Photo Pointers

A tutorial on photography in the garden could take an entire afternoon in and of itself. But really, there are just a few main tricks to getting better photos, regardless what camera you're using.

The Golden Rule: Natural light is your friend...

Never use flash. I know that sounds crazy, but your flash is useless in the garden. Professionals with flashes and light boxes that are detached from their camera can use artificial light to get a good photo, but any in-camera flash will only wash out a photo, not enhance it. The best bet is to learn to use the ISO setting on your camera. Refer to your camera's instruction manual for setting the ISO, but the simplest way to explain it is like the old film "speeds" - higher (i.e., 800) is better for low-light settings.

The Silver Rule: Closer is better when photographing plants...

A close-up shot of a flower is much more powerful than a shot three feet away that frames the flower with a load of mulch around it or distracting leaves. When shooting closer to an object, see if your camera has a macro setting (usually on the dial/toggles as a little flower icon) and use that if you have it. Steady your elbows on something (even pressing them against your sides help reduce some of the shaking) to get a clearer picture. Of course, wide garden shots are great too so sometimes rules are meant to be broken.

The Bronze Rule: Don't be afraid to edit...

You don't have to have fancy software to touch up your photos. In Microsoft's Picture Manager (most likely is your default picture program on a PC), there is an "edit pictures" button in the tool bar at the top. Click it and then either use the "auto correct" button or play around with some of the individual setting choices. Even just adjusting the brightness and contrast of a photo often helps to make the details pop.

Certainly feel free to ask me about taking pictures. Practice really does make a huge difference with it comes to photography.

MY FAVORITE FREE PHOTO SOFTWARE: Follow this link (or Google "Infranview") to download software that makes it easy to "sew" your photos together like the one below. To do so, open the program, click "image" in the top tool bar, choose "create panorama image", in the pop-up box click on "add images" and add the photos you'd like to use. When you're ready, click "create image" and it'll put the photos together for you.