Masterclass with Clive Nichols - Botanic Gardens

Cambridge University Botanic Garden

Garden expert Clive Nichols shows four readers how to combine colour texture and compsition to create plant portraits with a professional edge. Gemma Padley joined them in Cambridge and left feeling inspired.

• Location
  
  Nestled in the heart of historic Cambridge, the University Botanic Garden was established as a teaching and research resource by Professor John Stevens Henslow in 1831. There is a dedicated Cambridge University Botanic Garden Flickr group at www.flickr.com/groups/cambridgebotanicgarden. Amateur photographers are welcome to take pictures in the garden for private non-commercial use, but you will need to apply for a permit if you want to use a tripod. Contact Cambridge University Botanic Garden, 1 Brookside, Cambridge CB2 1JE. Tel: 01223 336 265 Email: enquiries@botanic.cam.ac.uk.
  
  
• Opening times
  
  From April until September the garden is open daily from 10am-6pm. Please note that the garden closes earlier during winter. Visit www.botanic.cam.ac.uk for details.
  
  
• Admission charges
  
  Adults £4, adults over 60 and students £3.50, children under-16 free
  
  

As spring begins to stir and plants come into bloom, now is the perfect time to get out into the garden and capture some colourful close-ups of flowers. For this month’s Masterclass, Clive Nichols and four AP readers travelled to Cambridge University Botanic Garden to capture creative plant pictures bursting with life.



While it is not difficult to take a reasonable photograph of a flower, producing a skilful image takes a bit more thought and care. The aim of the day was to concentrate on photographing plants in the garden and glasshouses at close range, using natural light, a diffuser and a reflector to create top-quality images. Through a combination of careful framing, subtle manipulation of available light, precise focusing and aperture control, the readers were able to do this.



Clive was on hand throughout the day to offer advice on how to obtain a correct exposure and shared his tips on how to handle the variable light. ‘You need to be aware of how the light is changing,’ says Clive. ‘Select what you want to photograph and manipulate the light to achieve the desired effect. Think about how the light is falling on the flower and decide what effect you are trying to create. Are you trying to “warm up” the image? If so, you may want to use a gold reflector.The challenge is to bring out the character of each flower.’

Spending most of the day in the seasonal winter garden, but not forgetting the glasshouses, Clive provided a brief overview of the flora that was on offer.

‘I like to walk around a garden to get an idea of the types of plants that are growing,’ he says. ‘It’s important to get an overall view of the garden and then decide what you are going to home in on. It gives you a plan of action and a sense of direction.’

The readers brought their own cameras, tripods and a selection of macro and telephoto lenses with them, and they used a gold reflector and diffuser supplied by Clive.

Your AP Master…

Clive Nichols

Clive is one of the UK’s most respected garden photographers. With more than 20 years’ experience, Clive’s images have been published in numerous books, calendars and magazines. As well as being one of AP’s Photo insight experts, Clive runs regular workshops for the Royal Horticultural Society and is a judge for the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition.

Visit www.clivenichols.com

The AP readers…

Valerie Barnes

Valerie, 58, from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, enjoys photographing flowers at close range. ‘Today I learnt how much of a difference using reflectors and diffusers makes to an image,’ she says. Valerie uses a Canon EOS 30D with a 105mm macro lens.

Maurice Sadler

Maurice, a retired engineer, lives in Taunton, Somerset, and has been a garden enthusiast for as long as he can remember. ‘I have a better appreciation of how to use light in my images after today,’ he says. ‘Clive’s tuition was first class.’ Maurice uses an Olympus E-620.

Carl Franklin

Carl, 48, lives in Kent. He started photographing gardens five years ago and has won several RHS photographic awards. He recently began submitting images to a garden photography stock library. Carl uses a Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 180mm macro and 24-70mm lenses

plus extension tubes.

Graham Brown

Graham, 45, lives in Southampton, Hampshire. ‘I had a really great day and took a lot of useful advice away with me,’ says Graham. ‘I learnt how to use backlighting to create impact and to pay greater attention to the background.’ Graham uses a Nikon D2X with 105mm and 180mm macro lens



Would you like to take part?

Our Masterclass series has taken on a new format. Every month we will invite three to five AP readers to join one of our experts on an assignment over the course of a day. The experts are Lee Frost (landscapes), Brett Harkness (portraits), Paul Hobson (wildlife) and Clive Nichols (gardens). This is Clive’s first Gardens Masterclass and he will also appear in August and December. Lee will appear in June and October, Paul will appear in May and September, with Brett in July and November.

If you would like to take part, visit www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/masterclass for details of how to apply. Please remember to state which Masterclass you would like to attend and make sure you include your name, address, email address and daytime telephone number in your application. Each participant will be able to use his or her own camera, lenses and other equipment.

Focusing



Focusing

When deciding which focus mode to choose, Clive advised the readers to work manually to allow optimum control. ‘You want to be able to fine-tune your point of focus, not allow the camera’s autofocus to dictate,’ he says. ‘In AF mode I sometimes find the lens focuses on something I don’t want to focus on. Autofocus is great for fast-paced action, but for garden photography you need to have precise control so it’s advisable to work manually.’

Clive reminded the readers to think about where they wanted their focus point to be for each image. ‘When you are confronted with a sea of flowers, choose a point that seems the most important part of the flower to you,’ he says. ‘Once you have set up your camera on your tripod and framed your shot, look through the viewfinder and pick a point to focus on. Perhaps you want to draw attention to an interesting texture or colour. Try positioning the part of the flower you want to be in focus on a third – compositionally, this is pleasing to the eye. Whatever you decide, make sure you take time to fine-tune your focus to give your image a definite focal point.’

