And, how do you see your photography published in stunning full-color spreads in the next Eureka Iris or Daylily Reference Guides?
Composing a Great Iris or Daylily Photograph for Publication
Each year as I'm preparing for another Eureka Reference Guide, I find myself looking at hundreds of photographs, slides and digital images submitted by photographers who love daylily and iris flowers in bloom. Many critical issues emerge in the discussions as I critique each photo for possible publication. During the weeks and months of looking at these colorful flower portraits, I'm also asked how can these photographers (who are usually daylily or iris collectors) make better photo compositions and see their work published.
Looking at Illustration #1, we have here an excellent example of an outstanding flower photograph. If you look back up at the first question, you'll see how completely Scotty's photo fulfills every aspect of a great flower photograph -- stunning beauty, uniqueness, compositional design and photographic mastery.
Compositionly Unified Design
In review from our earlier design articles in this series, design is design is design. Once you learn to use and learn to recognize good design, you apply it to all the visual parts of your life. You will incorporate it in your landscapes as well as your floral photography.
What is good design? That is design that presents a compositionaly unified photograph?
Good design is the organization of the elements of design (including line, shape, value, color form, pattern, texture) into a compositionaly unified whole using balance (symmetrical, asymmetrical and radial) dominance, alignment (coincidence of edge) and grouping.
Why does unity matter? It's simple. If your garden design doesn't have a clear sense of compositional unity, then your design just doesn't work. It would be like running outside and planting your new flowers wherever you spotted a space in your yard that day. Soon you would have a hodgepodge of plantings with no unifying design. Your eye would hop from spot to spot in your yard without a clue where to look first. If your garden were large or small, you would look at your garden and it would feel like it was several gardens working at odds with each other rather than working together in a unified design. That's the difference between a design that works and one that doesn't.
By looking at Illustration #2 you can see a well unified composition. The grouping of the two blooms work together to make one dominant visual element. This simplifies the composition, giving the viewer a comfortable sense of where to start and finish the examination of the photo. The continuity of edges between the vertical elements of the flower petals and the leaves unify the design with a top-to-bottom alignment from 6 to 1 o'clock. The fact that the photographer used an asymmetrical balance rather than centering everything gives the composition a more interesting appeal.
Looking at the photograph to the right, we clearly see a composition that expresses both beauty and uniqueness.
While we could discuss many theories and look at how "beauty" has been defined throughout the ages, most Eureka Reference Guide readers would view this photo as beautiful, pleasing, comforting, appealing and more. It is more than an effectively good composition -- it is beautiful.
As to uniqueness, I am looking for that in the subject matter, the composition and photographic expression. Aaron's photo of CUSTARD CANDY is far more interresting than would be a photo of a single bloom of this flower looking straight into the camera. These "catalog" shots may work for sales lists, but Aaron's composition is more interesting and more informative. We see the flower from multiple angles yet the entire design works because of the grouping of the blooms.
We've all seen or taken a photo of random blooms. Even though they may have been the same cultivar, without the type of grouping seen here, your eye would wander from bloom to bloom without ever feeling that you'd viewed anything unified in composition. Here our eye begins with the most dominant bloom and flows in an "S" pattern throughout the other blooms.
By contrasting the dominant cultivar against a background of buds, leaves and grouping of different flowers, the photographer has made a unique presentation of this prize-winning daylily.
Linda Sue takes a commmon species grown in many gardens and found, sometimes it seems, "everywhere". She then places it into a powerful composition that has a completely unique look while communicating a lot of information about this daylily's branching, bud count and graceful bloom. In addition, it's simply beautiful.
First, we are captivated by the asymmetrical balance. The bright, yellow flower arcing like a French curve completely balances the tall scape and its repeating branched angles of buds. This is clearly more visually interesting than a standard symmetrically balanced photo of a full-face flower centered in the middle of the page.
Second, the dominance created by the sharply focused foreground flower against the soft background captivates the viewer with a much better composition than if everything were in sharp focus demanding equal attention. Where leaf details in the trees were possible, the halo of light created by the diffused leaves filtering the sun sets off the cultivar, the primary subject, rather than visually competing with it.
Photographically, Linda is successfully using depth of field. A basic photography study can quickly teach you how to balance your focus, aperture and shutter speed into creative control of your sense of distance and depth, focus and blur. Without it, this photograph would have a much less dramatic design. Depth of field makes this a very unique composition of a common subject. It works beautifully. What a poster this photograph would make.
Also, remember to be original with your camera format. So many photos are rejected each year because we need a variety of vertical as well as horizontal photos. Don't take every shot with your camera held in the traditional landscape mode. Turn it vertical remembering that the book format is vertical. Change your perspective by looking up at the flower instead of down on it. Consider what a worm's-eye-view of the daylily would look like as your crawl on the ground like a night crawler with a Pentax. Imagine a large iris clump in full bloom from a bird's angle of view as you lean over a balcony and look down like a hawk with a Canon. But be careful not to hurt yourself and don't intrude on the gardener's space, anywhere you shouldn't be in someone else's garden.
