Fantastic florals

Dan Mold shows you how to transform a bunch of flowers into more creative floral images with some simple lighting tips and photo hacks

- Dan Mold

THE MISSION

Take incredible flower photos at home with our simple still life tips

Time needed One hour

Skill level Intermediate

Kit needed

• Macro lens

• Tripod Flowers

• A few props

• Plamp (optional)

Spring is in the air, flowers are coming into bloom, and it's the perfect time for you to learn to use your Canon gear to take some brilliant floral photos at home with our simple setups and tips.

In this project I'm going to show you my four top tips that you can use to get artistic floral shots that are fit for printing and hanging on your walls at home. All you need is some basic kit, a few props and items you probably already have around the house.

A proper macro lens will certainly help you focus closer to those tiny details on plants and flowers, which will make it easier to achieve frame-filling images. This means you won't have to crop into images, which will reduce image quality, and restrict how large you can print them.

That being said, a kit lenses like the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/4-5.6 IS STM has a respectable minimum focus distance of 25cm, so you don't have to splash out on an expensive dedicated macro lens to still get great results.

We shot indoors near a large window on an overcast day, which gave us a very soft and gentle light, much like a flash with a large softbox attached. Setting up on a tripod and then positioning your flower in a glass in front of some coloured paper is a very easy way to lock everything off, so you can take control of focus, composition and exposure.