Flowers: Can you help me ID them (and comment on the pictures?)

[padrepaul77]

Among my favorite places to go is the Landscape Arboretum, a place nearby where great nature shots can be taken from spring through fall, and even in late fall with ornamental grasses.

There's a nature contest I'm going to enter, and while they don't ask for specifics on naming your photo, for the botany section I'd like to have names for the flowers. I didn't have a pen and paper with me, so didn't write down the ID or type of these flowers. One I think is clearly a pink rose; the others I'm not so sure.

Any thoughts on these too or suggestions as to how to shoot flowers?

Thanks!
Paul

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[Derrel]

The second and third are roses, I am sure. How to shoot flowers? Well, there are a lot of different methods,and entire books and many articles have been written, but I think one of the biggest issues with flowers is background control; keeping the flower in adequate focus, and at the same time,minimizing intrusive or distracting or competing background elements seem to be the biggest challenges facing people who photograph plants and flowers frequently. Longer focal lengths can help to minimize background issues, by providing a narrower angle of view *behind* the subject while maintaining a large foreground flower.

Lighting is another issue; many people who shoot flowers a lot use light amounts of reflector fill-in to lighten shadows when shooting under strong,directional sunlight. On dull,overcast days, flowers can appear rather muted, and lacking in shape. It's easy to add contrast and vibrance in post to dull-day pictures, but the fact remains that lack of lighting directionality leads to less three dimensionality in the final result. One option is to use off-camera flash, tethered to the camera with a TTL-capable "smart cord",and use a small 5x7 or so soft box or diffused flash to simulate daylight on dull days, with the flash providing the "top end" of the exposure,and the ambient light providing the "base" exposure. This allows you to position the flash at roughly a 3 o'clock to 1 o'clock angle to a flower, and to simulate the sun, but with motion-stopping ability due to the flash exposure.