Béziers, where I live in France, has the most wonderful weekly flower market. I’m there almost every Friday and I take time to examine the photos before making my purchase, to identify a good subject. In this instance I couldn’t study the chrysanthemum because the flower head was all wrapped up in a protective plastic net but it was a delight in the studio when I unleashed her and she unfolded! We kind of met for the first time!!
Above, at the beginning of the journey, is the chrysanthemum casually captured with my ‘phone. This is what I saw when I analysed where I wanted to arrive with her.
This is one of my better shots, but the journey with her was tricky …….
I photographed her front on:
It was an ‘OK’ photo but nothing original, nothing exciting AND the image didn’t even begin to illustrate her magnitude - her impressive scale and tremendous depth. Furthermore, if you pay attention, she is not exactly face-on to the camera, she’s just a few degrees off which can impact the ability to achieve equal focus across all of the petals’ radius.
This was worse! It wasn’t even a decent image - where am I trying to attract the eye? The centre of the head isn’t on full display and the petals are barely on show, and those that are there, are a distraction - I just want to push them out of the way - plus no particular point is in sharp focus.
Capturing just a section of a flower is sometimes an interesting approach, focusing the attention on an interesting detail, but here the interest is the centre of the flower and we don’t even look there because it’s too dark. Plus, the placement is terrible: I should have allowed for space above the flower. So: bad placement and poor lighting.
Here the focus is improved but the centre is still the least well lit area and the external petals are over exposed. Furthermore she isn’t well centred, she has very little space to visually breathe on the lower section.
Disastrous! There is no clear point of focus, we have no true idea of the nature of the subject, the angle of the flower is neither here nor there. I have gone in close but not close enough - I should have either backed off to give context to the entire flower head or I should have gone in closer to illustrate some interesting detail. This can only go into the bin!
The petals so irritated me! It was virtually impossible to have good placement due to their random nature, My lens consistently managed to cut off a section of a petal - just as it’s not OK to cut off half an arm on a human portrait, this petal issue was just that: an issue. So - I literally removed some petals……..
Having fewer forefront petals enabled my camera to move in close. I began to find the remaining petals interesting and I was less obsessed with the flower’s centre. The hint of green on the tips of the petals I found pleasing too. I selected the most forward petals, and ensured that they were in focus, the eye starts there and moves back.
It’s tough for an artist to reveal their bad work! But I do so to illustrate several points:
Self criticism can only be rewarded with growth.
When we press the shutter we press the shutter with the aid of hours, years even, of experience. Luck happens when we’re prepared, right?
We need to OBSERVE: to note the detail, to be aware of the light and we need to decide to where we want to draw the viewer’s attention.
Photography of whatever nature should be CONSIDERED.
And this is the environment where I take the bulk of my photographs: in a bespoke black box. I add light with a reflector and I detract light with a diffuser. I observe my histogram attentively. My camera is mounted on a support for stability, I set a 2 second delay timer on the camera and I have an assortment of clamps with which I secure the flowers. Focus is always manual.
Returning to the original question : how many hours did it take me to arrive at the ‘keeper’ photos? I think by now you have an idea that it was indeed many hours - combined with much reflection and aided by years of experimenting and learning!
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