This is my image of the month for September 2020. A message in a bottle. I am currently experimenting with a bolder oil painting style to try and achieve an image which is an oil and light hybrid.

I like to shoot flowers backlit. Like the buttercups in the image above. This was achieved using natural light through a window lightbox.

Now that we are all restricted from roaming around with our camera, the spring flowers in our gardens make fascinating subjects. With a little post-processing in Lightroom and Photoshop, simple blooms can blossom into fine art.

Over the next few blogs, I will be explaining just how I approach flower photography, starting with how to build a simple window lightbox.

Simplest Simple Window Lightbox

The simplest way to create a uniform lighting effect is to simply stick a piece of tracing paper or baking parchment on a window. Mount, the flower in front of it and take a photograph. Job done.

I use oasis to mount the flower, which can be purchased from Amazon.

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Simple Lightbox

As my flower photography has evolved I have created a more elaborate window lighting setup, but it still uses natural light.

As I will explain in a later episode. Cutting the flower from its background in Photoshop is best achieved with as white a background as possible. So I now use a white diffusion fabric which I clip to a window using studio clips.

Both items can be bought quite cheaply from a photography store or Amazon.

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I usually pick flowers from my garden, or purchase them from a florist. I certainly avoid picking flowers from the wild. Bringing flowers indoors and photographing in a ‘studio’ environment gives ultimate control over the image.

Over the next few weeks I will be working through the process I use to create fine art flower images. This is episode 1.

Camera Wrist Strap

I have avoided dropping my camera so many times using a simple inexpensive wrist strap like this one. Cameras and expensive lenses do not bounce!

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