Tips for Photographing Roses

Bonnie Andrews photographs roses, and she does it beautifully. Her photograph of a "Just Joey" rose (see below) appears on the cover and in the month of June in the 1996 American Rose Society calendar, and she's got two photos appearing in the 1997 American Rose Society calendar as well. So I knew Bonnie would be a good person to contact regarding rose photography. Here's our brief conversation, which took place June 25, 1996. (This information has been excerpted from "California Photographer" newsletter. You should be subscribing to it!

CAROL LEIGH: What film do you prefer when shooting roses?

BONNIE ANDREWS: I use Velvia only -- I don't use anything else with roses.

CL: Do you rate it at ISO 40?

BA: No, I keep it at 50. I know everybody else says 40, but I have it down to a science where it seems to work for me.

CL: If it works, don't change it! What other equipment do you work with?

BA: A tripod is very important, of course. I also use a very long cable release because I might want to use a reflector. If I'm taking a photograph of a rose and want to highlight the shaded side, I need a long enough cable release so I can walk around, hold the reflector, and then click the shutter. Sometimes I use a gold reflector (you have to be really careful about how much you use), but usually I'll use a white reflector. Sometimes I'll crinkle up some aluminum foil, put it on some cardboard, and I'll use that.

CL: What about exposure?

BA: I use an Olympus camera set on manual. The way I get my exposures is I'll meter in close on the flower and whatever the meter says I will shoot at, then I'll bracket maybe a half-stop over and a half-stop under the metered exposure. I normally will shoot a rose at f/16 because I need the depth of field. I won't get everything sharp if I don't shoot at f/16.

CL: What about your lenses?

BA: I normally use a 105mm macro lens. That works pretty good. With a 50mm macro you get too much background. Even with a 105mm you will often get something in the background that you don't want.

CL: How do you keep your backgrounds clean?

BA: You've really got to look and see what's in the background. Lots of times, maybe there's a hose that you've watered with that maybe you don't notice right at first. Sometimes I'll use a black backboard behind the rose. I always look through the viewfinder to see if there are any hot spots in the picture, such as sun shining on a leaf. Or if I've recently trimmed the rose bush, and if I haven't really looked closely, I'll get my slide back and here's this nice, freshly cut branch intruding into my shot. I've got a piece of black velvet-like cloth and lots of times I'll spread that out around the base of the rose so I don't pick up anything that I don't want there.

CL: Sounds like you carry quite a bit of stuff when you photograph roses!

BA: It's a good thing I take all of my pictures here at home because by the time I get through carrying all this out and getting it set up . . .

CL: It must be humorous to watch you sometimes, as you do your balancing act with reflectors and background cloths, and keeping leaves and twigs out of the way! Any tips on time of day for optimum shooting?

BA: I do most of my shooting maybe two hours before sunset. I don't want any sun on the rose at all. No sun. If you have any sun on it it'll just bleach out. I know you can take wildflowers with sun on them, but you sure can't take a picture of a rose with any sun on it.

CL: Do you use a flash?

BA: No, I've tried several times but I haven't been successful.

CL: What about a diffusion disk? Like a Photoflex disk?

BA: If the sun is out and I just really feel like that's a perfect rose and I need to take that picture, then I would use one of those.

CL: There was somebody in one of my seminars recently who specializes in photographing wildflowers and she takes a large embroidery hoop and puts 4 layers of clear plastic in it, which, unlike a diffuser which can shade the flower, the four layers allow the light through, but provide a lovely quality to the light. I haven't tried this, but it sounded like a good idea.

BA: Hmmm, I'll have to try that, too!

CL: Do you go out with a spritzer bottle?

BA: I have, yes. I like that look and I've sold a lot of pictures with that look. My husband doesn't like it, but I have gotten catalogs from Jackson & Perkins and this year almost everything they show in their catalog has been spritzed.

CL: Thanks, Bonnie, for all this good information. Continued success with your photography and with your photo sales!

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