Spring Photography Ideas and Tips

Flowers are one of the most popular photography subjects in the spring. They provide photographers with beautiful colors and shapes to capture and the photos can make wonderful artwork in your home. Make sure you keep your flower photography interesting with these simple tips and tricks:

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• Utilize natural light and don't use a flash. Typically, flowers are photographed in full sunlight. Try taking pictures at dawn or at dusk to get a new perspective on your flowers.
• Master your depth of field. To create a shallow depth of field, use a large aperture on your camera.
• Shoot your subjects close-up. Combined with a large aperture, this will blur out your background, leaving only your flowers in focus.
• Look for flowers that haven't bloomed yet. Make your photos stand out by capturing the steps leading up to a fully-bloomed flower. Find seedlings just popping out of the ground or closed buds. These objects can be just as beautiful as a colorful bloom. Plus, these photos are more representative of what spring is all about: new life and growth.

To learn more about photographing flowers, check out the article series called Flower Photography Tips, Tricks & Mistakes.

With the wet weather that accompanies the spring, photographers have plenty of opportunities to capture photos of falling rain and dewy flowers. If you do plan to shoot in the rain, make sure you have a hood for your camera to protect it from getting wet. Keep plastic bags and towels handy for keeping things dry, including your hands for when you are touching the camera. When you go to shoot, leave your shutter open for a little longer to capture the rain falling; this will result in long streak so of rain fall that look like strands of silver falling from the sky. Take pictures of the rain hitting a river, stream or lake for a uniquely textured effect.

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Another opportunity for photographers takes place right after a rainfall. Take pictures of the rain-soaked environment afterwards for a springtime look. Make sure you capture the unique, pale light that follows the rain in a landscape photo. You can also go for close-ups after the rain. Puddles and other bodies of water provide excellent opportunities to capture reflections. Challenge yourself to create a ripple-effect photo by blowing on or touching the water in the puddle right before you take the picture.

When it comes to photographing people in the spring, get outside in the cool weather for a few portrait shots. This weather often makes for nice portraits because the light is a crisp, blueish hue during the spring. Because the light is a cooler color, considering having your portrait subjects dress in similar colors to match - pastels are good for children, while whites, blues, greens and purples are better for adults.

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The best time to take photos of people in the spring is once some of your natural surroundings have started to bloom again. You don't need to wait until the leaves are fully-grown on the trees - in fact, trees look beautiful in their temporary state when they are dotted in tiny green buds. If you wait until things begin to bloom, it will add a pop of color to your photo and it will demonstrate to other people who may see the photo that it was taken in the spring.