Gardeners world
PhotoPlus : The Canon Magazine|June 2020
Peter Travers shows you how to take macro shots of flowers in the garden
Peter Travers
Gardeners world

Join me as I make the most of lockdown and spend time perfecting my flower photo skills in the garden at home. When I’m photographing close-ups of flowers, I use a proper macro lens that will let me focus close enough for frame-filling photos. I’ve used the brilliant Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, which has a closest focusing distance of just 30cm, but any macro lens will work for this project. These capture a true macro magnification ratio of 1:1, so the flower in real life is the same size as on your camera sensor.

The telephoto focal length and close focusing distance means you can frame in tight on flowers, even these small blue grape hyacinths on the right. Plus, combined with the wide f/4.5 aperture I’ve used, it creates a super-shallow depth of field to really blur the background, as well as surrounding flower heads, so my main focal point stands out better. Find out more in the steps below…

THE MISSION

Take cracking close-ups of flowers in your garden

Time needed

45 mins

Skill level

Beginner

Kit needed

• Macro lens

• Pretty flowers in the garden

STEP BY STEP GARDEN FLOWER CLOSE-UPS

This story is from the June 2020 edition of PhotoPlus : The Canon Magazine.

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This story is from the June 2020 edition of PhotoPlus : The Canon Magazine.

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