Eureka Photo Design Guide

How do you design a great cultivar photograph that's beautiful to view, unique in several ways, uses excellent compositional design and demonstrates competent photographic understanding and technique?

And, how do you see your photography published in stunning full-color spreads in the next Eureka Reference Guides?

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 plants. 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 cultivar portraits, I'm also asked how these photographers (who are usually perennial collectors) can 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.

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? It is a 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 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.

Design is the organization of the elements of design into a compositionally unified whole. Why does unity matter? It's simple.

If your garden or photo design don't have compositional unity, then its design just doesn't work. It would be like running out side and planting your new flowers wherever you spotted an empty 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. 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.

Let's look at gardening and garden photography from a design standpoint. Here are explanations and illustrations of different elements of design and methods of achieving compositional unity. Following is a list of basic design considerations you should take into account as you look through your camera:

Let's look at line and shape as elements of design and balance as a method of achieving compositional unity.

As we take out a pencil and sketch out the rows of a large garden or the beds surrounding a house, we use line to start our design. We soon finds ourselves defining shapes that make up the garden design we're developing.

When we first start approaching visual composition as curious kids with a camera, we seem to automatically want to symmetrically balance the scene. We'll frame the person in the middle of the picture every time. It's very soothing to our psyche to see things lined up and symmetrically balanced like the abstract Illustration A.

While symmetrical balance works great in production gardens or strict formal gardens, I find the appeal of an Asymmetrical arrangement of garden shapes more interesting. We all enjoy a meander around flowing perennial beds much more than a quick march through a straight alignment of garden beds symmetrically arranged around the house.

It is easy to imagine a symmetrical garden like Illustration E below. Asymmetrical balance isn't as exact as left matching right. Asymmetrical design will feel balanced either through a physical or psychological weighting of the lines and shapes in your composition.

For example, in Illustration B there is no bi-symmetry, left does not match right and neither does top match bottom. However, Illustration B does feel balanced even though the physical weights are not equal but rather feel balanced across the composition. Plus there is a great deal more visual interest in the composition with the eye moving around the design. More importantly, the composition works together -- it holds together.

Compare the previous illustration with this one using the same line and shape components. While these elements of design are almost identical, there is no compositional unity, no flow. It simply doesn't work. Your eye wanders from spot to spot and nothing holds your interest. And certainly nothing unifies the composition like the asymmetrical balancing of physical shapes like the previous illustration

Here we see that there is also psychological weight to an asymmetrical balance situation. While physically the composition is very right-sided heavy, it feels asymmetrically balanced due to the irresistible red circle. The circle's psychological weight is very heavy for viewers -- we can't resist looking at circles and when people look at red, the red jumps off the page. Thus the advertising industry uses both these ideas in its packaging design. Just look down a row of cereal boxes or cigarette packs at all the circles and red coloring. Asymmetrical balance depends on the physical balance of shapes as well as the impact of strongly appealing shape and color.

If you're going to lay out a new garden area in your yard, it is much more interesting to incorporate an asymmetrically balanced garden rather than a more typical symmetrical arrangement with flower beds lined up like soldiers left and right, front and back. Since we all seem to gravitate toward symmetrical balance too quickly, let's focus instead on designing an asymmetrically balanced garden area laid out with basic lines and shapes this month.

Let's look at a rectangular yard area this month that would be off to the side of a house -- an area possibly unused over the years except for maybe lawn.

Let's imagine that you want to expand your garden display space for those new iris and daylilies you're collecting this year and you must have more room. Here we see a symmetrical solution to turning a side yard into a combination of raised beds and lawn. While you would have plenty of flower beds space for new additions to your collection, the overall look would be rigid and uninteresting.

Look at the difference an asymmetrically balanced yard can make. Here the overall flower and lawn needs are met just as well as with the symmetrical design above but the design flows from one area to another.

You can imagine walking from one display bed and along the path to another as the walk explores and presents the flowers. Note that the lawn areas are about the same for both illustrations but now the design seems to work at both holding the visual organization together as well as please the eye and spirit with a flowing layout. In both cases, ample space has been left in the design for walkways and larger grassy areas in the yard for chairs and open spaces.

But don't think that you must have curving lines for your garden design. You can achieve the same asymmetrical balance with angular lines and shapes just as well.

In Illustration G, we have the same basic layout using Asymmetrical design but with a repetition of triangular shapes for our garden flower beds. While angular like the first illustration, this angular design offers a more intriguing and original approach as it unifies the entire yard with its asymmetrical balance making it all work together.

Also note that the garden beds could be of very different natures and the overall design would hold the visual layout together. What if the top bed was a water garden, as in Illustration H, instead of a raised bed.

