Using a Telephoto lens to Photograph Flowers

[ronaldhanko]

This is an example of what can be done with a telephoto lens in photographing flowers, including orchids. One has to shoot from further away (with this lens a distance of six feet, but shots of this type produce beautifully blurred backgrounds. This was shot with a Canon 70-300mm lens set at140mm at ISO400, 1/400, f7.1. This works particularly well in greenhouses and at flower shows where one has little or no control of the background. It does not work well, however, with small flowers unless one has a very powerful telephoto.

[Shirley]

Thanks for the suggestion, Ron. A good one for me to try!

[ronaldhanko]

You are welcome, Shirley - would like to see the results.

[Tindomul]

I will def be trying this! Thats a great photo!!!!

[ronaldhanko]

Thanks, Tindo. Hope to see the results.

[Discus]

I imagine with small enough flowers at such an event, one could unobtrusively hold (or get your friend to hold!) a small neutral coloured card some distance behind the subject - in macro range, things get pretty blurry pretty quickly (although I generally shoot macro with a 100 or a 105mm lens anyway). And of course, if you have the time, there's always photoshop "touchups"...

Thanks for the tip

[ronaldhanko]

Yes, that can be done, but the using a telephoto helps a great deal when the background can't be controlled, as at a show or in a greenhouse.

[Louis_W]

Your pictures look great! How is the depth of focus? I have problems with that on my macro, but I can get very close (I can touch the flower to the lense!)

[ronaldhanko]

This technique helps, since a macro lens does reduce the depth of field especially when you get very close. One solution is a tripod with your macro - then you can shoot on aperture priority and use the smallest possible aperture to increase the dof (I generally shoot at f32 when shooting very close, but you are taking long exposures then (up to 30 seconds) and need a tripod. This doesn't work, of course, on a windy day.

[ronaldhanko]

Should have added that the closer you get to something the les dof you get. You can also use a focus stacking program to manipulate the picture after you take it.