If you stop taking pictures of your flowers when frost takes over, you will miss half of the year’s fun of photography.
House plants can result in excellent portrait studies if the photographer leaves the accustomed rut.
There are many fall and winter days when the sun shining through the window is adequate for good pictures, and all the photographer has to do is move the plant to the right place and snap the shutter.
Sometimes, with indoor pictures of this sort, bright areas may be very brilliantly lit, while the shadow areas may be excessively dark.
The solution to the problem is to have an assistant hold a reflector made of white cardboard or aluminum foil in such a way as to direct sunlight into the dark places.
Sunlight For Indoor Photography
Sunlight lacks the reliability of artificial light, which can be used at the photographer’s convenience. There are two choices—flash or flood lights.
Flash bulbs are used in the normal way in photographing house plants, with the exposure determined by the guide number shown on the instruction sheet packed with the film or on the bulb packing sleeve.
If your picture is an extreme close-up, light from a flash bulb may be too intense if it is only a few inches from the flower.
For pictures of this kind, the amount of light can be cut in half by placing one thickness of a handkerchief over the flash reflector or cut to one-fourth by two thicknesses.
Using Floodlights
When photographing house plants, I prefer floodlights because I can adjust them to various positions and get the desired effect.
I use two #2 photoflood lights in 12-inch reflectors mounted on tripod stands, which are adjustable to various heights.
The lights are placed at about 45° angles to the right and left of the camera, which is on a tripod. These lights produce a lot of heat, so keep them at least 3′ feet from the plants and leave them on only as long as necessary.
Achieving 3D Effect
If one light is a foot or farther away from the plant than the other, you will get a three-dimensional effect.
Sometimes, I use a light in the back of the plant in addition to the two in front; this makes the edges of the leaves and petals quite brilliant and gives a halo effect. The backlight should be closer to the plant than the two front lights.
Background and Filters
With both flash and flood, it is necessary to use the “F” type of color film. With floodlights, an 82A filter should be placed over the lens.
To avoid a cluttered look in your photograph, use a background of blue or gray cloth or cardboard.
Using Flashlight
The plant will cast heavy black shadows when you use a single flash bulb adjacent to the camera. If possible, detach the flash gun and hold it a foot above the camera—or use a black background.
Place floodlights higher than the camera so that shadows fall downward. With two flood lights, shadows are largely eliminated.
44659 by John J. Simpkins