The Little Garden of Horrors

Back to Plant Photography

For great plant photos, you really can't beat natural sunlight, especially nicely-diffused sunlight such as during dawn or on cloudy days. However, there are times when indoor photography becomes a necessity, either due to poor lighting conditions outside, or if you want to do some sort of fancy backdrop for your plants or if you're an absolute control freak like me. Artificial lighting ranges from the tiny built-in flashes that comes with the camera, to continuous lighting sources such as fluorescents, to strobes and flash units. Fortunately, CPs are typically not that large and you will be hard-pressed to find a need to use large strobe units such as those that are used in portrait photography.

I purchased an excellent all-in-one kit consisting of 2 lightstands, 2 flourescent bulbs and a diffuser. It is important to diffuse any artificial light source that you may be using, to create a soft quality and to reduce harsh shadows. In this respect, the built-in flash units on cameras just do not cut it. Direct, harsh light = ugly light. Most diffusers are simply pieces of white fabric or translucent plastic. Their function is to disperse the concentrated beam of light in many directions and at a larger angle, so as to diffuse it. The ones I use are mini-softboxes that came with the kit, and work very well. Some people (especially Ebay product sellers) also swear by light tents - these are just cubes made up of diffuser fabric on all sides, and all you need to do is to provide the light source from the outside and place your plant inside the light tent to take a picture of it.

	The continuous fluorescent lighting that I use, without the diffuser.
	With diffuser on

Keep in mind the effect of shadows when determining where to place your light. I use 2 light sources, one on each side of the plant, coming in at 45 degree angles to the plant for most photographs. One side is placed somewhat closer to the plant than the other, and serves as the primary light source - the other is further away, and does the job of a fill light. This creates subtle shadows on the plant, emphasizing a 3-dimensional feel to it. If you only can have 1 light source, or even if you're using natural light, reflectors serve as invaluable tools in creating that same 3-dimensional feel by reducing dark shadows. Any material can be used as a reflector - you can buy commercially-available ones, or DIY one yourself using foil.

	Dionaea muscipula "Pink Dragon", shot without reflector. Lighting is done by a single continuous fluorescent with a diffuser from the left, notice the traps behind and the base of the plant being cast in shadow. Acceptable, definitely, but not optimal.
	The same plant, shot with the same lighting but now with a silver reflector on the right. See how the details of the darker traps are now brought out subtly.
	Shot of the DIY foil reflector.

Backlighting is a little-used technique especially for CPs, but I find the effects very interesting. In particular, backlighting can emphasize the dew on Drosera, and show off fenestrated windows in plants such as Sarracenia minor. Try backlighting on some Nepenthes to make the pitchers "glow" and stand out. You can also use backlighting to create silhuette shots, as many CPs cast rather unique silhuettes.