Studio Photography - Flora & Fauna Unit 25

                      When we were first introduced to the joys of shooting flowers, we were encouraged to try and bring out texture as well as the colours and details and shown examples in published books by such people as William A Ewing - Flora Photographica, Fleur - Fleur Olby and Portraits Of Intimacy - Adam Kufeld as well as still life images from the likes of Irving Penn and Robert Mapplethorpe. The general theory behind floral photography is to try and make them look alive and show them as a delicate, living object but then there are variations on this depending on what mood you are trying to portray. Take for example Irving Penn's image from 1968 Lavander Glory Poppy, now he was said to give the flowers attitude and as you can see from the image below, the lighting was a strong factor in presenting the flower as something of an expose providing the viewer with the opportunity to indulge in it's fragility whilst appreciating it's strength in beauty. 

                                      


                     Adam Kufeld's approach could be considered a little more intimate as he went closer to the heart of his subject inviting the viewer to explore the detail found within the stamen etc yet without losing any of the vibrancy of colour that acted as a magnificent backdrop to really drive the image home.

                                      

                         Now I was looking for something off my own back that was a bit more unusual than the flower shots we maybe use to and I came across an article on a guy called  Alexander James over at Design Boom . Alexander has taken things a step further by developing a technique for removing the pigment from the flower and replacing it with purified water so the flower continues to live. He then photographs them under water and presents them without any post production work and you can see the detail in the fibres and texture is quite stunning. 

                                         

                    Getting back to my own studio work with flowers, it should be taken into consideration that whilst still fresh they contain water and water transmits light, so with this in mind it is recommended the first light comes from behind to make it look delicate. The opposite could be said for dead flowers as they tend be shot primarily from the front to add drama. To add texture to live flowers you can use something like silver foil card as a reflector to bounce a gentle light back onto the front of the flower to produce texture but bare in mind that bunches of flowers can be harder to photograph as they produce more shadows. If you were choosing to lose the delicate touch and go for something more sombre you could use gold as a reflector when the bunch are being lit from the front.
                   The reality of photographing flowers, as with anything else, is that there are plenty of different ways to explore your subject and the bottom line is it all comes down to you and your willingness to experiment. My first attempts at flowers were something of a rushed affair as you can see from the example below. I'd thought very little about composition and when I tried to introduce additional props it was more a case of just getting something to show than something to be proud of.         

                              

                        As you can probably see it's something of a neither here nor there kind of shot, with very little attention to detail. The lighting does nothing to bring out the detail of the pink flower and the lack of definition in the white flower could possibly have been amended by use of some card to send some detail back onto it. I knew this wasn't going to be good enough as a final submission so I decided to reshoot the the whole floral thing using the lighting set up below..... 

                                       
                            ....and even though I shot numerous different types of flora and fauna I think the tulip in the glass with the delicate hint of texture in the petals is by far a stronger image and I opted for the sophistication of black and white via the a gradient layer over the colour option as my final submission.