Start a Garden Photography Business

SAE:

Description:

Garden Photography is a SAE meant to help the amateur photographer who is interested in landscape and garden photography. Combine your skills in photography with your interest in horticulture. Begin taking photos and keeping records not only on the name, place and date of the plants you shot but also what type of camera, film and setting you used.

Beyond the personal reward of taking a great photo you can enter them in the competition at the Georgia National Fair as well as local exhibits, fairs and art stores.

Camera Basics: These are the necessities in taking a good picture. Aperture, focus, and much more are included!

Type of Camera

Point-and-Shoot: If you're an amateur this is the type of camera you probably use too. This is the type of camera that K-Mart, Target and most department stores carry. These are the easiest and lightest types of cameras. The biggest problem is that this camera's offer little to no control of their aperture, focus, or shutter speed.

35 mm Single-Lens-Reflex: This is the type of camera that I will refer to frequently. Many amateur and professional photographers use this type of camera. The controllability with this camera in terms of its depth of field, aperture, shutter speed, and ability to change its lens's is its real asset. The 35-mm cameras come in either automatic or manual forms. If you are willing to spend time learning techniques and how your camera works (which will be worth the time in the end) I recommend a manual style camera.

Medium Format: This camera comes in square, panoramic and rectangular forms. The size is larger because it produces a larger negative or transparency. This larger negative will give an extremely sharp image.

Digital: Using this type of camera is definitely becoming a common, even mandatory piece of equipment for a photographer. If your foresee yourself selling photographs it is wise to jump in on this market early. For the average consumer expect to have poorer quality than your current 35 mm.

Camera Settings

Aperture: This is also called the f-stop and is adjusted by the aperture ring on your camera lens. Adjusting the aperture will either decrease or increase an opening, which allows light to hit your film. This opening is similar to the iris of the eye. The aperture number correlates to the shutter speed. However, most 35-mm cameras are automatic--when setting the aperture the camera will automatically set the appropriate shutter speed for you. If the 35-mm you have is fully manual it will be imperative that you know exactly how everything operates in relation to each other. Practice: If you're not sure as to how your aperture works try this simple homework assignment. I advise you to use slide film. Place 3 objects in your camera view. Have the 1st object about 3 feet from your camera, the next 6 feet away and the 3rd 9 feet away. Now, start with your smallest aperture and take a photo. Continue this until you get to your largest aperture. Make sure you denote your setting for each photograph. When you get your results back you will be able to tell how apertures greatly affect your depth of field.

Shutter Speed: Practice: To help you understand this concept fully here is a simple exercise. Find an object that is moving I prefer a fountain. Start at your fastest shutter speed and work down to your slowest speed taking a photo at each speed. Warning--Use a tripod when you get to 60 or lower or else you will have camera shake!

Film: The higher your film speed the less light that will be needed for your scene to expose. (Silver halides on your film move closer together when hit by light, which creates your objects). You may think that this sounds great because you can then use smaller apertures. Don't think this way. Try to use as low of a film speed that's possible. Speed of 100 and 200 are ideal, and if you're brave enough they can even go lower. Higher film speeds are grainer, which for normal prints is not noticeable. If you plan on enlarging your prints, grains will become noticeable. This will decrease your sharpness.

Slide film is my absolute favorite film to use, especially for gardens. This type of film tends to have colors that are more vibrant and true to type. Slide film is also tolerant of exposure mistakes, which makes it perfect for mastering your technique. Almost all professional photographers use slide film. Getting actual prints can be expensive. Expect to pay at least $7 for a 4x5" print. The paper that this print comes on does not deteriorate. For obvious reasons, if you plan on giving lectures this film should be used.

Black and White films are very fun to play with and try to master, especially in the darkroom. Generally black and white tend to portray truth and works best for high contrast scenes. Ansel Adams is a great landscape photographer that used this.

For Film Recommendations: www.photo.net/equipment/film

Lens: The lens is the area where you should try to spend as much money as you can. Focal lengths between 28 to 200 mm tend to work best for garden photography. Usually the lens that comes with your camera is 50 mm. This represents what your eye would normally see, and does not distort images. Wide-angle lenses tend to enlarge in the center and foreground of the frame and have great depth of field.

Tips for Taking Photos

Composition: Looking at a garden can be overwhelming, especially if you are trying to make a composition that will incorporate all of the art elements appropriately. What are the basic art elements? Line, shape, value, texture and color. These elements are what can make your composition succeed. Also, the subjects of your photograph can stimulate feelings, intellectual stimulation and moods to your viewer.Balance refers to the equal distribution of objects either by their visual importance or weight (tone, shape and size). Usually this is done symmetrically, but asymmetrical balance can be done. When exploring gardens, you will usually find that they already follow these composition elements (movement, balance and pattern). Thus, most of your work has already been done for you! The challenge is to now create artworks that are unique. Try exaggerating some of these effects. Creating unity is another way of 'pulling together' your photographs theme.

Texture: Nature is wonderful in creating fabulous surface textures, which can be communicated visually. These textures can create moods, feelings and repetition too. If your going to have elements that emphasize texture you will find that having it in focus is crucial for definition. Stachys byzantina or lamb's ear has a wonderful soft touch. Being able to bring that softness to your photo will help the viewer sense this texture and help them appreciate it as if they were there to feel it.

Framing: Within the photo only includes the necessities. To do this think about your subject matter and its relationship to its environment. For example, suppose that we want to focus on the inside of a single flower. The other neighboring flowers are not needed in your picture. However, if you would like to show the repetitiveness inside of a group of neighboring flowers or a bee approaching the center of a flower it may be essential to include these parts of the environment.

Line: When observing lines look at their direction, convergence and dominance. All of these factors can greatly influence the photographs ending results. For example, radiating lines may lead the viewer's eye around the photo. Lines can also give feeling. For example, parallel lines tend to be formal compared to whimsical curving lines. Lines and shapes can also lead into more abstract compositions. Usually these can fall into two categories: ones that call overall rhythmic pattern that are not dependent to any individual elements and those that depend on bold shapes or extreme contrasts in color and light.

Movement: Having movement within a photograph is ideal because it keeps your viewer's interest. However, be careful to not have too much clutter. Also, keep in mind that objects near the edge can carry the viewers focus outside of the edges. Movement can be created through repetition or rhythm.

Light: For information about how to use light in your photography go to
www.photo.net/making-photographs/light

Written by Teri Hamlin, 2002

Factors To Consider	Ranking: 1 = lowest 10 = highest
Time required	8
Investment	8
Equipment needed	8
Skills required	7
Facilities required	1
Land required	1
Labor Intensity	4
Potential for income	4
Transportation required	5
Expansion possibilities	5
Expertise needed	8
Advertising needed	8
Susceptible to disease	1
Susceptible to insects	1
Suitable for residential areas	10
	Other (specify)
Length of production cycle	Seasonal
Regional	All
When to start project	Anytime