How to Shoot Under a Flower

I've seen many shots taken where it appears the camera was under the flower shooting up into the sky. This gave a beautiful, almost transparent, picture of the flower. Yet, it still held all the colors. I'm attaching my first attempt at this. I acknowledge it is NOT what I was going for. It almost made it as a silhouette. The colors are washed. It was a partly sunny/cloudy day, yet there appears to be almost no color in the sky, either. What could I have done to make this picture better?

I'm sure Greg will have an answer to that, Carolyn - I just wanted to express the feeling this photo gives me (although it's off-topic since you never asked for that ) but this photo has such an ominous air about it

I am no expert, but I think if you had a reflector at below or at an angle of flowers to get a bit of the light that would add some definition below the flowers.

Nice Picture.

OK, lets give this a shot. I have not actually done what you are talking about doing, but I know exactly what you are trying to acomplish. Your first clue as to what to fix is the sky. You say it was partly cloudy and should have been brighter right? That tells me the auto exposure feature on your camera was doing its job.

What the AE does is tries to make the majority of the scene reproduce as a middle tone (think 18% gray card here). The sky is the largest portion of a tone in the image so the AE will try and make the blue sky a middle tone and will try to keep the clouds from overexposing. Since the actual subject represents a smaller area, then the AE will not give it as much emphasis and therefore will underexpose.

To fix this, you should use a center weight meter setting and lock your exposure on the flower itself. That will force the sky to become brighter as the exposure will shift up. Another way to accomplish this would be to manually shift the exposure up +1EV, +1.5EV, and +2EV. By bracketing you will stand a much better chance at getting the exposure you are looking for.

Another option if you are still not getting the color you are after, or if the sky turns a featureless white, is you could use a bit of fill flash. A quick pop of the flash at low intensity will brighten the flower, but won't affect the sky. That will allow the camera to retain proper exposure on all parts of the picture.

The time of day is also important. If you get the sun down low near sunrise or sunset, you will be getting diffused light that is down low. The sun will illuminate the flower with its warm glow. The sky will also be less bright allowing for good exposure there as well.

One final option is direct backlight. If you compose your shot by placing the sun directly behind your subject, the subject will block the strong light, but it will attempt to shine through thin material such as leaves. It is difficult to get a nice even exposure doing this, and will most likely silhouette your subject at least partially. A flash will help bring detail back though.

That should give you some ideas on how to approach this subject. The only thing left to do is to experiment and see what gives you the look you are after.

jzweco wrote:

I am no expert, but I think if you had a reflector at below or at an angle of flowers to get a bit of the light that would add some definition below the flowers.

Nice Picture.

Like I said not a pro!

I would like to see the photo after NC's advise!

Thanks, Greg, Chica, and jzweco for all your comments. I looked at the original pic properties. It was taken at 2:27 pm. I also remember that I had tried to place the sun directly behind the flowers. In other words, when you look at this pic, the sun is "supposed" to be directly behind it. Ergo, the silhouette effect. The camera has one of those swivel monitors on it, so I put the camera directly under the flowers (very close) and focused from looking at the little display. Greg, I see where you say if I had put a little flash on it it would have lit the flowers more. I'll try that next time I'm out there. I'll have to see if I can get out there under similar conditions. Thanks again.

I have done this too, Carolyn and get the same effect as you...I think I'll give NC'tip a try to see if I can get the effect I want...I avoid using flash but if I do adjust low it may work...