Close-up photos of flowers.

Very often when photographing flowers we want to get closer, than the camera allows. Perspective redraws, that look so messy, almost nonexistent, so that we are not forced to use lenses with longer focal lengths. Attachment lenses are of little use, because they deteriorate the sharpness of drawing the lens. With slit shutters, extension rings are very advantageous. If the flowers are nicely arranged, lamps give good light, and the image has been properly cropped, we should set it sharply and cover it properly. It's best to place it on a nearby object, np. ashtray, about one third of the desired depth of field.

Aperture selection is, As you know, depending on the focal length of the lens and the distance of the photographed object. This is best explained with an example. On the most commonly used 6X6 cm format, at focal length 10 cm, taking a photo of the bouquet from a distance 1,2 m, we can use a cover 1 :8 do 1 : 11, while when taking close photos of flowers, we need to reduce the aperture to 1 : 16 the 1 : 22. We must pay attention to this, keep the depth of field as flat as possible, for example, so that the flower branches do not protrude too far forward. In the case of especially large photos of single flowers, we must set them in a plane perpendicular to the axis of the camera, because even small blurs in important parts of the image look very unattractive.

We've already gone this far, that we can actually press the trigger, if not for the feeling of insecurity, that the exposure time measured or judged by eye is correct.

Everyone should collect their own experiences and their results, but we want to give one more example. Let's take a bouquet of flowers, which we want to photograph from a distance 1,2 m at the focal length 10 cm and aperture 1 : 8. For lighting, we will use a type B photographic lamp and one ordinary light bulb 200 W, standing about camera distance on one side. Exposure on colored material for artificial light type K, with a sensitivity corresponding to 17° DIN is by all arrangements 2 sek. Application of filter No. K 22 using a material adapted to daylight, type T extends the exposure time by six times. If we take the flowers protruding from the side of a large bouquet and approach the camera at a distance 40 cm, then the exposure time will be extended by 1.5 times, so it will be 3 sek. We talked about calculating the exposure time for close-ups in previous articles.