Here's a message that came over the orchids newsgroup regarding plant
photography:
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> From: bob@argon.berkeley.edu (Robert M. Hamilton)
> Subject: Taking good macro photographs
Recently there were comments on how poor some awards photos are. I know the
problem. I would like to offer my technique for taking good photos. It is
almost fool proof and produces great results for me.
First of all I have a good, automatic camera with a 55 mm macro lens. Without
this I couldn't take a decent picture. My camera (Nikon F3) is similar to a
lot of modern automatic cameras, it meters exposure off-the-film (OFT) and
controls the duration of the flash to the amount needed for proper exposure.
The following technique assumes one has such a camera/flash combination.
First off, I use a relatively slow color film, either Kodachrome 25 or
Kodachrome 64. When I use Kodachrome 64 I tell my camera the ASA is 75 instead
of the true ASA 64. This underexposes my pictures about 1/3 of an f stop. I
like the color balance and saturation with a 1/3 f stop underexposure.
I favor Kodachrome over other films because it is an archival film holding
excellent color for 50 years. I have seen the Kodachrome slides from
Charlesworth & Co. now at the Eric Young Foundation. These are
amazingly good. Kodachrome processing is unique, dyeing the film during
development. Ektachrome, Fuji and all other color films go through a bleaching
process which unfortunately doesn't completely stop after development. This
chemistry has greatly improved but is still not as archival as Kodachrome.
(Fuji, in my opinion is glitzy with color, a great film for selling plants
with poor color as it adds a "flash"!)
Set your lens to a high f number. I usually use f16 or f21. This gives you
lots of depth of field and excludes greenhouse light. I shoot late in the
day or in the evening specifically to avoid natural light. The flash provides
the light for exposure; however, it light falls of as the square of distance.
If you shoot into open space or at a dark area like green leaves or the gravel
floor, the background will not get enough light and drop out. This technique
is used by several growers I know and produces those bright, luminous
glowing flowers on black backgrounds.
My neighbors have gotten useed to seeing me shoot flowers in the darkness of
night from my back porch. I shoot into dark space and this produces a
blacker-than-black background. It also startles the neighbors. One caveat, try
to avoid plant tags and greenhouse staging in the background. These items
tend to "shine".
Bob Hamilton