P#2 Q#3a: Weather Challenges to Flower Photography

When it Comes to Weather and Flower Photography - Don't Get Stuck in the Rain (or Wind)

Audri Lanford: One of our subscribers writes that she has a flower garden that has brilliant colors and textures. What is the best time of day to photograph her garden in order to capture the detail and clarity? And then more generally, what's the best time, time wise and weather wise, to photograph flowers?

Tony Sweet: If she has her own garden, she's got a great big leg up over most other people. She's pretty much there 24 hours a day, and you can photograph whenever it's best.

And the overriding thing about flowers is that you want to photograph them in even lighting.

So, given that as your basic criterion, morning would be best because that's when it is the wettest. You get dewdrops and mist all over your flowers, and they are extremely photogenic.

Probably that is the most important thing, next to shooting in diffused light.

Audri Lanford: And how about weather-wise?

Tony Sweet: We can't photograph in the middle of rain, because the flowers are going to be moving too much.

Rain is not bad to a photograph. It's about the quality of light and it's very soft, very subdued light, but the raindrops will cause the flowers to move.

And you want to avoid wind.

It's best when it's very still. That's generally at dawn before sunrise.

Audri Lanford: OK, before sunrise. So, when you said morning you meant...

Tony Sweet: Things are the most still before sunrise.

Audri Lanford: Interesting. I've heard a tip that sometimes when it isn't raining, you might want to help out a little bit with some spritzing. How do you feel about that?

Tony Sweet: Oh, I think it's tremendous. We carry a bottle of glycerin with us. We'll do a little drop here and drop there. Nobody gets hurt.

That's including the flower; it doesn't get hurt. Yeah, that can help, absolutely.

Audri Lanford: So you use glycerin instead of water?

Tony Sweet: Yeah, it's sort of a mixture.

For studio work, in a more controlled environment, you can bring a flower indoors where it shouldn't be windy. Then, we can drop in little dewdrops here and there, and photograph them before they fall, because they will run off.

But the easiest way is to do it when it's happening.

Keep these tips in mind to make your flower photography the best it can be.