PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP: Live brand new flower workshop with Tony North

Online Floral Workshop

On Saturday June 4th at 9am you can join Tony North for a Zoom lesson on how to create beautiful flower images. There will be two one-hour sessions, with an hour in between for you to practise.

For the first hour, Tony will begin by briefly discussing basic principles, using his own images for illustration. Then he will demonstrate live all the essentials – choosing a subject, setting up the camera, positioning the flower and composing the shot, lighting, camera settings, focusing, focus stacking, choosing a backdrop, backlighting, using water droplets, and post processing using Lightroom and Photoshop.

You will then have an hour to try these techniques yourself (so have everything ready to go!). You can submit any images (including focus stacking sets) to a Camversation portal, along with any questions. In the next half hour (at 11am) Tony will address your questions, and choose some of your images to discuss how to improve your photography, both in terms of taking the shots and processing them. As a bonus, for the last 30 minutes Tony will demonstrate droplet refraction photography.

Topics Covered, from Tony:

1. Choice of subject

2. Setting up the subject for photography – table tops, vases, clamps, positioning.

3. Backdrops – colour, tone, how far back, how to support

4. Setting up a tripod – tripods and heads

5. Lighting – natural, flash, LED panels, studio lighting, etc.; reflectors; angles of lighting – direct, side, backlighting; balancing lighting, and modelling (note - I do not use flash for this sort of photography but you are welcome to use a flash if you wish).

6. Exposure - Avoiding over/underexposure – using the histogram, exposure compensation

7. Choice of lens - I will be using my macro lens (Nikon 105mm)

8. Settings – mode, ISO, aperture, white balance, delayed shutter, live view vs. viewfinder, image review

9. Composition – number of flowers, position in frame, angles, choice of landscape vs. portrait, size in frame, abstract visual concepts

10. Focusing – manual vs. autofocus; ensuring sharpness; depth of field; wide aperture (soft focus) vs. narrow aperture

11. Focus stacking – ensuring full coverage of sharpness; settings to use

12. Using water droplets – spraying droplets on

13. Post processing - bringing out the best in your image using Lightroom and Photoshop; focus stacking in Photoshop

14. Droplet refraction

What You Need for the Practical Session

1. Camera with charged batteries and empty memory cards (and the correct plate for your head).

2. Tripod and head, second tripod or other stand (for the clamp if you have one)

3. Clamps or other supports for flowers (vases will do but a clamp is best, e.g. Wimberley Plamp). Plasticine/Blu-tack can work too.

4. Close-up lens - ideally a macro lens or some other set up which allows you to do close-up photography – if you don’t have a macro lens, try some of your others and work out which can allow you to do close-up shots (often a zoom lens at the far end, e.g. an 18-55mm at the 55 end).

5. Lighting (with batteries charged or plug in power adapter) and/or reflector. I will be using my LED panel (Neewer 480), a reflector (piece of silver card with white on the other side), and natural light from my patio windows. You may also need a stand for your lighting. It needs to be moveable so you can place it anywhere around your flower. If you don’t have any lighting a reflector is fine.

6. Flowers – I will be using tulips and geraniums. For the refraction shots the flower needs to have clear long thin petals (e.g. gerbera, chrysanthemum)

7. Backdrops – can be large or small (e.g. a piece of card). You will need to work out a way to support the backdrop. I use a small easel, but a small tripod or a pile of books will work.

8. Water spray (for house plants)

9. Tabletop to put your flowers and backdrops on

10. Computer to do processing (I will be using Lightroom and Photoshop).

11. Knowledge of how to use/alter camera settings, i.e. mode (I will be using aperture priority), manual/autofocus, ISO, aperture, focal length, live view, white balance, exposure delay(timer), exposure compensation

12. For the droplet refraction you need an eyedropper/pipette or something similar to place droplets. You can use water but glycerine is better (baking section of your supermarket). Also at least two flowers with a clear flower shape (e.g. gerbera, daisy, chrysanthemum)

Outline plan, from Tony.

9.00-10.00 – Live Demo

1 Introduction – a discussion of my principles of flower photography with a look at some images; a look at some of the gear I use (15 mins)

2. Live demo of photographing a flower, including getting shots for focus stacking (45 mins)

10.00-11.00 – Practical Session

1. This is your chance to try out some of these techniques – make sure you have all your gear set up and ready beforehand (see list below of what you need)

2. If you like you can upload images, either for me to process in Lightroom and/or Photoshop, or for critical comments

For basic Lightroom processing the images should be in RAW; for Photoshop they can be Jpgs or Tiffs.

You can upload single images or sets for focus stacking.

Make sure you get the uploading done in time for us to select some images for the next session – i.e. by 10.50.

You can also send questions.

11.00-11.30 – Feedback, Tony will:

1. do some processing of your images

2. give feedback on how your images could be improved

3. answer any questions in the remaining time

11.30-12.00 – Droplet Refraction Photography, Tony will:

1. demonstrate setting up a droplet refraction photo

2.take some images, and if there is time process them

3. Take final questions

Tony's other work can be seen below:

Photography: www.artofmacro.com

Primary School Workshops: www.timetrips.co.uk

This talk will be recorded and made available for two weeks after the event