Swenson Gardens

Photographing Flowers in Full Sun

DSC05864Who doesn’t want to go outside and photograph flowers on a nice day? That was the case this evening while making the nightly rounds through the fields. Why then do most of our pictures look washed out and highly saturated? Yes you may have guessed it, too much sun! Sure we could wait till sunset but then the colors seem to fade with the sunlight so how can we shoot nice pictures in sunny conditions?

DSC05862These photos of the sub species peony ‘huthii’ were taken minutes apart. The difference is not in the camera settings but in a diffuser. Diffusers are readily available at any camera store and quite reasonable. Because it was windy tonight I didn’t set up the tripod holder but had Cara, a budding blogger and photographer, and my wife Becky hold it a few feet away from the bloom to yes, diffuse the sun. Looking back at a previous post regarding a prime shooting day with clouds acting like a huge diffuser but still having some sunlight enhance the colors in the photos. Yes this may require purchasing some more equipment like a tripod, diffuser holder and a 24″ to 48″ ROUND diffuser, but for those sunny shots, well worth the $200 to $300 investment for everything. I think the two diffusers I bought were $40 and $80 for the larger one. They come in different colors but I like the white reflective one.

DSC05845I just love the foliage on intersectional hybrid peonies. There is still the debate on what to call them. You may have seen Itoh’s, Itoh Hybrid, Intersectionals and intersectional hybrid peonies. We have chosen the terms intersectionals and intersectional hybrid peonies as they truly are two ‘sections’ of peonies that have been crossed. Toichi Itoh was the first hybridizer to cross these magnificent peonies and thus we do recognize his plants when we sell those varieties. Taking photos of ‘green’ foliage is again a challenge in sunny conditions. Even the green gets washed out and over saturated with too much sun.

DSC05847Now look at this spectacular intersectional hybrid peony seedling with the use of a diffuser. Pretty amazing, right? Time to diffuse the sun and get our photos back! Happy shooting!

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