Clive advised using fast shutter speeds to minimise subject blur. If you are working with your lens wide open and aren’t able to get a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the flower, try increasing your ISO setting.’

Using texture, pattern and backlighting



Using texture, pattern and backlighting

One of the main things Clive showed the readers was how to make the most of texture in their compositions. He explained how to use backlighting to bring out the intricate patterns of leaves and stems. ‘When you shoot a flower with the sun directly behind it, it’s possible to accentuate texture and create some impressive artistic effects,’ he says. ‘On a bright day the light illuminates leaf detail beautifully – flowers suddenly sparkle and come alive.

If you can’t get in close enough with a macro lens, use a telephoto zoom to fill the frame with colour and texture.Try an abstract approach by filling the frame with a section of the plant so the image is dominated by a single colour, or pick out small details to explore up close. You might be pleasantly surprised by the results.’

Clive also encouraged the readers to explore bark texture and see what effects they could create. In Valerie’s image (above, far left) she has used a gold reflector to bounce light onto the bark and illuminate the oranges, reds and pinks. Clive encouraged the readers to use a smaller aperture to show the crisp texture across the bark. ‘If you shoot wide open, depth of field on the bark will fall off,’ he explains. ‘For a close-up image like this to work, the patterns and textures need to be pin-sharp. The closer you get to the bark, the more abstract details you’ll find.’

Using a gold reflector and diffuser



Using a gold reflector and diffuser

While it isn’t crucial to use a reflector in your garden photography, doing so will reap huge rewards. ‘The main purpose of a reflector is to bounce light onto the plant or flower to fill in shadows,’ explains Clive. ‘This helps to give the images more depth and vibrancy.

A gold reflector is brilliant for bouncing light back onto the flower. It is especially useful if you are shooting in “cold” light like we are today. Try using it for green leaves or yellow flowers and notice how it casts a warm glow on your image. You could also try using a white reflector behind the flower to bounce light back into the shadows.

‘On a bright day when the light is harsh and contrasty, a diffuser acts like cloud by softening the light. Where you stand with the reflector will depend on how you want the light to be. Mid-morning light can be very harsh, so you need to control it carefully. The further back you hold the reflector, the less light will be bounced back into the shadows.’

Carl’s images clearly illustrate the difference between using a reflector and a diffuser. His first image (top right) uses only sunlight. Here you can see the harsh effect of the sunlight on the yellow flower. A diffuser has helped to reduce some of the intense glare (middle image), but using both the gold reflector and diffuser gives the best image – the light is both balanced and golden in the bottom image.



The gold reflector is pointed towards the sun while the diffuser is held above the flower. The light travels through the diffuser and is bounced back onto the flower by the gold reflector



Getting a good exposure

One of the benefits of digital imaging is the histogram on the LCD screen, which is a useful tool for calculating exposure. Clive demonstrated how to use this to avoid over or underexposing an image. If the graph stretches right to the edge on the left-hand side, the image has been underexposed (see above left). If the graph touches the edge on the right-hand side of the histogram, the image is overexposed (above middle).

The black areas on the flowers indicate blown highlights. There is no ideal shape for a histogram, but to ensure your image is correctly exposed the graph should not touch the edges on either side (above right), otherwise you will lose shadow and highlight detail. Keep an eye on your histogram, but also be aware of how the light is changing and the effect this has on your exposure.

Combining colour



Combining colour

Clive showed the readers how they could incorporate solid blocks of colour into their compositions. He explained how to combine subject and background colours to create a sense of contrast and balance, but also suggested using the same colour for the subject and background. ‘Pairing contrasting colours can be very effective, such as purples and yellows, and reds and greens, but you could also try using similar colours,’ he says. ‘For example, a yellow stem against a yellow background, as Graham has done in his image (below), can be just as effective as using complementary colours.’



Controlling depth of field



Controlling depth of field

The readers worked in aperture-priority mode to allow them to control their depth of field. Working in this mode meant they could set their aperture manually and decide when they wanted to blur the background, and by how much.

‘One of the most common mistakes when photographing flowers is to set too small an aperture, which can cause a cluttered background,’ says Clive.

‘It’s better to choose a larger aperture to create a shallow depth of field and guide the eye to the flower, rather than allow it to wander to something behind the subject. Adjust your camera position to minimise extraneous elements in the frame and think about how much background fall-off you want in your image. An aperture of f/4 will give a considerable fall-off in depth of field. Also, think about how you can use background colours to complement your subject.’



In Maurice’s image (top picture), the background with its decorative golden lines is an ideal backdrop for the white seed heads of this grass. An aperture of f/4.1 has enabled him to blow the background out of focus causing the willowy plant to stand out even more. Depth of field is reduced by using a longer focal length.

Carl has used his 180mm macro lens to turn his background into a sparkly canvas of light and muted colour, which, combined with his use of backlighting, has resulted in an arresting image (above).

Late-afternoon light



Late-afternoon light

After a morning photographing in the winter garden and early afternoon spent in the glasshouses, the readers and Clive returned to the winter garden to make the most of the late-afternoon light. ‘The sun floods into the winter garden at the end of the day providing a beautiful soft light that is perfect for flower photography,’ says Clive.

‘This softer light helps to bring out the three-dimensional form of the flowers and makes the colours less washed out. Later in the day the light is less contrasty, so there is no need for diffusers.’ Reluctant to leave the inviting light but content after a full day’s photography, Clive and the readers packed away their camera gear and memory cards, hopeful they had captured some outstanding images.