Eager to photograph spring? You are in the right place. Today I bring you a lot of tips and tricks for you to get impressive images. First, as I suspect that landscape photography interests you, I want to recommend that you do not miss this article to photograph incredible spring landscapes (and any other season).
This season, with its light and explosion of life and color, is a visual poem. The days are longer, the light brighter than in winter but softer than in summer, animals come out of their winter hiding places, flowers flood the fields and cities, trees bloom, and people seem happier. After a cold winter characterized by the laziness that makes us get out from under the sofa blanket, it is the ideal time to dust off the camera and go out to discover and portray all that world of color.
My purpose today is not only to give you some tips so that you can get impressive images as I have promised you, but when you finish reading the article, you also have a terrible desire to turn off the computer or the device you are reading it on to run to capture the magic of spring with your camera.
(Psss, psss… that you are in the opposite hemisphere is no excuse not to go out to photograph, that autumn is also very photogenic).
to the mess
1. Equipment to photograph spring
Let’s see what you need to achieve spectacular spring photos.
The ideal lens for spring photography
To achieve the best images you don’t need the best camera in the world. It is more important to choose the right lens. In this case, ideal goals they are a macro for flowers and insects or a wide angle for landscapes. If you’re just starting out and your kit is basic, with a standard lens, don’t worry, you’ll still be able to get wonderful photos.
Sometimes we talk about the ideal, but it doesn’t mean it’s essential 😉 . Even with a 50mm you can get wonderful images of plants and flowers using very wide apertures; and a telephoto lens will help you achieve heart-stopping blurs or capture birds in flight and elusive animals. The important thing is that you take advantage of the equipment you have.
Tripod
A tripod will be very useful for long exposures or macro, for example. For flowers and plants you can also use a bag of sand or rice. And if we talk about wildlife or birds with a telephoto lens, better a monopod.
If you are thinking of buying one and you don’t know what tripod choose, this buying guide that we have prepared will help you.
2. Lighting to photograph spring
Using one lighting or another will depend on the message you want to convey. Do you want images that convey calm, tenderness, sweetness, softness, etc.? Go for diffused light.
Are you looking for dramatic images, with force, with very bright colors? You need hard light.
Light is your tool to make magic
Natural lighting
I mentioned at the beginning that the light in this season is brighter than in winter and softer than in summer, it is lower and also the days are longer, which entails the ideal conditions to make the most of natural light, which already we know that it brings a special magic to the images.
Don’t miss the sunrises and sunsets because they can become spectacular, both because of the light and because of the landscape itself. Backlights, warm and golden light, texture in the landscapes, are some of his gifts. And not only that, this time is ideal for photographing insects, and at dawn is when it is easier, since they are more inactive than when the day progresses.
During dawn the insects are more inactive
artificial lighting
I am more in favor of natural light, but if the conditions are not ideal, because it is midday, the light is very intense and causes unwanted shadows, or it is too cloudy and the light is not enough for your macro photos, you have the flash to enhance your shots, either the built-in flash or the external flash.
I advise you to also take reflectors. If you are going to focus on macro photography, it is not necessary to carry the pack of large reflectors, it will serve you with a small white cardboard or the inside of a tetrabrick.
3. Planning to photograph spring
Spring is somewhat treacherous, it can be incredibly hot in the middle of the day and when the light begins to go out… temperatures plummet. Maybe you should think about sunscreen (because the sun stings, and a lot), a jacket in case you fall asleep on your laurels photographing the sunset and it gets dark, or even a raincoat… remember that «in April, waters one thousand”. It wouldn’t hurt to stock up on food and drink if you’re going to get lost in the middle of nature… 😉
All this may seem to you that it has nothing to do with photography, but it is not. Having to go home without photos due to poor planning has a lot to do with photography.
Find out what the weather is going to be like, we’ll soon see that you don’t have to stay home if it rains, but you do have to prepare. Take into account sunrise and sunset times. Think about what kind of photos you want to take to prepare the equipment, etc.
4. Start with the landscape
First take some general shots of the entire landscape, to do this use a large depth of field, that is, a large f number, and choose an element as the protagonist of the image.
