garden, I’m limited by where the flowers are in the beds. This spray rose was about 2 inches across when fully open. In my studio I was able to get close enough to fill the frame of my camera with it to capture this image.
Blush Parasol Spray Rose 2018 Patty Hankins
I can arrange the flowers however I want to. One of my favorite ways to photograph flowers is to bring a bunch of blossoms close to each other and look for patterns and textures in the petals. In my studio, I can arrange the flowers exactly how I want to – removing leaves or blossoms that aren’t in the right place. At the gardens, I’m not able to move the flowers into arrangements I want to photograph.
And only in my studio do I get the help of my studio assistants, Dusty, Jackson and Ansel. Dusty loves to curl up in her own personal sunbeam under the lights. While Jackson and Ansel always try to take time to stop and taste the flowers.
If you would like to learn to photograph flowers in a studio (and maybe get to work with my assistants), join me on March 17 for my Photographing Flowers in the workshop. You’ll get a chance to work with my strobes, my continuous lights, the various modifiers, and backgrounds I use in my studio.
You can learn more about the workshop at https://beautifulflowerpictures.com/photographing-flowers-studio-workshop-2018/