Apple blossom photography

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davholla

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David
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At this time of year this looks wonderful has anyone got any good tips on how to photograph it?
 
Shoot on a slightly cloudy day with nice diffuse light Select a good background and focus stack using small apertures
 
Conversely I like backlighting on a bright day with shallow depth of field and lots of bokeh in the background, although it can be rather sentimental. It can also look good using the Orton effect (google it if you're not sure what it is).

Buds only here at the moment

Apple blossom 2021 by Anton Ertl, on Flickr
 
alfbranch said:
Shoot on a slightly cloudy day with nice diffuse light Select a good background and focus stack using small apertures
Click to expand...
Thank you both - surprisingly the cloudy bit could be tricky. We are in the midst of a drought at the moment.
 
Hi Dave, I agree with everything above and especially Toni, I too like to shoot with the lens opened up into the light. There are a few other things that can improve an image of botanical subjects too. Using a reflector, one of the circular folding types is ideal, white will give a subtle fill, silver and white striped adds a little more light but still quite softly and silver can really fill in all the shadows, all can decrease the DR so its easier to get a good exposure for both highlights and shadows in one shot.
Using a folding circular diffuser made of transparent material instead of reflective can give the soft, even light that Alf mentions even on a bright sunny day and is a technique I use frequently for many botanical subjects. The reflectors and diffusers come in various sizes and will vary in price, Lastolite did and still (as far as I know) make excellent products, I've been using some of theirs for thirty years plus and they are still perfect, you can also get some excellent ones from Amazon etc that have a base diffusing disc and some zip on covers of reflective material, usually white, gold, black and silver, I have used some of these for a couple of years now and as long as you are gentle with the zips they work really well and cost not a lot and are great to experiment with. You can even make a few covers yourself from coloured or camouflaged materials to use as backgrounds when the real background is cluttered or distracting.
 
Thanks Adrian for that. I am trying not to buy things like reflectors because it is more things to have and they get lost etc.
Is there any home alternatives? (I.e so don't mind when they get lost).
For the photo stacking I will need some calm windless day - which we don't seem to get any more - a bit like the rain.
 
davholla said:
Thanks Adrian for that. I am trying not to buy things like reflectors because it is more things to have and they get lost etc.
Is there any home alternatives? (I.e so don't mind when they get lost).
For the photo stacking I will need some calm windless day - which we don't seem to get any more - a bit like the rain.
Click to expand...

Polystyrene sheet can work well as a reflector, cardboard covered in foil for harsh reflections, or even just a sheet of plain white paper.
 
I've been waiting to do this as well but it's been so cold the blossom is much later here this year. I tried with a homemade reflector of some thin hardboard painted magnolia, (all I had at the time!) on a day when the sun was being fickle.

Apple blossom bud by Ian Taylor, on Flickr
 
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