Remember that to delve into landscape photography you have the mega guide that I told you about at the beginning. There will be no landscape that will resist you.
Now, if you want some basic advice or a summary, here they go.
- Study which is the most appropriate angle to capture the best of that landscape.
- Enter lines to guide the gaze to the center of interest.
- Look for symmetries in the lakes formed by melting ice.
- It uses the branches of the trees and the vegetation as a natural frame.
- Include elements on different planes to create depth.
- Turn to hyperfocal.
contrasting landscapes
unreal landscapes
Landscape photographers often end up obsessed with the perfect photograph, with the best depth of field, the greatest sharpness, the best framing… Sometimes, they achieve true wonders, others, so much perfection it seems that it leads us to see all the images, although perfectly made, similar.
Search in the light, in different settings, in different weather conditions and times of day.
- The fog: The way it diffuses light, softens colors and transports us to a world of mysteryis unique to convey unreality in an image.
It is up to you to make us want to discover in your images little beings lost among those suggestive lights that sneak in the middle of the trunks of a magical forest.
5. Get up close to photograph spring
Now come closer. Look around you, surely you have a lot of different flowers, of various shapes and colors, start with the one you like best using, in this case, a small depth of field (f number as low as possible), or whatever you like. it’s the same thing, a wide aperture to blur the background.
If you have a macro you can get much closer to the details, but it is not necessary. A telephoto lens can also be used to photograph flowers with great blur, or the king of lenses.
an original bokeh
the greatness of learning new techniques is that you can apply them in the most diverse environments. Have you thought about making a raindrop bokeh? Or dew drops in the orange or pink light of a sunset?
Spring flowers with bokeh
Do you want a trick? Place behind the flowers, and where it receives light, a shiny object, a sequined garment, for example, or an object with glitter. Use a wide aperture and voila. You will have a heart attack bokeh!
7. Get down
Spring can be an ideal time to practice those “ant’s eye” photos. The best photos of flowers and plants are not usually taken standing at eye level. Drop to the ground or use the articulated screen of your camera (if you have one).
8. Photograph spring in rain or dew
Not only because of the bokeh that I just told you about, but also. Whether we like it or not, rain is a constant in spring, so most of the time we have no choice but to join the “enemy” and take advantage of the bad weather, otherwise we would lose numerous opportunities to get good images. . These are some ideas that you can put into practice on rainy days.
- Through the window: You don’t even have to leave the house, you just have to be attentive to the wonderful scenes that a few drops of rain sliding through the window can bring us.
- The reflections on the pavement: Lights, shadows, buildings, natural or artificial elements, everything fits in a reflection 🙂 .
- drops in nature and rainbows after the rain.
- The contrast of the gray of the scene and the garish colors of an umbrella or wellies.
If you want to photograph the plants and flowers with the dew but you don’t get up too early and the weather doesn’t help you with the sparkle either, nothing happens. There’s a trick very easy to simulate the dew of the plants, carry a spray bottle filled with water in your “survival backpack”, spray the flowers or stems that you like the most and… voila!! But… watch outdo not spray on insects, you can harm them or cause a change in their life cycle.
How to photograph dew when you have no dew
9. Pay attention to animals
Not just insects, animals have their young and come out of hiding! Birds, insects and any other little animal that you find can be a good protagonist of your spring photos.
If your thing is animal photography, use a telephoto lens for the most elusive and for birds, or a macro for the most minuscule.
10. Shoot spring with macro
Since we are talking about macro, although I have mentioned it several times throughout the article, it deserves a special section.
After spending the winter practicing between the warm walls of your house, it’s time to show what you’re worth out there 😉 . if you like the macro Photography, spring is the season of the year that makes it easier for you and makes it more pleasant.
Neither should you loosen your frozen fingers at the end of the day, nor deal with acute sunstroke. In spring you will find potential macro photography in every corner: flowers, animals in frantic activity, drops of water… All the great protagonists of macro photography just a foot from your lens.
Macro lovers, get out there!
11. Take care of the composition
The scene, be it a landscape, a plant, an animal or a spring street scene can be spectacular, but if you don’t put a…