While we all have seen how out-of-place a new lily pond can be if just thrown into a landscape, if the lines and shapes of your garden unify the overall composition in an asymmetrical balance the new pond will work with your landscape. Look at this photo of a water garden I'm currently working on to see how the lines and shapes of the raised flower beds and the water garden work together to unify the diverse garden components in this yard into a visually unified landscape design to be enjoyed throughout the seasons.

Now let's look at value, color and form as the elements of design and dominance and alignment as the ways of achieving compositional unity

When you look at the world, you usually don't see simple shapes like the circle at right. Rather you see forms. The difference is three dimensionality.

When we layout garden designs, we draw out simple shapes on paper or break out the garden hoses to "draw" the idea directly on the yard. This gives us a clear idea of where everything goes in relationship to one another. However, it's when we give the shapes form with the fullness of raised beds and dimensionality of plantings that the design really takes off.

One of the ways that this depth is defined is through value and color applied to the shape. Think of a circle. Now think of a sphere. You have just imagined value applied to the shape.

Think of value as degrees of darkness or lightness on a scale of one to five or white to light gray, to mid gray, to dark gray and finally to black. To better see a light flower, contrast it next to a dark flower. And try to cover the complete range of value in your garden. How dull the scene would be if the entire garden view fell into the mid range of values. The sparkle of bright areas contrasted against the depth of the darkest leaves increases the interest of your garden layout.

Whenever you can add dimensionality to your garden design, you involve the viewer in the design. Shape is important but form literally rounds out the composition.

When you plan your flower plantings and their relationships one to another, how they relate in terms of color is important. Looking at the color chart to the right, your primary colors are red, yellow and blue. When you blend these you get the secondary colors of orange, green and violet.

If you look across the chart to the opposite colors, you have complementary colors and if you look at colors beside one another you have the analogous colors. To plant a red clump beside an orange clump minimizes the colors just like planting a blue bloom next to a violet bloom would. This can be soothing to the eye in the commonality of the colors. However to make the plants pop out of the composition you're planning, plant a yellow clump next to a violet color. The complementary colors intensify one another and you have a color scheme that engages you like a Matisse painting.

How many times have you seen someone's garden layout with their daylily collection grouped by color? When you see several yellow daylilies all together, that is all you see - the group. There is little distinctive difference in the flowers among the plantings but instead a mass of similar flowers. In this case there is no contrast in value or color. How much more a clump of red flowers stand out when they are placed next to white blooms. And how boring a bed can seem when all the blooms are various degrees of red. The eye is lost in the similarity.

While you use the above elements of design in your garden landscape, they alone to not unify your yard. One of the most common and instinctive methods of doing this is with dominance. Whether it's a major feature such as a water garden or a unique flowering tree, a dominant attraction in your design gives the eye a place to start its examination of the view and a place to finish.

When you look at the illustration here, the red triangle provides the dominance to the composition. Even though there are linear and circular shapes to complete the design, the triangle holds it all together with its dominant presence.

People also use alignment to instinctively hold the composition together -- to stitch together the scene from left to right. Most photographers incorporate a horizon line into their photo composition. This line ties the different parts of the design together with a continuity of line. However, a more interesting use of this unity device is coincidence of edge where the line is suggested in parts and the eye links the pieces together.

Adding to the above illustration are the alignment devices of continuity and coincidence of edge which further unify the composition. These are easily differentiated when you look at the two lines in the composition. The solid line across the design helps hold everything together like a bed of flowers stretching along the back side of the yard would do. However, we find a coincidence of edge to be much more interesting because this involves the view who must complete the line as in the broken line above. With this concept, you would have a more engaging garden if you broke up that long garden bed along you back boundary into two or three gardens interspersed with lawn or something else. As your visitors stood back to view the length of the yard, they would see the whole expanse, however, their eye would become involved in connecting the edges together into a unified composition.

A coincidence of edge can be incorporated into your garden with curves as well as straight lines. Look at the circles above which work together now to form a curved line from lower right to mid design when your eye connects the dots.

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 interesting than would be a photo of a single bloom of this flower looking straight into the camera. Those "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 common 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.

Illustration #5 Jennifer Prowe's photo of PRINCELY BANNER (Sellers - r. 1985)

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.

Illustration #6 Everette Lineberger's photo of DEBBY RAIRDON (Sellers - r. 1985)

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. We use more digital photography each year and we love it.

Be sure that the color is true and the resolution is high enough, 7-14 megabytes per image. Look at your reds when you take the digital photos and judge if they are actually the correct reds for that particular flower or are they all magenta? Look at your greens and see if they are all the same in your digital photos or are they varied as they would be in nature. Use your highest camera resolution and be certain that each digital photo is at least 7 megabytes large. Submit your images on CD. We accept raw, jpg or tif formats and set your camera at 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.