Lighting

Last month we had a talk at the camera club by the well-known garden photographer Clive Nichols.  He has taken some beautiful pictures of flowers and gardens, and, in truth, some that were not so special – it is all a matter of taste I suppose.  One of the things he does use well though is light.

This is a shot I tried to get a couple of weeks ago, but the light was not as strong and I could not get it sharp enough.  Whilst I am still aiming to get more of the leaf completely sharp, I think this is a big improvement, although I have had to crop in a lot to get the picture.

The bright light that you can get at lunchtime in Spring, which would be too strong in the Summer, backlights the leaf perfectly, really highlighting the texture and making the leaf look vibrant.  Choosing the exposure for the leaf casts much of the background into the shade, rendering it black for all intents and purposes.

The reason that the leaf is not as sharp as I would like is that the settings for my handheld macro lens were ISO200, f/6.3, 1/60 secs – yes, a shutter speed of less than 1/focal length – not something to be recommended if you want a sharp picture without any camera shake.

Oh, and in case you are interested, the leaf is on a hellebore that is growing in my garden.