Choose the Light and Capture the Magic
This photograph does it all, does it all so well and then does something else.
Beyond its lush beauty, beyond its obvious uniqueness, beyond its superb composition, this photograph is magic. The light looks like the first dawn light of a different era. It allows a soft color clarity along with a full value range from darkest black to light highlights. The lighting focuses the viewer's attention. The light illuminating the green leaf edges repeats beautifully off the aole's green body.
Also, look at how the light plays into the composition's asymmetrical balance. While the flood of yellow and pink on the right side of the composition could easily outweigh almost anything on the left, Jennifer has perfectly balanced the composition. The sparkle off the lizard's attention directs the viewer to the left and is reinforced by the green leaves reaching left. The psychological weight of the creature's stare easily balances the colorful explosion of daylily bloom on the right.
Light plays an important part of every photograph but is often the defining issue in rejected photos. Everette's photo succeeds in part because of the lighting.
Had this iris cultivar's photo been taken in bright sunlight, it would have lost most of the delicate colors. Details in the shadows would have disappeared as contrast increased in the bright light. And the soil behind the flower would have jumped into being a harshly lit, sharply focused distraction to this wonderful bloom. As shot, everything works perfectly to display this rose-like bloom and buds in the best light.
Too many rejected photos have a common problem with bright light. The harsh sun washes out the colors and when you develop the film your flowers look bleached.
Consider photographing your flowers in early morning light and examine them again in late afternoon light. On bright days, watch for drifting clouds that filter the light in different ways. And if there is nothing but bright sun while you're in a tour garden, consider a neutral gray umbrella to cast a necessary shadow across your subject matter. Overcast days increase color saturation and are great for fine garden photography.Digital Photography Issues
I am often asked about my experience with submitted digital photographs for one of our Eureka Reference Guides. While digital photos can work for printed publication, the fact is that I must reject most as unusable for a variety of reasons.
The color is often not very true and the resolution is seldom high enough. Look at your reds when you take the digital photos and judge if they are actually the right reds from that particular flower. Use your highest camera resolution and be certain that each digital photo is at least 5 megabytes large. A CD will work fine to submit your images. Save in .TIF format if possible since it's the best resolution.
Don't do any "tricks" with your digital camera that limit the editor and thus reduce your chances of publication. Don't closely crop the photo with your camera or use the frame option to make a border around the composition. Don't date stamp the image or place titles on it.
Either
Select Lowell Baumunk's wonderful photo of his garden landscape (right), Michael Thompson's iris portrait of SILVERADO (below) or any of the front covers of Eureka Daylily Reference Guides. Then, in three to five paragraphs, critique that photo for its composition and what makes it an outstanding photograph worthy of publication. What has the photographer chosen to include in the photo composition that works so well? What means of achieving compositional unity has the photo/artist incorporated so well?
Or
Send us an email with your attached .jpg or .tif digital photo that demonstrates a well designed composition. This can be either a portrait shot of a particular iris or daylily or it may be a garden landscape in bloom. Limit: two digital photo attachments per person.
We will evaluate the entries, select the most interesting and publish them in the updated EurekaEmail Gardening Newsletter at www.GardenEureka.com. Come on, take the challenge! Over the past 12 years, so many gardeners with a camera have become photographers with a garden by submitting their work to us. You can too.
When submitting your entry, be sure to include the following Photo Release and Indemnification that's dated and signed:
"I agree that, if selected, my photography may be published by Eureka Gardening Collection and I release publication rights of these photographs to Eureka Gardening Collection. I also understand that all submissions are accepted for possible publication in Eureka Reference Guides or associated marketing by Eureka Gardening Collection. With Eureka's acceptance of such submissions for publication, the contestant will indemnify and save Eureka harmless from and against any loss for expense, including without limitation, those resulting from claims or suits for copyright and trademark infringement, for plagiarism, for libel, and for violations of rights of privacy."Along with your photographs or slides, include Your Name, Photo Description, Phone, Mailing Address, City, State, Zip, Date and Signature attesting to the accuracy and truthfulness of all of the above.
Illustration #7
Michael Thompson's photo of SILVERADO (Schreiner's - r. 1996)
To Be Continued in our Summer EurekaEmail Gardening Newsletter
Improve your flower photography with knowledge and skills to make better garden photo compositions that get published
Take the challenge
Improve your garden design with a look at irises and their yearly dominance
All the photographs for this article were selected from the new 2002 Eureka Iris Reference Guide, available now for $20.95 plus S/H
Or the new 2002 Eureka Daylily Reference Guide available now for $27.95 plus S/H.
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My thanks to the Western North Carolina Daylily Club. I presented the above design discussion at their March meeting on the campus of University of North Carolina at Asheville, North Carolina.
